Search Results for: blog my big helper

Can I help you, Mommy?

“Can I help you, Mommy?” That is the question I get almost every time I enter the kitchen to make a meal or dessert. There is a part of me that is elated and another part of me that would rather not bother. If I allow little hands to interfere than my task will take longer and result in a mess only a two year old can make. Too often, I find myself turning down my little helper in waiting while I rush to get the cooking done. I hardly look up when I turn her or her siblings down. … Continue reading →

The Big Pack

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So it was finally time to get to packing. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ll know that my wife and I moved 1000 miles south to enter a graduate program shortly after getting married. Five years later, with one graduate degree already earned and another just one dissertation away from completion, we’re heading back up north for a thousand mile journey with a beautiful son we picked up along the way. Things are, indeed, good. What is not good is moving. It’s not something I was prepared for or happy to do. While the destination of … Continue reading →

Mommy’s Helper: A Fun Way To Learn

I love playing with my 19-month-old son. Lately his favorite thing to do is basically destroy whatever I manage to build with his blocks. I try to make a tower and he knocks it down as hard as he can. I’m thinking someone would really love to play whack-a-mole… But, it’s not realistic to play all day. There are things that need to get done around the house. At the same time, you still have to watch and interact with your toddler. What is the solution? I am a big believer in including your toddler in your everyday activities. There … Continue reading →

Diary of a Cat Care B&B: My Personal Best

I did something today that I’d never done before at the cats-only boarding facility. It was a feat of Olympian proportions: I bathed four cats. Not all at the same time, mind you — that would be a recipe for disaster for sure. We’re approaching full capacity at the boarding facility this weekend; as I type this, we have forty-eight guests. (Between Christmas and New Year’s, we hit sixty-five guests.) So it’s not surprising that we have many guests who have signed up for extras — special treats or grooming services. Generally, we try to schedule a bath for at … Continue reading →

My Daughter’s Very Merry Christmas Eve

Amidst all of the hoopla of Christmas Eve I failed to realize mail carriers were still hard at work yesterday. Frankly, I was shocked when I saw our mail lady drive up and fill our mailbox with a bunch of envelopes. My daughter was even more surprised and not because the mail lady actually showed up, but because of what she placed inside our mailbox. Three weeks ago my 3-year-old daughter wrote a letter to Santa. It was more drawing than writing, but since Santa knows the language of all children I figured he could make out what she was … Continue reading →

The Let’s Talk Blog Top Ten – Reasons to Have a Large Sibling Age Gap

If you are thinking about conceiving a sibling child, chances are you’ve wondered what the best time to do it is. It’s not a bad idea to take into consideration the age gap between siblings, for reasons such as rivalry and how the kids will relate to each other. I asked a group of wise mothers, all of whom have different ranges of years between siblings, what they thought were the best reasons for having a LARGE sibling gap. Here’s a breakdown of what they told me: TEN: Helpy Helperton Otherwise known as “Can you play with Junior for a … Continue reading →

My Daughter’s Letter To Santa

Let me start by saying that this blog doesn’t include a heart warming anecdote about my wonderful child penning a letter to Santa asking him to forgo her presents in lieu of establishing world peace and providing adequate food and shelter to the millions of needy children in the world. While those are wonderful wishes, and ones I hope will some day make it on my child’s Santa wish list, my kid is 2-years-old and frankly she doesn’t even like Santa. In fact, she is deathly afraid of the guy, and when asked what she wants Santa to bring her … Continue reading →

A Review of This Week’s Parenting Blogs

I am borrowing an idea from Heather Long and reviewing the week in Parenting. There have been some great blogs written on some important topics. But often parents only see the first few blogs and miss the rest. So here is a review of this week’s Parenting topics. Monday September 18th. “Teaching Good Judgment” is an important skill that many parents fail to teach their children. This is obvious by the many teens and young adults that are making such bad decisions. Read this blog for some ideas on how you can teach your child good judgment. “Should Partners Of … Continue reading →

Kids Today Aren’t Assigned Chores

Do you require your children to do chores? I don’t mean the occasional request to help with a little bit of cleaning. Instead, I mean regularly assigned tasks that you expect your child to complete on a daily or weekly basis. It appears that the majority of parents today are not assigning chores to their children. A survey conducted by Whirlpool found that 82% of Americans did chores when they were children. That same survey found that only 28% of parents today are assigning their children chores. What changed between today and when the current generation of parents were kids? … Continue reading →

Teaching Responsibility Through Chores

We didn’t have a lot of chores growing up. Every Saturday we had to help clean the bathrooms, but that was about it. We helped a little here and there, but in the end, we didn’t do a whole lot to help around the house when we were kids. My mother tried, but after battling grumpy children for a couple years she finally gave up. In very little time, she had six spoiled teenagers who didn’t know how to cook or clean for themselves. I was the only one who had a consistent job through high school, and the others … Continue reading →