Latest NewsThe Nestle Family web site has holiday gift tags for your kids to print out and color. There are five designs and if you print these out on adhesive-backed paper they’ll be perfect to attach to your gifts this year.
Enjoy! …
Read more
By Jann Blackstone-Ford and Sharyl Jupe, Contra Costa Times
My ex and I can’t talk to each other. Our breakup was really nasty and someone suggested we only communicate by e-mail or text. But her text messages are really awful which makes it difficult when we exchange the kids. What can we do?
When a divorced couple comes into my office telling me they can’t talk to each other, I hesitate suggesting text messages or e-mail. Sometimes, e-mail is the lesser of the two evils and necessary when couples think they can’t communicate, but relying on text messages is really asking for trouble. First, they are short and can sound argumentative even though they are not intended to be....
Yeah, right. Wouldn’t we all love to have one of those?
Actually, I probably came as close as I ever will — my car never really moved this weekend, except to slide in and out of the driveway to allow my significant other to leave for work and to allow for the snow to be cleared.
But that certainly didn’t mean that my daughter and I had a lazy weekend.
See, there was that nagging problem that wouldn’t go away in the sun porch — the Christmas tree. The fully decorated Christmas tree — complete with presents still beneath it. I guess you could say the last few weekends were lazy weekends; now I was going to pay for them.
I kept meaning to take down the tree when I was on vacation after Christmas, but another nagging house...
I started a new full time job to go with my other full time job. I am now a full time employee of the Elyria Chronicle Telegram in addition to my job as a real estate agent. I start in the evening and work into the early morning hours for the newspaper and then work during the day as an agent. Fortunately, most of the real estate stuff I can do from home. Unfortunately, my night job means I’m not home for dinner, baths or bedtime.
The kids seem to be doing okay with this with the possible exception of our oldest. Because he’s in school all day, I see him for less than two hours a day. If I have to go into the office for real estate, our middle child sees me for less than two hours that day and our youngest sees me for less than four hours.
It’s yet...
OK, I’m officially in panic mode.
My soon-to-be-kindergartner is all ready to go — she has her school supplies, she has her new school shoes and clothes and has her very stylish High School Musical backpack (after 30 minutes of deliberation between that one and one depicting Hannah Montana) — pretty much everything she needs to be thoroughly prepared for Day One.
The problem?
I realized that I — the working Mom who has a marvelous babysitter who takes care of all the things that I let slide — will have to pack her a lunch each day. Read more
…
Genevieve Hinson MotherOfConfusion.com
There’s an epidemic in America. Today’s parents are labeling their brats as autistic and everyone’s buying it.
Instead of moms telling their kids to “cut the act out” or dads telling their sons to “‘stop acting like a putz,” these kids are getting diagnoses and extra support. Their sucking down the resources others could be using.
Guess what, I’ll admit it. I’m a part of that money racket. It took me 13 years and two separate diagnoses to get my son tossed on the autism train.
Now, instead of addressing my bad parenting skills, I’m raking in taxpayer’s money and gloating. Read more
…
Genevieve Hinson MotherOfConfusion.com
Drinking from the milk carton is rude. Hands down it’s the most offensive breach of manners in my book. It even trumps the elbows-off-the-table rule when eating.
Mind you, I’m fairly flexible in my parenting. I have some general guidelines I want the kids to recognize — mind your manners, be respectful to your elders, and try to be more generous than less in difficult situations. … Oh, and bathe regularly.
However, my view of appeasing your thirst from an open carton is ironclad — you don’t do it. You never pick up that jug and chug.
Never.
Ever. Read more
…
June Naylor McClatchy Newspapers
“Everybody Eats Lunch” (Glitterati Inc., $16), a new book for kids ages 4 to 11, takes a midday-meal trip through five countries. Author and cooking instructor Cricket Azima rounds up kids from Mexico, Brazil, Jamaica, Japan and South Africa. Each shares how to say “lunch” in his or her native language, what time of day it is eaten and whether it is eaten at home with family or at school with friends. Nelly from Jamaica explains in English that his lunch is enjoyed with friends at school at 2 p.m.
As in each of the five little chapters, Nelly shares his Jamaican menu and recipes, including fried plantains, which we share here.
