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It’s time to celebrate the baby! As Keepsake Favors’ resident baby shower expert, I’ve learned how to plan a great party without draining your bank account. Here are my top choices for fun, festive baby showers that won’t put you in the poor house.
Host the Baby Shower at Home
Restaurants can run up a hefty bill (unless you ask each guest to pay their own way), and a caterer can also run you into a small fortune. Hosting the shower at your home can be a great way for your guests to bond with one another and still have a fun party.
Grab Game Ideas From the Internet
You don’t need to go out and buy elaborate baby shower games - the internet has gobs of baby shower games you can get - presto! Instant baby shower fun.
Choose an Earlier Time of Day
On the average, evening parties tend to be more expensive - dinner food and alcohol can run into a lot of cash fast. Instead, have a Sunday brunch with a delicious egg dish and punch, or an afternoon tea with finger sandwiches and lots of cake. Better still, if you want to avoid a meal altogether, choose a time when you can be sure most everyone has eaten (say, 2:00, which is past lunch), and then you can still have some snacks and a slice of cake instead.
Are you a frustrated parent who sometimes finds it is easier to take the garbage out yourself than to keep nagging your son? Do you wonder what kind of employee he will become since he doesn’t always follow through at home? Is it worth the effort on your part to insist that he do his share? The answer is a resounding Yes!
The lessons of life and self that we want our children to learn in our homes are not only the practical ones, such as making a bed, sewing on a button or cooking a meal. They include intangible benefits as well; it is equally important for children to learn the art of cooperation, the satisfaction of finishing a job, the ease in following a schedule and the value of sticking with a task. Children need to learn those lessons in order to cope successfully with the problems and challenges they will face in life.
The seeds of good judgment, thoughtful consideration for others and self-reliance in all areas of dial family life are most easily planted during a child’s pre-school years, but it is never too late. These values can be reinforced until the child leaves home. It is the responsibility of the parents to teach our children to be contributing citizens. Schools, churches, Girl Scouts, YMCA and other youth organizations only supplement the lessons children receive at home.
Here in Kansas, where we live, the leaves are turning beautiful shades and falling off the trees. Just last week, I was babysitting some little boys and we were playing outside. The area around their home was carpeted in leaves–ready for our enjoyment! We raked the leaves into huge piles, jumped in them, buried people underneath them, and threw leaves at each other. We had a blast! There was almost constant giggling, and no one was ready to go in when it was lunch time. (Except for the babysitter who had had enough leaves in her hair for one day!). Though such a simple thing, our time playing in the leaves brought such wholesome enjoyment. It also served to remind me of days gone by when I was a little girl. Every fall, my parents took us outside and played in the leaves with us. What happy memories!
While being chased by little boys with handfuls of leaves, I couldn’t help but wonder how many other children were missing out on such pleasure. In this post-modern age of video games, daycare, fast food, TV dinners, and entertainment overload, have our children been deprived of some of those marvelous "old-fashioned" joys of life?
Finding answers to a child’s underachievement is often a difficult and complex process. Let intuition be your guide, knowing when and how to ask the right questions. Here are 7 steps to get you started:
1. Narrow the Problem.
By the time a family member or teacher steps in to help an underachieving child, it may be months or years since problems may have first appeared. It can be extremely difficult sorting out the source of difficulties, and what problems (depression, anxiety, apathy) are primary or secondary. Nevertheless, narrowing the problem is often the most first step in finding specific answers to underachievement, and realize it may take some time. Look for patterns in certain subjects, assignments, homework, or teachers. Are there more problems taking information in or getting it out? Did things get more complicated in middle school or when classroom expectations increased? Could there be a ’silent’ learning disability? Could your child be overscheduled? Are problems related to subject areas like reading, writing, or listening?
2. Identify Strengths.
Parents are always looking for ways to open up the communication with their teenagers. Here are 5 ideas that are all within your control. Some may represent an attitude shift, some are tactics you can apply; all have the potential to dramatically improve the communication between you and your teen.
1.) Stephen Covey has provided us with some of the best advice for improving all communication: "Seek first to understand, and then to be understood."* This is especially helpful to apply to your communication with your teens.
Parents have a tendency to react quickly sometimes, and this can work against your desires to improve communication. Your child comes home with "D" on a Spanish test. Before you jump too quickly, ask what happened. Your new driver is late for curfew. You are pacing and sick with worry. It’s easy to jump down her throat when she comes in the door, even if you are relieved to see her. Listen to her first. Not only can you save face, she learns that you will listen to her and respect what she has to say.
2.) "Be there" despite rejection
Did You Know:
Men are officially the best at changing baby! Research shows that the average time taken by a woman to change baby is 2 minutes and 5 seconds, whereas the average man takes 1 minute and 36 seconds! Expert in male and female behaviour Corinne Sweet says ‘Changing baby is essentially a mechanical process, men approach it like a pit stop; they want it over as quickly as possible’. So come on guys, you’re the experts!!
Eating fish during pregnancy can boost your baby’s brain development and give him better communication and language skills. A study of 7000 mothers found that those who ate fish at least once per week had babies who scored higher in verbal skills at 15 months than those whose mothers ate no fish.
The father’s sperm will decide the sex of your baby. The mother’s eggs contain only a female or X chromosome, but a man’s contains either an X (which makes a girl) or Y chromosome (which makes a boy). Whichever one reaches the egg first and fertilises it will determine the sex.
Recently, a parent came to me, conflicted over whether to follow her pediatrician’s recommendation of placing her young son on medication. His difficult behaviors had escalated in recent years and after trying behavioral strategies and food elimination diets, there simply hadn’t been much progress in his maintaining himself. His behavior at school was deteriorating to the point where the teachers were concerned about his progress academically, psychologically and socially. When the medication suggestion came up, Jane (not her real name) was distraught.
“Drugs scare me”, she said. “I guess it’s an option I need to think about, but I’m not happy about it”.
No parent loves the idea of using medications for children who are exhibiting behavioral problems and I believe that other strategies should be explored first, before reaching for the prescription pad. But for many, all the best parenting strategies, counseling sessions, elimination diets, exercise, etc. just may not be enough to help a child manage his/her behaviors- behaviors that can be dangerous to himself or others; behaviors that are unfortunately, out of his control, and that make him feel badly about himself. This poor self-regulation can cause him to be excluded socially, resulting in repeated reprimands, punishments, teasing and taunts till his self-esteem is totally shot.
“The greatest gift I ever had Came from God, and I call him Dad! “
– Anonymous“Our earth is degenerate in these latter days; bribery and corruption are common; children no longer obey their parents; and the end of the world is evidently approaching.”
– Assyrian clay tablet 2800 B.C.“The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears.”
– Francis Bacon, Sr.“A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again. “
– Enid Bagnold“We never know the love of our parents for us till we have become parents.”
– Henry Ward Beecher“I have always looked at life as a voyage, mostly wonderful, sometimes frightening. In my family and friends I have discovered treasure more valuable than gold.”
– Jimmy Buffet“The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them. “
– Confucius“Fatherhood is pretending the present you love the most is soap-on-a-rope.”
– Bill Cosby“You know, fathers just have a way of putting everything together. “
– Erika Cosby“Be kind to thy father, for when thou were young, who loved thee so fondly as he? He caught the first accents that fell from thy tongue, and joined in thy innocent glee. “
– Margaret Courtney“Role modeling is the most basic responsibility of parents. Parents are handing life’s scripts to their children, scripts that in all likelihood will be acted out for the rest of the children’s lives.”
– Stephen R. Covey“What a dreadful thing it must be to have a dull father. “
– Mary Mapes Dodge“To her the name of father was another name for love. “
– Fanny Fern“Parents can tell but never teach, unless they practice what they preach.”
– Arnold Glasow“When Charles first saw our child Mary, he said all the proper things for a new father. He looked upon the poor little red thing and blurted, ‘She’s more beautiful than the Brooklyn Bridge. “
– Helen Hayes“To be a successful father…there’s one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don’t look at it for the first two years. “
– Ernest Hemingway“The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.”
– Burton Hillis“I am not caused by my history–my parents, my childhood and development. These are mirrors in which I may catch glimpses of my image.”
– James Hillman“There are fathers who do not love their children; there is no grandfather who does not adore his grandson. “
– Victor Hugo“You’ve got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.”
– Irish Proverb“Any woodsman can tell you that in a broken and sundered nest, one can hardly find more than a precious few whole eggs. So it is with the family.”
– Thomas Jefferson“My dear father; my dear friend; the best and wisest man I ever knew, who taught me many lessons and showed me many things as we went together along the country by-ways.”
– Sarah Orne Jewett“When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry. “
– Jewish Proverb“The longer we live the more we think and the higher the value we put on friendship and tenderness towards parents and friends.”
– Samuel Johnson“He was all questions. But small boys expect their fathers to be walking lexicons, to do two jobs at once, to give replies as they are working, whether laying stones or building models…digging up a shrub, or planting flower beds…Boys have a right to ask their fathers questions…Fathers are the powers that be, and with their power and might must shelter, guard, and hold and teach and love…All men with sons must learn to do these things…Too soon, too soon, a small son grows and leaves his father’s side to test his manhood’s wings. “
–Roy Z. Kemp“My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, “You’re tearing up the grass.” “We’re not raising grass,” my dad would reply, “we’re raising boys.”–Harmon Killebrew“Up to a point a man’s life is shaped by environment, heredity, and movements and changes in the world about him. Then there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into the sort of thing he wishes to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. Everyone has it within his power to say, “This I am today; that I will be tomorrow.”
– Louis L’Amour“A man knows he is growing old because he begins to look like his father.”
– Gabriel Garcia Marquez“The love of a father is one of nature’s greatest masterpieces.”“The merry family gatherings– The old, the very young The strangely lovely way they Harmonize in carols sung. For Christmas is tradition time– Traditions that recall The precious memories down the years, The sameness of them all.”
– Helen Lowrie Marshall“The thing to remember about fathers is, they’re men. A girl has to keep it in mind: They are dragon–seekers, bent on improbable rescues. Scratch any father, you find someone chock–full of qualms and romantic terrors, believing change is a threat - like your first shoes with heels on, like your first bicycle I it took such months to get. “
– Phyllis Mcginley“Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush; anxious for greater developments and greater wishes and so on; so that children have very little time for their parents; Parents have very little time for each other; and the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world.”
– Mother Teresa“It is much easier to become a father than to be one.”
– Kent Nerburn (Letters to My Son: Reflections on Becoming a Man)“As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.”
– Pope John Paul II“He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father’s wisdom than he who has a great deal left him does to his father’s care. “
– William Penn“The fundamental defect with fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them. “
– Bertrand Russell“Good parents give their children Roots and Wings. Roots to know where home is, wings to fly away and exercise what’s been taught them.”
– Jonas Salk“Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible–the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family.”
– Virginia Satir“I’ve been very blessed. My parents always told me I could be anything I wanted. When you grow up in a household like that, you learn to believe in yourself.”
– Rick Schroeder“It doesn’t matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was. “
– Anne Sexton“It is a wise father that knows his own child.”
– William Shakespeare“My father must have had some elementary education for he could read and write and keep accounts inaccurately “
– George Bernard Shaw“It is admirable for a man to take his son fishing, but there is a special place in heaven for the father who takes his daughter shopping.”
– John Sinor“The family–that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.”
– Dodie Smith“All the feeling which my father could not put into words was in his hand–any dog, child or horse would recognize the kindness of it.”
– Freya Stark“It’s clear that most American children suffer too much mother and too little father.”
– Gloria Steinem“Children learn to smile from their parents.”
– Shinichi Suzuki“Cultivate your own capabilities, your own style. Appreciate the members of your family for who they are, even though their outlook or style may be miles different from yours. Rabbits don’t fly. Eagles don’t swim. Ducks look funny trying to climb. Squirrels don’t have feathers. Stop comparing. There’s plenty of room in the forest.”
– Chuck Swindoll“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years. “
– Mark Twain
“All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother.”
– Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)“I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.”
– Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)“A mother’s love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.”
– Agatha Christie“You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.”
– Albert Einstein“By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class.”
– Anne Morrow Lindbergh“Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.”
– Aristotle“Mother is far too clever to understand anything she does not like.”
– Arnold Bennett“A mother is she who can take the place of all others but
whose place no one else can take.”
– Cardinal Mermillod“A mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnecessary.”
– Dorothy Canfield Fisher“I really learned it all from mothers.”
– Dr. Benjamin Spock“If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylum would be filled with mothers.”
– Edgar Watson Howe“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.”
– George Washington (1732-1799)“The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.”
– Henry Ward Beecher“What the mother sings to the cradle goes all the way down to the coffin.”
– Henry Ward Beecher“The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”
– Honore’ de Balzac“Education commences at the mother’s knee, and every word spoken within hearsay of little children tends toward the formation of character.”
– Hosea Ballou“Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world a mother’s love is not.”
– James Joyce“The best academy, a mother’s knee.”
– James Russell Lowell“The phrase “working mother” is redundant.”
– Jane Sellman“God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.”
– Jewish proverb“Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don’t want them to become politicians in the process.”
– John Fitzgerald Kennedy“A boy’s best friend is his mother.”
– Joseph Stefano“Most of all the other beautiful things in life come by twos and threes by dozens and hundreds. Plenty of roses, stars, sunsets, rainbows, brothers, and sisters, aunts and cousins, but only one mother in the whole world.”
– Kate Douglas Wiggin“Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother.”
– Lin Yutang“My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.”
– Mark Twain“Motherhood is like Albania– you can’t trust the descriptions in the books, you have to go there.”
– Marni Jackson“We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later; and the birth and growth of the spirit, in those who are attentive to their own inner life, are slow and exceedingly painful. Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth.”
– Mary Antin“To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power.”
– Maya Angelou“Over the years I have learned that motherhood is much like an austere religious order, the joining of which obligates one to relinquish all claims to personal possessions.”
– Nancy Stahl“Youth fades, love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; a mother’s secret hope outlives them all.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes (1775-1817)“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.”
– Oscar Wilde“When I was a child, my mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general. If you become a monk you’ll end up as the pope.’ Instead I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.”
– Pablo Picasso“A mother’s hardest to forgive. Life is the fruit she longs to hand you, Ripe on a plate. And while you live, Relentlessly she understands you.”
– Phyllis McGinley“Men are what their mothers made them.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson“There never was a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him asleep.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson“A mother is a mother still, The holiest thing alive.”
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge“People who exercise their embryonic freedom day after day, little by little, expand that freedom. People who do not will find that it withers until they are literally ‘being lived.’ They are acting out scripts written by parents, associates, and society.”
– Stephen R. Covey“Never say anything on the phone that you wouldn’t want your mother to hear at your trial.”
– Sydney Biddle Barrows“The commonest fallacy among women is that simply having children makes one a mother-which is as absurd as believing that having a piano makes one a musician.”
– Sydney J. Harris“An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest.”
– Spanish proverb“The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.”
– Theodore Hesburgh“A woman has two smiles that an angel might envy, the smile that accepts a lover before words are uttered, and the smile that lights on the first born babe, and assures it of a mother’s love.”
– Thomas C. Haliburton“Grown don’t mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown. In my heart it don’t mean a thing.”
– Toni Morrison“Children are the sum of what mothers contribute to their lives.”
– Unknown“A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.”
– Victor Hugo“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us when adversity takes the place of prosperity when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.”
–Washington Irving“The only thing a lawyer won’t question is the legitimacy of his mother.”
– W. C. Fields“A man never sees all that his mother has been to him until it’s too late to let her know that he sees it.”
– W. D. Howells“Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.”
–William Makepeace Thackeray“The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.”
– William Ross Wallace
Kids Furniture - Shopping Tips to Create the Perfect Child Bedroom
by: Michael Holland
There are all different types of kid’s furniture that you can purchase to go with the theme of their room. However, regardless of the type of furniture you obtain for your child, you will want to make sure that it allows them to move comfortably; does not take up too much room so they still have a nice, safe play area; and is easily accessible to them.
When purchasing kids furniture there are a few aspects you will want to keep in mind. They are the following:
1. The size of their room. In other words, how much space you have to work with. You don’t want to overload your child’s room with furniture.
2. The theme of the room: is their furniture that will match? For instance, if you are doing a fairytale room there is castle bookshelves.
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