I don’t need to tell you that when you are raising children, you need to look for shortcuts to saving time wherever you can.
About a year ago when I was working on a menu planning story for the Life section, a source forwarded me information on a cool free e-mail newsletter with a very clever family friendly name, Dine Without Whine.
I had no idea the woman behind the effort of “Helping families re-discover the pleasure of the dinner hour,” was a local person. She lives in Milford.
To this day, inside my parents’ basement in Chicago, my father has shelves of albums, cassette tapes and CDs of music.
By artists from all genres. R&B, disco, pop, jazz, reggae, you name it.
My dad likes soul singers such as Stevie Wonder along with hard rock bands such as Aerosmith. His collection includes music by hip hop icons like Run DMC as well as gospel legends like Kirk Franklin.
Through my dad, I learned to appreciate the real music of the past. (Aren’t the songs by most of today’s artists garbage?)
Over the years, I bought my share of CDs to knod my head to when I cruise in my ride or while cleaning up around the house. Perhaps, my intense passion for the sounds of old school R&B and today’s Gospel Hip hop music — two of few genres with lyrics full of both creativity and positivity — has been passed down to another generation.
Who’s that next generation?
My 10 1/2 month-old daughter, Zion.
Let me explain.
As a 27-year-old father of three (don’t worry; we’re done. I think.), I’ve learned some things.
For example:
- The toy the oldest child is playing with is always better than the one the middle child plays with. Even if the toy the middle one has is newer, makes more noises and is, assuredly, more awesome.
- Nothing confounds me more than hair ties, scrunchies or barrettes. I’ve actually gotten worse at these over the past four years. I’m like a chimp taking a math test when it comes to my daughters’ hair. Lots of grunting, lots of flailing limbs and lots of unkempt hair.
- If you know where to look, Spongebob Squarepants is on 24 hours a day. Or, as Kenzie calls him, Bobpants.
- Peanut butter & jelly tastes better if you take it apart, smash the business end of one of the slices of bread against your face and eat whatever happens to land in your mouth. Oh, and make sure you get jelly in your hair.
- Kenzie did it.
- Kelsey did it.
- The cat did it.
- Whoever invented Play-Doh needs to be jailed, committed or otherwise locked away. Or, he needs to get on his knees and get all the bits of his gunk out of my carpet. Jerk.
- Same with you, Crayon guy. Exactly how do I get your product off of wallpaper?
- I’m not that interesting. But my alter egos The Tickle Monster, Ticklesaurus Rex and the Tickle Claw? HILARIOUS.
- The Doodlebops will haunt your dreams. I hate that stinking show.
I’ve learned more, but I don’t have the time to explain it all. I have three kids, remember.
Do you ever feel like you just can’t get out of the house in the morning?
When Grace was a baby, it was fairly easy to get to work on time. Get them up, changed, give them a bottle, and sit them in the carseat until you’re ready to go.
But these days, it’s impossible getting out of the house. I feel like a chicken with its head cut off some mornings. Grace just does not want to cooperate.
I get up at quarter to five on workday mornings. I give myself an hour and 15 minutes to get ready and pack lunch. I usually get Grace up at 6 a.m. sharp, allowing an hour to get her ready. You’d think that’d be plenty of time to dress a toddler, give her some milk and a few minutes to wake up and head out the door.
But not Wednesday. We spent 10 minutes trying to pick out an outfit. Then she ran around naked for 10 minutes because she didn’t want to get dressed.
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When a child asks you a question, you do your best to try to find the answer.
Here’s a tough one that came up a few weeks ago when the boy noticed how hard the shopping cart was to steer because it had “jumbled wheels.”
“I think this one is ready to retire,” he said. “Mom, do you know what the life expectancy of a shopping cart is?”
With two rapidly growing kids, the trips to the grocery store seem to be a requirement more and more frequently.
And the question comes back to me each time I see a cart.
My darling daughter Zion has been doing something that’s getting under my skin.
It’s racking my brain.
It’s frustrating me to no end.
It make makes me want to pull my hair out.
Her irritating new activity? Zion can’t keep her cute, tiny hands out of her hair. She just pulls it and pulls it.
So it appears Grace likes sleeping in the nude.
She’s gotten into a terrible habit these past few weeks, and it seems to have stemmed from our potty-training conversations that “big girls” wear underpants.
Because she reeally wants to be a big girl, she’s begun to protest diapers. Which is fine, but I feel they’re a necessity at night. But Grace doesn’t think so.
Her pajama ensemble consists of a diaper, a plastic underpant over that, a onesie and heavy footed PJs. But the past five nights, Grace has woken up half-naked, wearing nothing but those plastic pants. We’ve washed bedding over a dozen times this week. (She does this during naps, too.)
Somehow, she wiggles her way out of her pajamas, unsnaps her onesie and tosses it onto the floor, takes off the plastic underpant, removes her diaper, hurls it on the floor, and then slips the plastic underpant back on. She’s like a young Houdini.
The problem arrives because she can’t figure out how to put the pajama back on.
Of course, we can’t hear her doing this over the monitor. She just continues her regiment of singing songs, reciting the ABCs, and talking to Barney-Elmo-Tyrone-Dora. We just get surprised the next morning, when she’s cold, wet and crabby. So the last two nights I’ve resorted to tiptoeing into her room before I go to bed to see if she’s still clothed, but that only wakes her up. (Grace wakes at the drop of a pin.)
I’ve explained to her that it’s OK to wear a diaper at night.
“Everybody wears a diaper at night,” I told her. “Mommy wears diapers at night. (Not). Daddy wears diapers at night. (Not). Underpants are during the day, and diapers at night. If you take your diaper off, at night you’re going to wake up wet and cold, and that doesn’t feel good.”
But our heart-to-hearts have done no good.
We all know there’s no reasoning with a 2-year-old, so pleeeeaaaassseee help me out here. How do I get her to keep her clothes on at night??? A friend half-jokingly suggested duct tape.
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of learning to read and teaching your child to read.
It opens so many doors and leads to so many new and exciting opportunities. It helps them in all academic areas.
I also have to say it is the least expensive way to escape from the stress of our everyday life. If you use the library, it is free.
We have always made reading a story aloud a part of the bedtime routine for our two kids. If I have a night assignment, Dad takes on the task. It is the perfect way for the kids to unwind. So relaxing that I have even found myself nearly ready to go to bed after story time.
One thing that surprises people when we talk about the subject is that they overlook the fact that the habit can start really young. Yes, even before birth.
With wiggly little ones, add some voice changes and they will sit still longer.
Bless his heart, our boy was sitting through American Girl books before he was even walking. There aren’t many pictures in those books, so kids have to use their imagination. FYI: Those books are full of awesome history.
Then, a few years later, when the boy was talking about nothing but dinosaurs all of the time, our daughter would patiently listen to the dinosaur stories while she waited for “her book” selections to be read.
Yes, it is time consuming, but think of it as an investment.
Besides, wouldn’t you rather be cuddled up with your kids and reading than folding laundry?
When you know you cannot give your kids much, books can help them go places on their own.
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I’ve heard it from other new parents, time and time again.
They’re tired of paying the typical $150 to $200 per week for their newborns and infants.
Daycare costs cause so much financial strain for some couples that either moms or dads — depending on whom earns the least from their full-time jobs — prefer to stay at home. Especially when certain day care centers keep a running clock to charge more money when parents run late to pick up their children. (Sometimes we can’t help but run behind, right?)
In addition, parents complain about the structure, service or cleanliness of the day care center. Or whether the day care attendants show that they actually care about your kid. Particularly, your darling daughter or little man has a snotty nose, messy diaper or has a bad day making him or her fussy.
So far, Alicia and I have truly been blessed since my daughter Zion was born 10 months ago. Our complaints have been almost non-existent.
OK, I have to get this off my chest: Toddlers should not be sucking on pacifiers.
I was in the store the other day and there was a mother dealing with a fussy toddler. The boy looked like he was going on 2, and it was clear his mother was getting tired of the whining.
But instead of offering him a bag of Cheerios, a drink or a toy, she pulled a pacifier out of her purse and popped it in his mouth!
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a 1 1/2- to 2-year-old with a binky. I see it quite often, actually. I would venture to guess that most of these kids are still walking around with one is because their parents just don’t want to deal with whining and crying. Pop the pacifier in, and shut them up.
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