Search Results for: blog why you should keep your kids out of the pool

DIY Toddler Toys from Everyday Objects

Toddlers have an abundance of curiosity, a short attention span (when compared to adults), and an innate ability to uninhibitedly express themselves whenever the need strikes. One might say that toddlers excel at living in the moment. The good news is that this means you can make some DIY toddler toys out of everyday household objects that will attract and amuse your toddler. Obviously, parents will need to monitor their toddlers as they play with these “DIY” toys (just as they would if the toddler was playing with regular toys). Many parents have noticed this little “quirk” that toddlers have. … Continue reading →

You Can Have It All

Why isn’t there a super hero single mother? Some days I feel like I must be super human to get it all done. Unfortunately I’m not super human and at the end of most days I’m just tired. Women in general seem to shoulder the lions share of child rearing and housekeeping, and have for a very long time. Things are getting better, more fathers are actively involved in raising their kids and more men are helping around the house. The majority still falls to the women, and when you are a single mother, there is no majority, it’s all … Continue reading →

Surviving the Heat Wave

The sunset more than four hours ago and it is still 90 degrees outside with a heat index of 103. Like most of the country, my neck of the woods is baking under blistering heat. According to news reports, by mid-week more than 40 states will experience highs in the 90s with heat indexes topping 110 degrees. What’s more, the heat wave of 2011 is expected to last well into next week. The National Weather Service defines a heat wave as a period time exceeding three days with high temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Weather experts are also quick to … Continue reading →

No More Charred Children

I’m no medical expert, but when I see sunscreen containers plastered with labels that read, SPF 80, 90 or 100, my eyeballs get a workout, rolling to the depths of their sockets. I grew up in Hawaii in an age when sunscreen was packaged as beach umbrellas and large palm fronds. Consequently, I have learned the hard (and expensive) way that there is a time and place for sunscreen, even when you live near the Frozen Tundra. Basically, I got scorched as a kid enough times to warrant biopsies and several crash courses in sun protection from trained medical professionals. … Continue reading →

Memories of Childhood

I was sitting back thinking the other day of my mother. Don’t get me wrong. I think of my mother every day, but not in the way I was thinking of her at that moment. There were six of us altogether. We had a big, old black and white television with two or three channels so TV watching was pretty limited. We had our record player. We had a swing set and even a little pool. We had more than most kids had back then, but the days were still long. My mother would keep us as busy as she … Continue reading →

City of Hope

As if parents don’t have enough to feel guilty about in, experts now say that the city in which a child is raised has a significant impact on the rest of his life. Where have I heard this before? So, which city in the United States should parents move their children to in order to keep them as safe as possible? According to a new study commissioned by Underwriters Laboratories, Boston, Massachusetts, ranks number one in child safety. Apparently, Beantown does a heck of job making sure that kids are living in homes and communities that prevent them from getting … Continue reading →

Going to the Pool

How old was your baby when you first took him swimming? Was it a positive experience? Summer is approaching, and we just bought our baby’s first swimming suit. The purchase may have been unnecessary, but we really enjoyed picking through the adorable styles and prints. When we arrived home, I started thinking about whether our baby would ever enter a pool or lake this summer. I don’t hesitate to bring her in the water because of fears that she will drown. We’ll always have two adults around at all times (one holding her, one there on the rare chance that … Continue reading →

Why You Should Keep Your Kids Out of the Pool

Our neighborhood pool closes for the season on Sunday. Typically, it closes on the day after Labor Day, but thanks to global warming we’ve had a run on sunny 80-degree days, and the powers that be delayed the pool’s closure for a few weeks. Being able to swim in an outdoor pool in Wisconsin at the end of September is nothing short of a miracle. (My first year living here it snowed on October 5th.) Needless to say, this extension has been an answer to collective prayers offered up by the neighborhood kids (and a few random adult tanorexics). I … Continue reading →

Kids and Movies: How Young is Too Young?

My 4-year-old daughter has been eagerly counting down the days until the release of “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.” We have the original on DVD, and frankly I’m surprised the movie’s images haven’t been permanently seared on our TV screen given the amount of times she’s watched it. The DreamWorks movie about Central Park Zoo animals that end up in Madagascar (and in the sequel—Africa) is age appropriate for children ages 3 and up (at least in my opinion), which is why I didn’t think twice about shelling out $15 to take my lion/hippo/zebra/giraffe/monkey/penguin/lemur-loving child to an actual movie theater to … Continue reading →

Does Your Child Have a Cellphone?

According to the Center on Media and Child Health, 54 percent of 8- to 12-year-olds will have a cell phone in the next three years. So by 2011 more tweens will have cellphones than they will dictionaries, calculators or any other handheld device—-electronic or otherwise. Scary. Is life really unimaginable without these handy devices? For some parents the answer is a wholehearted: “Yes!” A recent survey found that most parents who bought their kids cellphones say they did so for “convenience” and “safety” reasons. In fact, some parents revealed that the allure of GPS tracking capability inspired them to purchase … Continue reading →