Ways You're Screwing Up Your Kid Right Now

As someone who works with children and families, I feel fortunate to have had many families come to my office seeking help for a variety of issues.  Fortunate, because in the many years I have seen these families they have shared with me the many challenges and struggles they have faced in rearing children. In those stories, have been many valuable lessons that theory cannot teach.

  Over the next few posts, I will share the top five things that I consistently hear, perhaps it might cause someone to think a little differently.  I will say it has caused me to change my way of thinking for sure.

1.  Lack Consistency
This is a biggie.  It starts from the time your child comes home from the hospital and continues throughout their childhood.  Consistency is essential to the healthy emotional development of children.  Why?  Well, it teaches children that there are things they can trust in this world, and trust develops a sense of safety and stability and feelings of safety and stability decrease anxiety which allows children to develop in important ways such as socially, academically and physically.  Consistency concretely translates into such things as feeding your children at the same time or on demand in infancy, putting your child to bed at the same time every night, being consistent with consequences to mention a few.   Keeping routines is an integral part of being consistent as a parent.   Kids thrive with routine because they know what to expect which can also begin to instill that important sense of responsibility that we want children to develop as they grow.   It's never to early to begin to be consistent with your children.

Mother's Day - Tory Burch

Because your spouse is probably not trolling the internet for deals on women's fashion and handbags, you can let him know that Tory Burch is offering 25% off most of her site (sorry, excluding the Reva flats and a few other things detailed on the website) until April 30th.  It's a pretty good deal, no?  It's called the "Friends and Fans" event.

Make it easy on your significant other and tell them what you want this Mother's Day.  She does have some cute nylon totes that are great for Moms with young kids with their leaky bottles or sippy cups!  If you're fortunate to be out of that stage, there are many other great bags that convert from shoulder bag to clutch!  Gotta love a bag that has two functions.

http://www.toryburch.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-ToryBurch_US-Site/default/Default-Start?CAMPID=GOOGLE&gclid=CJr75vO-168CFUbe4AodfmRs_w

Alaina Giordano Update

For those of you who haven't followed Alaina's story, she could use some prayers now.  As reported by her facebook page, she has spent several days in the hospital and will be moved to hospice.  You can read more at her facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/friendsofalaina

"Fifty" ways to escape your life if just for a moment!

I hesitated writing a post about these books since it seemed to me that everyone and their Mother, my Mother included, had read and or heard about them, but I have found that's not quite the case so I thought I would pass it on.

I have to thank my sister for telling me about them a couple of months ago.  The books are a trilogy with the first book title "Fifty Shades of Grey"  written by E.L. James.   For those of you who devoured the "Twilight" series, but were looking for a little more sex early on instead of waiting for the last book, then this is for YOU!  There is no shortage of sex in this trilogy, so much so that I found myself forwarding through my kindle at times in book 2 and 3 during the sex scenes since I wanted to get back to what would happen next with the main characters, Anastasia and Christian.  The books are like your favorite candy that you can't get enough of and feel somewhat sad when the box is done.

It's only available as an E book right now.

Passover Dessert Recipe - Matzoh Crunch!

This is a REALLY easy recipe and it's highly addictive, so don't say you weren't warned!

What you will neeed:

-4-6 unsalted matzohs
-2 sticks unsalted butter (Kosher for Passover)
-1 cup packed brown sugar (I use light brown sugar)
-3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375.  Line a large cookie sheet with foil first (this can be messy and very sticky) and then on top of the foil line it with parchment paper.

Line the parchment paper with the matzoh (they can slightly overlap one another).

In a large sauce pan, combine the butter and brown sugar.  Cook it over medium heat, continuously stirring until the mixture comes to a boil in about 2-4 minutes.  Boil for 3 minutes, still stirring.  Remove from heat and pour over the matzoh covering completely (you may need to use a spoon to spread the mixture evenly).

Place the matzoh in the oven and reduce the heat to 350.  Bake for 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with chocolate chips.  Let it sit for 5 minutes without touching it.  Then spread the melted chocolate over the matzoh.  Place pans in the refrigerator to chill for several hours.  When you remove it, break the large sheet of caramel/chocolate covered matzoh into smaller pieces.

You can get creative and use white or dark chocolate as well as topping the chocolate with nuts or other types of crushed candies.  This stuff never lasts long in my house and for good reason, it rocks!  Happy Passover!

Happy Passover

My daughter's school did several lessons this week on both Passover and Easter.  We celebrate Passover and when my daughter was asked what we would be having at our Seder, she replied "Pizza and wine."  (There is a local pizza joint that makes Passover Pizza, although we've never had it.)

Sounds like a good Seder to me!  Azizen Peseach, as I hear her singing her version of "Dayenu" behind me as she sets up her kiddie table with her plastic Seder plate and kiddush cup.

Waivers for Playdates??

Madness.  It has to be.  Apparently, from news articles and such, this is a growing trend.  Sure, I have be given waivers for birthday parties or events that are hosted at Gyms and such, but at someone's home  for just a playdate sounds rather absurd.  This is one of the reasons you have homeowner's insurance.  

I have yet to be asked to sign one of these nutty documents and haven't heard of anyone I know personally  being asked to sign one, but I will say that if I were to be asked, it would tell me a lot about that parent and my daughter definitely would not be hanging out at that house.

Bad behavior at egg hunts isn't uncommon

Seriously, people!  I just saw this article on Huffington Post after my experience yesterday and was both saddened and unfortunately, not surprised that some parents are ruining the fun.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/26/colorado-egg-hunt_n_1379226.html

Eggstraspecial Egg Hunt

I decided to venture out early yesterday morning for my daughter's first egg hunt.  I had only fond memories of the few egg hunts I had participated in, so I thought it would be lots of fun.  After getting my daughter her hunt accessories, bunny ears and basket a la Target totaling $3.00, we headed to the hunt.  Due to the possibility of inclement weather, it was being hosted in a school.  Walking up to the school, it should have registered that this was going to be something 'special'.

I heard Mother's on the street telling their spouses, friends, or other parents that they were being 'scolded' at the door for bringing their strollers.  We live in a city, people walk and not everyone got online to see that the event organizers had asked for people to leave their wheels at home due to  a lack of space in the school.  So, already, there were some hot tempers beginning to flare and some decided to just leave.

I waited on the line to get in which took about 10 minutes to get to the registration table.  I got my hunt instructions which spelled out in black and white that 'adults were not to participate in collecting eggs'...did they really need to say that?  I guess they did for good reason if they printed out these instructions that the were giving all registrants!  The next instruction was that no child could collect more than '10 eggs' otherwise you would be charged.  That sounded fair since while on line to get in I heard some parents talking about how they had their son 'practicing' to get as many eggs as fast as he could so he could 'win'.  He was about the same age as my daughter, 2.  There was no mention of there being winners at the 0-3 year old egg hunt.  ????

Anyhow, this egg hunt was one disorganized mess.  People were crowding into close quarters and pushing each other to get to the head of the line with no one actually clarifying what on earth was going on.  It was hot, kids were cranky and parents were getting even crankier.  Parents were trying to cut the line, I was cut off twice, but decided not to say a word since if it's so important for you to cut a line at an egg hunt, you already have enough problems that I actually feel sorry for you.

 Older kids were ahead of the little ones who were supposed to go first and the breaking point for me was when a Mom decided to start F-bombing another Mother, quite loudly I might add, behind her accusing her of pushing, which I don't doubt was going on since, I was being pushed as well with really nowhere to go.   But at that point, I was sandwiched in the midst of a sea of people and would have to push my way out.  After waiting an hour and a half to get some cheap plastic eggs, I decided we would head straight to the store to get some of our own and create our own hunt at home without F-bombing parents and those parents who are grooming their children for the Olympics of Egg Hunts.