Search Results for: blog are you a member of the mad moms club

Are You Too Critical?

How often do you start the day with a morning lecture? My 8-year-old daughter’s answer:  “Too many!” She’s probably right. If she asks for help locating her backpack, I spend five minutes “suggesting” that she hang it in the back hall where she can easily find it. If she complains about taking the same home lunch to school every day I “propose” that she expand her palate because there’s only so much I can do with strawberries, crackers and plain chicken. When she whines about not having enough time to eat a leisurely breakfast before school I “recommend” moving up … Continue reading →

How Low Can You Go?

The more I sleep, the more tired I feel. What does that say about me? I suppose I should clarify: “more” sleep for me is tacking on an extra hour or so to the roughly four to five hours of slumber I typically score on a nightly basis. On nights that I don’t have to get up to work, I can easily saw logs for 11 to 12 hours straight. However, I feel best when I get a solid eight hours of sleep at night. Unfortunately, this does not happen very often… and it shows. Just ask my daughter… and … Continue reading →

Are You Ready for Winter?

I’m not. We’ve been this close to being walloped with a blizzard for the last two weekends, but mercifully have scraped by with just minor snow accumulation. However, this is Wisconsin, and I know it is just a matter of time before we get slammed with a foot or more of snow—in less than a 12-hour period. As a parent of a 6-year-old, this means dealing with the drudgery of making sure she has the proper winter gear. Of course, given her recent growth spurt that basically translates into me forking over an arm and a leg so that she … Continue reading →

Are You A Member of the Mad Moms Club?

Don’t hate me because I’m angry. If you have young children at home, then you probably can relate to my rage. At least that’s what a new survey found. Apparently, there are many moms just like me whose tempers flare when they are stressed out about unruly kids, financial issues, work-related problems and time constraints. This doesn’t mean that we are whipping dishes at the wall, screaming like lunatics or beating our kids because we are overworked and under paid. I don’t spank or scream at my 5-year-old daughter (I’m all about the loud sighs and lectures), but I can … Continue reading →

Saving Money on Groceries When You Both Work

A lot of the frugal living advice out there concerning groceries assumes that you have time to cut all of the coupons, are home during the day to simmer the homemade chicken stock and prepare inexpensive meals from scratch. But what if you are a two income family or a single parent who just doesn’t have the ability to use some of the regular frugal living techniques? I’m here to help. Some frugal practices can be adapted to your lifestyle if you are commuting to work on a daily basis. The crock pot or slow cooker, for example, can be … Continue reading →

Do NOT Reply All

Dear parents of school-age children, It’s not necessary to “reply all” to every single email sent from your child’s teacher… especially if your kid is in the same class as ours. Sincerely, Parents for the Prevention of Reply All Abuse Look, I’m all for open communication, especially when it involves parents and educators, and despite my glaring absence on Facebook, I really do appreciate the advantages associated with digital messaging.  However, when it comes to emails and the “reply all” function, I’m a real hater. I’m not a huge fan of checking emails to begin with, so when I see … Continue reading →

Heart. Broken.

The holidays will never, ever be the same for the families whose loved ones were tragically gunned down yesterday in Connecticut. Life will never be the same for them. If you are a parent, life is also likely different for you following Friday’s mass murder madness. It can be. It should be. That is, if you are able to gain perspective from the senseless act of violence. It’s one of life’s cruelest ironies:  To gain perspective we must often lose something incredibly precious. In the case of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, more than two dozen families lost their … Continue reading →

The Trouble with Toys

(If I step on these one more time I’m going to…) Actually, it’s not the toys I have trouble with; it’s the child owner who repeatedly neglects to pick-up said playthings despite various forms of yelling, nagging and threatening. Sound familiar? Then, you too can likely relate to that Febreze commercial where the mom places all of her kids’ stuffed animals in the toy box only to find them strewn back on the floor the instant she turns around. How many times have you seen that ad and thought, “That’s so my life”? Not the possessed toy part; rather, the … Continue reading →

Figuring Out Transportation at Disney World

One of the erroneous assumptions I always made growing up was thinking that Disney World worked just like the small local amusement parks I’d been to. Pay one fee, get access to everything on the site, and get around the park easily. We know for sure the former isn’t true, and neither is the latter. Disney World is huge. It’s basically a city unto itself. So any family doing a Disney World vacation that wants to see more than one park has to figure out transportation from one park to another, plus how to get on and off the site … Continue reading →

End-of-the-School-Year Bliss

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… Sing it with me. No more pencils, no more books, no more dragging kids out of bed, no more making lunches at 5 a.m., no more threatening children to finish their homework, no more last-minute scrambles to find missing socks and backpacks while the school bus sits at the end of the driveway… I’m done. Thank goodness, the end of the school year is just around the corner. Thankful. Thankful. Thankful. That’s me. While some parents are cursing the end of the academic year, I couldn’t be happier. In fact, I’m not … Continue reading →