Are there any moms out there that knows the secret to having the perfect mornings because I can always use as many different tools in my tool belt as possible. As some of you may already know, a strategy of handling a specific situation will not work every single time so it’s helpful to learn multiple ways.
Being able to send my kids off to school in the mornings with everyone in a happy, positive mood is what I strive for and is what sets the tone for the rest of my day.
I love the mornings when my kids are smiling, getting along with each other and not bickering at each other every 5 seconds. When that happens, it usually means I can get them to school on time and we’re not rushing.
It also means this mom is in a much happier mood and allows me to be more mentally ready to tackle all the things on my to do list for the day. I don’t know about you but when I’m in a good mood, my thoughts are clear and I really do feel like I can take on the world.
These are the kind of mornings that I would like to have more of:
My kids get up on their own, brush their teeth and get dressed without a word. I hear them laughing and joking around with each other.
They come downstairs and my daughter pours herself a cup of milk and asks her brother if he would like a cup, and continues on to pour a cup for her brother. They eat breakfast and continue to smile and laugh with one another. They are being so nice to each other. Wait? “Is this really happening,” I think to myself?
Image by Hal Gatewood via Unsplash
I make a comment about how wonderful their behavior is and they both just smile and grin from ear to ear because they know they are being good.
So they hold on to that feeling of proudness and take it even a step further by finishing up their food without being reminded. I don’t hear a peep of snide remarks or bickering at all. I think to myself, “awww, they really do love each other”.
I haven’t had to break up an argument or nag at them or even raise my voice to get them to calm down.
On the way to school, we’re smiling and laughing. Singing along to the songs on the radio. We’re ALL in a happy mood. It’s so amazing. Love those days!
But of course, with kids being kids, most mornings don’t usually look like that. Not even close.
So what does a typical morning look like for me? I’ve heard some experts say that it’s not good to rush your kids in the mornings, but how can you not? They would be piling on the late school slips if there wasn’t some degree of urgency.
Not a morning goes by when I don’t hear my daughter saying to her younger brother, “Stop!!” or “I’m telling mom” or my son having a meltdown because after the 10th time of his sister yelling stop, I had to step in to give him my peace of mind.
Then comes the morning rush hour where I’m pushing to get lunch packed, jackets on, backpacks on, shoes on, so we can get out the door and be dropped off at school on time. This typically goes with me saying all of these statements at some point:
“ok you got 10 minutes before we have to leave”.
“Preston, you haven’t even eaten anything on your plate yet!”.
“Put your lunches in your bag and lets get ready to go”.
“What do you mean you don’t know where your jacket is?”
“Why did you not give me this paper to sign yesterday?”
“Let’s go, it’s time to go!”
“5 minutes!”
“If you don’t get your shoes on this minute, we are going to be late”
“Come on, let’s go, inside the car”
Days like this, I just want to pull my hair out and in my head, have thoughts of all these different plans that needs to be put into place the very next day because dealing with this every morning is getting oh so tiring.
Image by composite via Pixaba
Then there are those days where everything that can go wrong, has gone wrong. You drop your kids off at school only to find out they forgot their lunches and even worse, their shoes! So you have to drive all the way back home and back to school, and now you’re frustrated because you’re going to be late for work.
Most, if not all moms will agree with me that mornings in their homes are pretty hectic. People who know me know that I am always trying to find new or different ways to make the daily struggles easier or run more smoothly.
When I learn about a new process and try it out and it doesn’t work as well, I move on to the next thing. Which is why I constantly love to hear from other moms who are doing something different that works because there’s a good chance it will work for our family as well.
Over the years, these are some of the processes I have found that helps to move things along in the mornings:
⚪️ I have my kids lay out their clothes the night before so they know exactly what to wear.
⚪️ Instead of wasting time in the morning trying to figure out what they want to eat for breakfast, I have them decide the night before so that I can wake up and just make it.
⚪️ I have them pack their bags and leave them near the door so it’s all ready to go.
⚪️ I’ve used a white board to list out things that needs to be done to help remind them what they should be doing and in what order. It helps to put them back on track when they deviate. (Although, as long as I can see that they are getting things done, I really don’t care what order it gets done. But it helps them to be able to refer to something if they need a little reminder).
⚪️ To minimize the sibling quarrels, my daughter wakes up to her alarm 15 minutes earlier than my son so that she can use the restroom first.
⚪️ I buy them their own mouthwash and toothpaste. This alone has stopped so many silly arguments from occurring.
⚪️ Once in awhile, they know that if they are fully ready for school ahead of schedule, I’ll pass by the Starbucks and treat them to a hot chocolate at Starbucks. Yep, sometimes, I do resort to a little bribing and I’m okay with that.
Image by Alexas_Fotos via Pixabay
It’s not perfect and it doesn’t always go as planned every morning. But many times, having these routines in place does make the morning run more smoothly, which means I have a better chance at setting a more positive tone for the rest of my day.
What does your mornings look like? Share in the comments any tips you have that has worked well for you. We’d all love to learn about it.
Parks and playground structures are an essential part of parenting life. Not only is it a place you can take your kids to go hang out so that they aren’t cooped up inside all day long but it’s also a place that is FREE and the kids love it.
It’s also the perfect place to have a playdate. Kids can run around with each other and the moms can socialize.
The only downfall to being at the park is actually what makes the park so fun…the play structures. There’s an injury waiting to happen at every park.
And as a 20-year firefighter/paramedic, I can only recall a small handful of 911 calls at a park or playground that actually were serious. Most of which were the result of someone doing what they shouldn’t have been doing.
For example, this most serious 911 call I responded to that I will never forget…
“A 5-year-old child climbed above the monkey bars. He was pretending that he was walking a tightrope across a “sea of lava”. He lost his balance while walking and fell through the monkey bar handles. He hit his head twice on the way down. Once on the handles and the second on the ground. It was about a 6 to 8-foot fall.
When we got there, the child was unresponsive. Any first responder can attest to feeling very scared when approaching a child that is quiet. This child presented with agonal and snoring respirations. In other words, he was barely breathing. He had a small amount of blood coming from his ears which indicated a skull fracture and his pupils were unequal. Everything summed together meant major head trauma.
We started breathing for him by placing a tube down his throat and secured him to a board to ensure there was no further injury to his spine. Unfortunately, his spine was the least of our concerns. We loaded him up in the ambulance and off we went to the trauma center. He had multiple seizures in the back of the ambulance in which we had to give him anti-seizure medications for. We fought hard for his life, but unfortunately his tiny brain could not handle the amount of force inflicted on it”.
There’s not much the average person without medical training can do for someone with a head injury. Prevention is the key for head injuries. From a medical professional who has seen one too many accidents, please keep a mindful eye on your children when they are playing in and around the playground.
If your child has a head injury, keep an eye for any headaches, visual disturbances, balance issues, nausea, or they are slow to respond and seek medical attention as soon as you can.
Another 911 pediatric call that was also critical but luckily had a positive outcome was for a child on a school playground…
“A 10 year old student with a known allergy to bee stings got stung while playing on the school playground during recess. The school staff had an Epi-Pen provided by the child’s parents. The staff promptly administered the Epi-Pen and the child’s allergic reaction subsided.
They called the parents who were on the way to the school. While waiting, the child went into another allergic reaction. Come to find out, the bee stinger was still in place injecting venom into the child.
911 was then called. When we got there, the child was trying to breathe, but couldn’t. She had tears of fright running down her face as she fought for her own life. Her airway was rapidly closing and she was going into respiratory (breathing) failure.
As always, we worked rapidly and gave her 2 additional doses of medication and put a tube down her throat to help her breathe and prevent her airway from completely closing.
We loaded her up in the ambulance and drove code 3 (aka super fast!) to the hospital. When we got to the emergency department, her symptoms had resolved and the hospital staff was able to remove her breathing tube that I had placed.
Her mom had met her at the hospital. They reunited at the bedside and they both hugged and cried. I couldn’t help but tear up seeing this happy mother and daughter moment.
AND this is why I do what I do”.
The points to take away from this story is to have an Epi-Pen with you if there’s a known allergic reaction. Call 911 or seek immediate medical attention even with an Epi-Pen as their airway can close quickly and will cause respiratory failure.
I’ve had a number of severe allergic reactions from bee stings and being exposed to different allergens. Many people carry Epi-Pen which is definitely a life saver, but they still need medical care. The Epi-Pen is only meant for the quick immediate action but will wear out after 5 mins.
Now on the flip side, there are definitely very minor injuries that happen all the time at the playground.
Here are some typical scenarios that I’m sure most of you have come across at one time or another, and if you haven’t, be prepared…
Kids are running too fast, trip over an uneven pavement, fall and scrape their knees and hands.
Your child is climbing the play structure, fall and breaks an arm.
A bunch of kids are playing chase with one another and one of them twists and sprains his ankle
Parks with wooden play structures or wooden benches means one thing, splinters in the fingers.
Kids riding their bikes, hit a bump and lose control of their bike, fall down and end up with a huge gash on their leg from their leg getting caught between the pedals.
These are all very easy to manage injuries that any mom or dad can easily handle if they make sure they always have a good first aid kit on hand.
There’s nothing like having your child run up to you with a bleeding cut on their finger and you have no way to stop it.
Take Along First Aid Kit – Kid Joy
Which is why we have put together our handy Take Along First Aid Kit that fits perfectly in a diaper bag or purse without taking up much room. It has all the basic essentials that you will need to treat all those pesky minor injuries that the kids t
end to get themselves into. We make it easy to be prepared.
All in all, the playground is a very safe place and it’s ultimately up to the parents to make it safe for their children. In most things involving children, prevention is everything. Things like wearing safety equipment (i.e. helmets) and good ole supervising (making sure they’re not doing what they shouldn’t by doing).
I recommend to all parents to take a first aid and CPR class for kids. It’s a very good class that will give the knowledge, skills and abilities to be able to handle the everyday “small emergencies” and confidence to handle more serious emergencies.
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These are the years when it does really start to get fun. The little ones are turning into tiny human beings with minds of their own and with no worries in the world of their safety or the world around them. They are curious explorers and can very easily get themselves into a heap of trouble in a blink of an eye.
They’re old enough to walk and run around everywhere you go but not old enough to understand why they shouldn’t stray away or do certain things. If you were worried about them getting into stuff when they started to crawl, take that and kick it up a notch or two because now it’s everything they did, but now on steroids.
Bumps and bruises will start happening when they start walking and climbing everywhere. For this very reason, we were inspired to create a cute, simple and easy to use first aid kit that can be thrown in a diaper bag or purse so moms can quickly grab a bandage to take care of the boo boos. You would be amazed at how quickly the tears go away once a bandage is put on.
Now they are bigger and can access even more things around the house like opening up cabinets to play with whatever toxic cleaning materials you have in there. They think it’s fun playing with the medicine cabinets, the toilet, your dirty shoes all the way to any makeup or markers you have laying around.
Image by yohoprashant via Pixabay
Everything that you have been dealing with in year 1 continues into the toddler years. Things like lack of sleep, staying on top of household chores, and the normal day to day kid activities. Except now, you are doing more things during the day. You’re taking them out on playdates, introducing them to new kid activities, enrolling them in different fun toddler classes, getting them to try new foods and perfecting the art of saying “no” to them a million times a day.
Our saving grace was that we were able to sleep train our kids to have them sleep through the night before they turned 1, which helped us tremendously. This, I believe hands down, saved our sanity because we weren’t sleep deprived. Which meant we had energy to run around chasing after them.
Now lets not forget about the dreaded potty training age where you do everything in your power to convince them to pee and poop in either the real or fake potty. When bribing or praising doesn’t work, you will resort to begging and as hard as you try, but after the 100th time of cleaning the sheets and/or carpet, there may even downright be some yelling out of pure frustrations.
It was not easy. Waking up a couple times during the night to change wet beds and giving them a shower because they are soaked in pee. Changing clothes and cleaning up wet spots all day long. As difficult as it will be when you’re actually in the moment, it is best to train them only when they are ready for it. I definitely learned this the hard way.
Now if there’s anything to prepare for during these years, it would be the wonderful phase we call the terrible 2’s and even worse, the terrible 3’s. They will get what they want, when they want and will show you who is in charge. To them, the word “no” actually means “yes, keep doing what I’m doing”. They will test your limits, so pick your battles to keep your sanity because at the end of the day, you will be physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted!
If they aren’t already in daycare, they will soon be entering preschool. Be ready for constant runny noses because being around lots of other kids in close quarters means more germs are being spread around and your kids WILL bring the bug home. Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do with this one. The daycare can be the cleanest with the best sanitizing policies in place but at the end of the day, there’s not much they can do to control germs from spreading from one kid to another when they are in such close quarters with each other and playing with the same toys throughout the day.
Gone are the days when you can just take off to the grocery store to pick up a thing or two. When you have no other choice but to take your little ones with you to run errands around town. It’s much easier to do this with a newborn than a toddler, that’s for sure. What used to be something that would easily take you just a couple of hours will now take you half the day to do if not more. You now need to count in time to feed, diaper changes and/or potty breaks. If you’re lucky, you can get through all that without any temper tantrum outbreaks. No more leisurely strolling down the aisles. It’s get in and get out ASAP.
If you have read this far, you are probably thinking something along the lines of “holy smokes, I am so not ready for that!’
There is good news. You will have your good days. All it takes is to watch them sleep so peacefully that will melt your heart and soul and you will forget everything that happened that day. Some days they will say the darndest thing that will have you laughing like crazy. Or the days when they show you their work of arts, smiling from ear to ear. You will be one proud mama. But best of all, when they climb into your lap and all they want to do is just snuggle and give you hugs and kisses. Those are the best.
The best advice I and some other moms who have survived the toddler years can give you is the following:
Know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. The terrible 2’s & 3’s will pass. They will learn how to pee and poop on their own time. They won’t remember when they fell and got hurt. They will get sick, but they will get better.
Set up routines for everything.
Go on playdates. You need social interactions as much as they do.
When going on errands, pack a small bucket of toys to keep them entertained. Pack plenty of snacks.
Have a fully stocked diaper bag
Shop online whenever possible. It will save you so much time.
Find ways to include your child in household chores when they are able.
Add some fun into their clean up process like using “a clean up song”
Let go of being a neat freak or hire a housecleaner if you can. The house will get clean…eventually.
Just like the newborn phase, there’s nothing like going through this phase yourself to be able to experience and appreciate all the wonders having a toddler can bring and quite frankly, some of your most very challenging years. Get ready and buckle up. It will be an amazing ride.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” ~ unknown
Wouldn’t it be great if things always went as planned and nothing unexpected happened in our day to day lives, especially when we have little kids in tow? As you and I both know, that is hardly ever the case.
Life happens. Life gets busy and when you come home from the hospital with your newborn child, life gets even busier. Big thanks to agencies like the Bethlehem Health Bureau who believes in helping new parents keep their kids safe.
The Bethlehem Health Bureau Highway Safety and Preparedness programs have teamed up to provide a Family Preparedness Kit to expectant parents and parents with newborns. This kit is provided to those families who requests for Bethlehem Health Bureau to safely install their newborns car seat by one of their nationally certified child passenger safety technicians.
The Family Preparedness Kit that is provided to the new parents includes: Flashlight, Emergency Window Punch, Cell Phone Charger, 2x Mylar Emergency Blanket, Infant First Aid Kit provided by PreparaKit, and Content Card with Uses.
How cool is that? As a new mom, making sure our newborn is strapped into their car seats correctly is vital. And on top of that, to receive such handy tools to have on hand just in case is like an extra side bonus.
We appreciate agencies like Bethlehem Health Bureau and strive to promote a better and safer environment for our kids and community. Learn more about Bethlehem Health Bureau’s services for their community here. We are honored and thankful for being included as a part of their Family Preparedness Kit.
Let’s face it, life is no longer the same after you have children. Things that you were easily able to do before is no longer that easy. Now instead of doing just 1-2 loads of laundry a week, you now have 2-3x that amount. Instead of figuring out what to eat just for yourself and the hubby, you now have to accomodate the needs and wants of all your kids.
And if you’re lucky, you might just have kids who will eat just about anything…said no mother ever!
Yes, I would love to have a spotless, well organized home every single day, but that is really just wishful thinking. Unless of course you have the luxury of having a full time housekeeper, which I, and most moms, definitely do not. At the end of the day, I just want our home to be in a fairly presentable condition where I wouldn’t be totally embarrassed if we had a surprised visitor swing buy unannounced,
Over the years though, I have incorporated some helpful tactics to make getting things around the house done more easily and efficiently. And the best thing is, once you have kids old enough, you can get them involved.
Stay Organized
One of the best ways I have learned to keep the clutter from piling up everywhere is to designate a home for everything and then stay on top of making sure things go back to its home once it has been used.
For example, we have on one specific counter a pen/pencil holder. Everyone in the family knows that if you need a pen or pencil, you automatically go there…and when you’re done, you put it right back there.
Anything related to electronics go in a designated cabinet. So any time someone is looking for some batteries or a cable for something, I know exactly where to go look.
I have my daughter use this same technique to manage all her things in her room. So now she knows which bin to go to for anything arts/crafts related or which bin contains all her lego toys etc.
It sounds like a huge ordeal to set something up like this but it doesn’t have to be. Start with reorganizing one “new home” a week for each type of item in the house. For example, all office related supplies live in this one cabinet or drawer.
If you’re feeling a little bit more ambitious, you could tackle each living space at a time and decide which items makes sense to have its designated home be there.
The tricky part is to have just one location for things AND keeping everyone on board, otherwise, you will end up right where you started from with things laying around everywhere again.
It really does save some time when you’re looking for something in particular or even when you’re putting things back because you know exactly where it should be or go. Nothing more frustrating than running in and out of each room trying to find where you think something should be and it’s not there.
Image by Markus Spiske via Pixabay
Kids and Their Toys
Are you constantly battling with your kids to get them to pick up their toys? Well do I have a treat for you. I got this idea initially from a co-worker of mine and it works wonders…if you follow through. Here’s how you do it:
The idea is called “The Never-Never Bag”. First things first, find a bag that you want to designate to collect the toys. Then sit down with everyone to discuss this “new process” and explain to the kids that from this point on, you will give them a 15 minute warning to give them a chance to go pick up all their toys on the ground. After the 15 minutes is over, any toys left laying out will go into the Never-Never Bag.
The first time I did this, my kids did not take me seriously. So after the 15 minutes was up, they said they were done. I still saw plenty of toys laying around and gave them a second chance and asked “are you sure?”. They said yes. So I walked to the yellow ball that my daughter had just bought that day with her own money and threw it into the bag.
Her eyes got wide and she yelled out in disbelief while the tears started falling down her cheeks, “No, not my ball! I don’t like this new rule!”.
Needless to say, the next day when I gave them the 15 minute Never Never Bag warning, they very quickly made sure all their toys were picked up. No more nagging, yelling or reminding them to pick up their toys every 5 minutes.
Now some may call this cruel but I say it just works. I will add in though that each day where no new toys are added to the bag, they are allowed to pick out one toy from the bag to take back. Any toys that stay in the bag for a long period of time, we donate them.
Use this idea and mold it to make it work for your kids but definitely give it a try.
Laundry Time
Flip and Fold
If you have not yet invested in the “Flip & Fold”, I highly recommend it. This is how I got my kids to start folding and putting away their own clothes. There are plenty of different ones now and any of them will work the same. I’ve seen them sold in home and organization retail stores like The Container Store.
My kids started this when they were 5 years old. I just showed them how to lay their clothes down and they just flipped and flopped the flaps and voila, they have a neatly folded shirt. They each had a designated drawer for each type of clothing so when they had their stack of folded clothes, they would know exactly where to put it.
Now I won’t say it’s perfect every time but I’ll take it being done over perfection any day. Plus, they are learning plenty of life skills all with this one activity. Things like responsibility, ownership of doing their own laundry, organization, and being able to focus.
Not only did it help with them getting their clothes folded, they actually had fun using it so it was a win win situation.
Dinner
If you’re like my family where we both work and kids have after school activities, there are some nights where it’s very difficult to even have time to eat, let alone cook a meal.
So before the week starts, we usually know what it will look like. So we plan out what to eat on which days and we make sure the meals we cook will have plenty of food to be used as leftovers for the next day.
I know some of you may not enjoy eating the same thing more than once but I’m telling you, it’s a time saver. Instead of cooking something new every single day, you only have to cook 2-3 days a week.
From time to time, we’ll also have what my friend calls, “DIY dinner nights”. You eat whatever is available in the fridge or pantry. It’s mom’s (or dad’s) night off from cooking. Yayy!
Many use the Crock Pot for dinner nights like this because you can just throw the ingredients into the pot and by dinner time, you have a nice hot meal ready to serve and eat. There are fancy ones out there now. Even ones where you can control the settings from your phone!
What are some ways you and your family keep your household in order and get things done more efficiently? Share each other’s tips and tricks so that we all can get through our day that much easier.
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ke, fall down and end up with a huge gash on their leg from their leg getting caught between the pedals.
