[tags]wordless wednesday[/tags]

Many stay at home moms feel isolated. They spend so much time with their kids that it’s easy to feel that way. And if you don’t already know some fellow stay at home moms, it’s often hard to find them.

Where are they? Besides at home, that is.

Try the Park

I’ve run into a lot of my fellow SAHMs by taking my kids to the park. The trick is in figuring out what time they are going to be there.

I kept missing the other moms for a long time at the park. There were just never there when I was. But I always tended to go at lunchtime or later in the afternoon.

I finally started going to the park with my youngest after dropping my oldest off at kindergarten. Voila! There they were, also having their younger children play after dropping older children off at the school next door.

Try Activities

Yes, this costs money. But I’ve gotten to talk to a lot of other stay at home moms when I’ve been able to sign my kids up for activities. This especially works when the kids are younger and you have to stick around for the class. As a rule you’ll see other stay at home parents, the occasional part time employed parent, and grandparents having fun with their grandchildren. Read the rest of this entry »

The main goal for many people who work at home is to have more time for the family. But then reality can sink in, and it is hard to find time to meet your goals. The kids are underfoot, wanting your attention, and you feel pulled in many directions at once.

That makes it hard to succeed as you work at home. But it does not mean it’s impossible. What you need is better planning.

Set Up a Work Schedule

When do you need to work? When do you work best? When will your family let you work?

Think about these things as you determine the best work schedule for you. This is something that will vary from family to family, but the general rules include figuring out when the kids aren’t going to be wanting your attention. It can be early in the morning before they get up, during school hours, naptime or after they go to bed.

But if you just can’t get a good schedule going, it may be time for daycare of one sort or another. This may or may not mean paid daycare. You may have family members who can help or friends you can trade babysitting with.

Set Up the Rules

Talk to your family and set up rules to allow yourself to get work accomplished. The older the kids get, the better they can be about allowing you to work undisturbed.

Younger children will need more time and be less understanding, but you can work with them to make working easier on you both. Try setting up a little desk for your young child, for example. He or she can work side by side with you. If they love imitation, this works wonders. Read the rest of this entry »

Actually, it’s my daughter’s first year in real school, that is to say, kindergarten rather than preschool. We’re both learning to cope with some changes.

1. My daughter is learning that she has to just sit a lot more. Her comment on kindergarten after the first day was that it was boring. She’s used to preschool where she had a lot more choices about when she did things.
2. I’m having to learn to get her lunch ready first thing in the morning. I always bought lunch as a kid, so packing it is a bit of an adventure, but so much cheaper than buying.
3. My daughter is having to relearn getting up before 7 in the morning. We’re having to roll her bedtime back to what it was during preschool rather than her summer bedtime because she’s so tired in the mornings.
4. I have to relearn that too. By nature I’m a nightowl, not early bird.
5. I’m working on changing my son’s naptime. Today it worked. He didn’t want to, but he’s napping already. Took him to the park to play for nearly an hour. By napping now, I get quiet time, and he and his sister get more play time when she comes home at 1. Otherwise, she’d come home and he’d go to bed. No fun for anyone.
6. My daughter is having to learn that she has to do her homework right away.
7. My daughter is learning that she needs to eat the lunch I pack for her, or she just goes hungry.
8. I finally found out that there are other toddler moms at the park just after dropping the older kids off at school. I’d always tried around lunch time before. Might just get some friends for Gage finally.
9. It feels strange leaving just as soon as she goes in the classroom door.
10. Getting a toddler to walk to school to get his sister there and back is very tiring for the toddler. Then again, that’s a part of the plan.
11. It’s so nice to not HAVE to volunteer so often. Loved helping in her preschool class, but finding care for Gage was so inconvenient at times.
12. I almost have two in classes of one sort or another. Gage starts speech therapy next week, two days a week. So naturally he’s been making big improvements again.
13. Not school related, but having a neighbor cat in heat is a pain. She’s so sweet right now, and I really don’t want the poor thing to have kittens. She’s maybe 8-9 months old, and even if you want the kittens, that’s too young. I tried knocking to make sure the neighbors knew she was in heat the first day I spotted it, but no answer.

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[tags]wordless wednesday,first day of school,first day of kindergarten[/tags]

And so we start Ariel in kindergarten. Tomorrow, anyhow. Today was the Open House so that she could visit her new classroom.

She knows one girl from preschool last year; the rest are new to her. She doesn’t particularly mind, although she was certainly looking out for her other classmates. But with 5 or so kindergarten classes, it’s no wonder that she doesn’t have many preschool classmates in her class.

It’s going to be a switch for me. Making lunches first thing in the morning. That’s going to be interesting.

This morning was a sort of dry run. Got her up this morning just as though it were a school day. Since the Open House started at 8 a.m., we were able to get some practice in getting ready on time. Poor kid just isn’t ready to be perky at that hour. Decidedly dragging.

I know she’s hoping we won’t have to work on her bedtime. One of her favorite shows comes on at 8 in the evening, so she’d rather not have to go to bed sooner than 8:30. But she has been warned that if it is necessary, the bedtime will move!

We’ll be walking to school each day again. It’s a pretty easy walk, although with Gage walking rather than riding in the stroller it takes about 15 minutes to get there, rather than 10. But you do what you have to, and he’s big enough to walk that distance.

[tags]back to school,kindergarten[/tags]

You’re watching the news and they say that you’re going to have a warming trend over the next few days, and you’re already in the high 90s?

Yes, it is miserably hot around here right now.

I remember when I was a kid. My sisters and I always walked to school alone. Even when I was in preschool and my oldest sister was 7. I know there were other daycare kids with us, but I have no idea as to their ages. And in junior high I was riding a bike about 2 miles to school daily.
But now a lot of kids don’t walk to school, with or without their parents. Sometimes it’s because parents don’t feel that it’s safe, or they’re just too rushed. And I think that’s rather a pity.

I walk my daughter to school. For us it’s a must, since we only have one car and my husband uses that for work. But even when we had two cars, I walked her to school last year. We’re just too close to bother with driving in my opinions.

I know some of my neighbors differ on that one. To each their own.

There’s a lot to be said for walking your kids to school, or once they’re old enough, having them walk themselves to school. It’s good exercise, and you can avoid making what for many parents is a very short car trip. This is especially true for stay at home parents who aren’t having to worry about getting to work on time.

It’s just a bit of exercise, for one. Not too hard to do if the school is fairly close. Ours is perhaps a quarter mile as I recall. But I’d walk farther if I had to. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve heard before that cough medicine really isn’t effective for children. But now the FDA has come out with an advisory that you should not give cough medicines to children under two without a doctor’s order.

I think most parents have done this, though. I certainly know I’ve had a simply miserable time getting my husband to understand that these have been shown to be not all that effective, if effective at all, for children. But if he’s the one to buy medicine when they’re sick, it’s a cold medicine that includes something for cough. Probably because it’s so hard to find a plain decongestant now that pseudophedrine is behind the pharmacist’s counter. I miss being able to easily buy children’s Sudafed.

It’s important to pay attention to this warning, however, and I hope labeling on the bottles makes it clearer. Children under 2 are more likely to have complications from cough medicines, including death. And it may pay to keep in mind that some find it dangerous to give cough medicines to children under 6.

My own suggestion would be that if your kids are in those age groups, just get rid of any medications that include something for cough that you have for them. They don’t seem to do a whole lot anyhow. Use a humidifier and maybe a decongestant or fever reducer as necessary. Don’t bother with anything that isn’t all that effective.

[tags]babies,cough syrup,cough medicine,fda warning,family,children[/tags]

With my daughter’s school starting next week, what to pack for her lunch is much on my mind – especially since she loathes peanut butter. Not much on lunch meats either, so I have to get creative. But I also like the idea of having a few things in there. So I thought today I would work up a list for that.

1. Sliced carrots – great snack or part of a lunch, and she loves them.
2. String cheese – a staple last year for her preschool snack.
3. Pretzels – loves them. We get the large kind from Henry’s.
4. Yogurt – I’m thinking this will be a great choice for her.
5. Raisins – a wonderful sweet treat.
6. Apple – she generally prefers whole to sliced.
7. Cucumber sticks – another favorite.
8. Bell pepper slices – she snacks quite well on these.
9. Berries (in season) – strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, if it’s in season and pretty cheap, they are wonderful snacks.
10. Cashews – hoping these will work. She likes them well enough, but rarely chooses them for a snack.
11. Applesauce – haven’t used this one often, but it’s very kid friendly.
12. Kiwis – my kids are nuts for these. My daughter even likes the peels. Apparently they’re ok to eat.
13. Cauliflower – she loves this, but only raw. Heaven help those who try to serve it to her cooked.

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