Image: sxc.hu

If your summer involves traveling, do you need activities to keep youngsters busy on long rides, in airports and on planes.  Whatever did my parents do with four of us in a car in the days before electronics?  

We took fairly long trips from our home in NYS to New Hampshire, Virginia, Washington, DC, Montreal Canada and even New Brunswick.  My parents stayed sane, we children squabbled some but not excessively, and gathered good memories. 

When our daughter was younger, my husband and I drove from NH to Wyoming with her for camping trips in the Rockies.  That was before the days of electronics. 

 When I saw a dad setting up a DVD player at the supermarket parking lot the other day for his youngsters, I wondered what they’d do if the DVD player quit.  Did the youngsters even see the country they were traveling through or could they have stayed at home and watched the same DVD in less confined quarters?  Probably the destination was worth the movie or game.

Why not try some of these activities that involve the whole family?

•  License plate game - How many can you find?
• Types of cars
• Different animals
• Telling and writing stories
• Drawing and coloring on lap desks
• Puzzles
• Audio books

 Nowadays we add electronic games, movies, ipods, and cell phones (with text messaging) to the travel totes. 

 How do you keep youngsters occupied on long journeys?

Post from: Blisstree

Travel Theme Week for Families

IMG: Elizabeth Ferree

I love things that encourage or inspire our children, I think being a kid is hard enough and many times all you hear around the world/news is negative.  Having something positive in a deck of cards is just what they need.  Here are a few:

Predict Ur Future!- Write down in detail what u think ur life will b like once u r an adult. (yes they are written like that) from the Go Basic Deck

U and Only U!- What do ur school folders say about ur personality? from the Go Create Deck

It Takes 2- Here r some fun ideas 4 when there r just 2 of u. (stuff like staring contest, thumb wars and more) from Go Mingle deck.

She got the one to predict her future and boy did she have it planned. Now I won’t go into writing her entire story but she dreams of becoming a fashion model, living in a mansion and have a daughter and a husband. Oh and she’ll be living in Montana.  Boy does she have her plans and dreams and I’m so happy for her. Yes, I realize she will probably change her mind five more times before she gets to High School and I’ll encourage every one of them with enthusiasm as if it were THE ONE.  Have you ever talked with your kids about their idea of their future? I think it is one of those really interesting topics, you get an idea of what they think and their true interests.

For those that ask, the picture was taken after my daughter BEGGED me to put my hair in pigtails and take a photo together. She insists I look YOUNGER. I’m not so sure that is a good thing.

(Next up, “Where to Submit your Child’s stories?)

Post from: Blisstree

Encouraging Your Child to Write

A study in a recent issue of Bioscience Hypotheses suggests that hormones and chemicals resulting from happiness, depression and other mental states can affect our eggs and sperm, resulting in lasting changes in our children at the time of their conception. This includes the way we feel when our naturally occurring endorphins and the not-so-naturally occurring drugs like marijuana and heroin affect our mood. Researchers say these chemicals are known to have significant effects on sperm and eggs, like altering the patters of genes that are active in them. One researcher suggests that since a child gets his genes from his parents, perhaps a parent’s psychology efore conception can actually affect the child’s genes, making him more prone to being happy or depressed during his lifetime.

“This is an intriguing idea” says Dr. William Bains, Editor of Bioscience Hypotheses. “We wanted to publish it to see what other scientists thought, and whether others had data that could support or disprove it. That is what our journal is for, to stimulate debate about new ideas, the more groundbreaking, the better.”

Photo, Flickr, Yogi

Post from: Blisstree

Mood at Conception Affect Baby’s Happiness?

Today my family packed up our Volkswagen, a Touareg, and headed off on our own cross-country excursion. This is not my parents’ driving adventure. For starters, Truman is secure in a booster seat and we’re all wearing seat belts. Secondly, this smooth-riding Touareg is nothing like the roaring loud VW my parents drove. That camper – and the green one that followed a decade later – caused me years of preteen and teenaged embarrassment until my father finally graduated to an SUV. (I won’t even mention what he’s driving now.) We also have air conditioning in the Touareg , which we will be even more grateful for as we travel to the center of the desert. Unlike the camper I rode in as a kid, we can’t camp in this car. There is no pop-up roof with a pullout bed, which is fine for me. I’m more of a hotel girl anyway. (Those outdoor bathrooms scared me as a child.)

Easter Gnome loves Old Man River

Technology has changed considerably for road travelers since then, too.

The Touareg doesn’t have a GPS, and I was THISCLOSE to buying one, but I had two friends insist we use theirs before we make the purchase. So we are using a borrowed GPS, a TomTom What is up with that keyboard? Setting the thing caused me more stress than packing for this trip. Old TomTom will have to work hard these next few days to convince me to buy one of my own.

The GPS may eventually prove its worth, but the one gadget I would not do without on the trip is the portable DVD player. Sure, books and toys and markers and games are a great way to entertain a child on the trip, but we have sanity to maintain. I’m learning to tune out Spongebob so I can concentrate on my own work, here on my laptop with my air card. I’m lucky to have a husband who will likely drive most, if not all, the 3,000 miles we will travel these next two weeks so I can have the pleasure of writing and going online to shop for new cars … you know, just for entertainment.

I won’t gush about my iPhone. You already know how fabulous those are. But my new gadget – an early birthday gift – is certainly worth mentioning and will likely prove valuable for the trip. It’s a Flip, a little, cordless camcorder that stores up to two hours of video. It has an attached jump drive and you just hook it up to your computer and download your films, quick and easy. What took us so long to get one? Don’t worry … I don’t plan to bore you with home movies. But we can definitely bore our families with them!

And we’ll have plenty of time to capture this vacation on film. It’s now seven hours until we reach today’s destination. Wishing you all safe travels.

Photos:
VW, Flickr, splattergraphics
Flip

Post from: Blisstree

This is Not Your Parents’ Road Trip

The Gosselin Family - TLC's Jon & Kate Plus 8 vacation in Hawaii. Photo courtesy of TLC

introducing the girlfriend/boyfriend to the family? Keep in mind that it sounds like Jon and Kate split up long before they announced it and he’s been seeing this “new woman” for a while.

Jon Gosselin was spotted taking a vacation down in France with his girlfriend, Hailey Glassman.  Course now that they are back rumors are spinning every which way from she’s only dating him in order to get her clothes listed to she just wants his money.  The big question is could it be true?  Or the bigger question, is he going through a mid-life crisis?

We all loved him or felt bad for him while the episodes of “Jon & Kate plus 8″ aired, however now many are taking Kate’s side. The man that once let a woman walk all over him is now showing off a younger model while his wife is home taking care of the kids.  Since it is obvious there won’t be a happily ever after between these two I have two questions for you. When is it okay for him to date and when is it okay for him to introduce the girlfriend to the children?

Some believe the following:

-  introduce the girlfriend immediately (AKKKK, you’ve been cheating on mom all along)
-  wait until you know you are madly in love with her  (How long is this?)
-  your child spotted the two of you together so better do it now (you have been lieing and are only telling cause you were caught)
-  after you’ve popped the question (leaves them hurt and feeling left out)
-  experts have said wait 6 months (gives them time to adjust)

To read a bit more on this read this man’s experience on dating and introducing his son to his girlfriend after a divorce.  Keep in mind you want your child to love you and never feel betrayed or abandoned. I just hope Jon has some very trusted council with him and telling him how to help the transition with his kids and any future partners he comes across. What would you suggest?

Post from: Blisstree

Jon Gosselin: Introducing the Girlfriend

However, some of the ways we live may have to be modified to accommodate an older family member.  Often these include some of the same safety guides we use for children. 

• Ramps instead of stairs
• Gates in front of stairs to prevent nighttime wandering
• Lights that turn off or on automatically
• Hot water temperature lowered
• Faucets that turn off automatically
• Sharp objects out of reach
• Eventually stoves that are unplugged or with burner locks
• Locks on cabinet doors

This is doable to keep your loved ones safe, no matter what the age.

What have you discovered for child and adult supervision and safety?

Post from: Blisstree

Safety for the Young and Old

IMG: Newscom.com

boat. Well, he has done it, it took one year, one month and a day but he now has a huge story to tell.  I have one question for you parents, how many of you would’ve allowed your child to do this? To me this is something I wish I could really do if my child was so passionate about something but know I’m a big scaredy cat. Course at the same time I imagine his parents were very emotional at times.

Zac Sunderland had a pirate scare at one point in his journey, bad weather, treacherous waves and many other terrifying events. But with all that being said he will break a record, learned to live on his own, has met his goal/wish, kept in contant contact with his parents, read a lot, fish, swam, visited many places and met a variety of people. This boy has experienced something very few of us ever get to do and now he has the rest of his life to dream of things. His dad has met him at port’s whenever he needed something fixed, his mom talks with him by the satelite phone to talk about wheather and advise him of other things.

It seems Zac’s parents kept a blog of his adventure which you can visit at www.ZacSunderland.com. Zac also learned to cook, clean and do everything else on his own. The news was reporting that Zac, with weather permitting, should’ve arrived in California Marina Del Ray around 10 am. He made this little video during his trip:

Post from: Blisstree

17-Year-old Travels the World by Boat

IMG: Code Amber

the fact of where is she or who took her is….will she be found before he has to go back? Now I know in the military you do as you are told, but what if it were your child? I think this would be a very hard time right now, it is hard enough when they have to tell their loved ones goodbye when they leave but to not know what is going on with her would be so much worse. 

KOMO News:

I know she’s out there and I know she’s alive,” said Lindsey’s mom, Melissa. “I just want her to know if she can hear me that I’m never going to stop looking for you. I’m going to look for you until I have you back. I swear I will never stop looking.

Lindsey vanished June 26 after leaving a friend’s house to walk home. But something happened in that short distance, and she never arrived. 

Scott Baum has already missed his little girl’s birthday and now he begs the media asking whoever took her to bring her back. The thing that gets me is this town has a population of 2000 and not a single person saw her after she left her friend’s house.  While her name may not be on every headline anymore the town refuses to stop looking and her daddy is just hoping things will happen soon. They haven’t announced his actual date of deployment just yet.  One more thing, she was not listed as an AMBER ALERT because no one actually saw someone take her. She simply vanished.  But you can see her information posted on HELP FIND MY CHILD.

UPDATE: It has been announced by Scott that his commanders have come back to say he can stay as long as he needs to in order to find his daughter. That’s such a relief to hear I’m sure.

CBS News:

“My heart’s really heavy. … I’m torn between sense of family and duty.” He added that his commanders in the military have given him as uch time as he needs to see his personal ordeal through.

If you see this little girl, please call the authorities. You can call Grays Harbor Emergency 911 Center at 360-533-8765 or the McCleary Police Department at 360-495-3107.

Post from: Blisstree

Missing Daughter: Daddy’s Deploying Soon

Image: sxc.hu

• Our parents caring for us
• Caring for our children
• Involvement with our grandchildren
• Overseeing our parents’ care or needs
• Caring for other family members, of various ages,  who have become our responsibility.

Throughout all of these eras will come various decisions.  We will make them as a child or an adult.  We will come to points where it’s difficult to know what to do, but we must choose a path after acquiring information and knowledge.

One of the more difficult decisions many of us have to make is whether and when to place a parent in an assisted living or nursing home, depending on their level of care.  Perhaps other family members don’t understand and resist.  Perhaps the parent doesn’t understand either.

This becomes one where you must consider many factors, the pros and cons, the possibilities and the impossibilities, the practical and the impossible.

It’s a decision point I had to reach with my mother.  When I placed her in a nursing home, due to her Alzheimer’s and needing more care than I could give her, I discovered that much of my agonizing was for naught.  Mother thought she’d gone back to her old home and was with her sister.  When I visited, she never expected to leave with me. 

 Fortunately for me she adapted to this world of her creation and expected me to enter it with her.  I learned to enjoy it, too, and was thankful I could give her pleasure in this reverse role of parenting.

What have been some of your decision points of parenting?

Post from: Blisstree

Decision Points in Parenting

My husband has brought this to my attention. We are sitting in the Hoover Met (I mean, Regions Park) in clear view of third base and had I known so many foul balls tend to lean this way I would have protested the decision to purchase these seats in the first place. It is the Southern League All-Star game, and I’m doing that helicopter parenting thing – hurling my body over my son’s skull every time a ball pops into the air and veers toward the stands. Truman pushes me away. He says he wants to catch the ball and I fear that if he did catch one of these zingers it likely would result in him losing an arm … at best.

There’s no pink here. Not one thread. Even I couldn’t contribute pink to this crowd because my darling son wanted me to wear “that pretty blue shirt, Mommy. The one with the peace sign. You are so pretty in that blue shirt, Mommy.” Tell me what mother would dress otherwise after a comment like that.

About this time last year we went to Disney World and my little boy rode all the rides he was tall enough to ride, grudgingly posed with Handy Manny and that lion from JoJo’s Circus, and had his face painted like a tiger (for $20!). Meanwhile, we tripped over tiny pretty princesses, those little girls with their hair piled high and shellacked with glittery spray to hold shimmering princess crowns. They were cloaked in sherbet-color, poufy gowns and carried wands and wore delicate slippers on their feet. Rick said that would have been my baby girl had my baby boy turned out to be one. But even then, I felt the same way then as I do now, sitting here just one row and some grass removed from third base and the imminent threat of head injury from flying balls. I would trade nothing for my beautiful Truman, not the muddy monster trucks in the family room or the crude talk of dirty underwear at the dinner table. We have one of those “all-boy” boys, and I cannot imagine myself with anything but. I have learned to watch Nascar, that the quarterback only plays for part of the game, and to always check the toilet seat before sitting. I can handle the smell of sandals-gone-bad (to a point), and have given up on ever painting a room titty pink again.

Sharon O’Donnell, author of House of Testerone: One Mom’s Survival in a Household of Males and keeper of the Web site www.MomsOfBoys.org, says, “Since there is strength in numbers in fighting the effects of testosterone in a household, it’s time for mothers of boys to unite!”

So I am proudly uniting with other moms-of-boys … and this sorority of women marked by cleats in car trunks and jerseys in closets. And I’m can definitely say I’m damn glad to be here.

Post from: Blisstree

Where is My Pretty Princess Dress?