Mom | Mom Packed

Activities to Promote Mother and Daughter Bonding

Sometimes it can be difficult to spend quality time with your child. If you have more than one, a difficult work schedule or other priorities that can confuse your schedule, it can be problematic finding one-on-one time with your daughter. It is however extremely important to do so.

When time is really tight, perhaps you and your daughter can find time to play in the house. Of course this is also relevant at any time, as bonding doesn’t have to involve elaborate plans. Have some fun dress up time with your daughter’s American girl doll clothes. Both of you could enjoy playing with her other toys as well, making it a fun bonding activity.

From time to time, it can be a great idea to do something outside the home together. This doesn’t have to involve spending a lot of money, as anything from an inexpensive dinner or movie can be reasonable. Going to the park and enjoying the nice weather, shopping, or many other ideas can allow you and your daughter to bond.

Most importantly, it should be said that activities don’t have to solely promote bonding. Do your best to establish lines of communication, including similar interests that you and your daughter can share. Hopefully in your time with your daughter, you can establish the bond that doesn’t revolve around activities; in other words, you can bond at all times, even outside of exclusive one-on-one time.

Look at ways where you can improve in this regard. Work to spend more time communicating with your daughter to improve the relationship.

Filed Under: Family, Mom Tagged With: Human bonding, Shopping, United States

The Best Mother’s Day Gifts Ever

Image via Wikipedia

Mother’s Day is a time to celebrate the wonderful moms in our lives and let them know how much they are appreciated and loved.

This year, instead of flowers and lunch, how about giving her a gift that will be remembered. Technology with a purpose is a really great gift idea for the special women in our lives. Not only will it make a special gift, you will be able to find a phone that fits her individual style. This will be the one gift that she will use daily for more than just making calls.

Her new mobile phone will fit her personality and lifestyle, and it is also a gift she will enjoy using and showing off to her friends; new mobile phones will not only fit her style, but it is also a practical gift mom will feel good about using every day.

With her new phone she will be able to keep up-to-date and organized, which in turn will help to relieve stress. She will enjoy the freedom of mobility and the security of knowing that she can easily be contacted. Mom will be able to keep everyone’s schedule, including her own, up-to-date and within easy access wherever she is.

Mom will enjoy knowing that not only can she stay connected to those she loves but she can snap a picture, listen to her favorite music, or access the internet when she needs to and it is all right at her fingertips with her beautiful new mobile phone.

Filed Under: Family, Mom Tagged With: Mobile phone, Mother, Mother's Day

Budget Concerns of Being a Stay at Home Mom

Being a stay at home mom can be a very rewarding career, but it definitely has one major drawback – a lack of pay. There are ways, however, that you can use the skills you have to make supplemental income to ease your family’s budget strains.

Here are some ideas on how to supplement your income as a stay at home mom:

Sell things that you make. There are websites online where you can sell your crafts. You can also advertise in your community and hold craft and jewelry parties. If you have a talent or skill for crafts and sewing, why not use it to earn supplemental income?
Teach piano or another instrument. If you know how to play an instrument, this gives you a wonderful opportunity for supplemental income. You can get a teaching certificate and teach neighborhood kids in your area.
Offer babysitting services. If you stay at home during the day anyway, why not offer to watch kids for other parents who have to go to work. If you only watch a couple of additional children, you will not need to get a license. Plus, turning your home into a business provides tax deduction opportunities.
Work from home. In this day and age, there are lots of jobs that can be found online. You just have to be creative and look for the best opportunities. Being a work at home mom, however, will bring a whole new set of challenges, so be prepared.

Staying at home with your kids while they are young can provide financial strain, but you can look for ways to supplement your income and improve your finances.

Filed Under: Family, Mom Tagged With: Family, Housewife, Telecommuting

How Working Moms Can Stay Involved In Their Kids Schools

Working moms often drop their kids off at a before school program or get them off on the bus and then head off to work, and then they don’t see or hear from school unless their is a problem. One of the hardest things to do when you are full time working mom is to be involved in your kids everyday school life. It is important to remember that a good relationship with your child’s teacher and other school staff can make a big difference in their experience at school.

Although it is easier for stay at home mom’s to be involved at school, it is not impossible for working moms to be involved. You may not be able to volunteer in the classroom once a week, or be a room mother, but there are other ways you can make your presence known.

Email and cell phones have made staying in touch with teachers much easier. You no longer need to wait until your child’s teacher is out of class to ask them a question or check in on how your child is doing. All schools and teachers have e-mail so you can easily send them a note to introduce yourself and then use it consistently to keep the communication open. The internet has also helped in that many teachers have classroom pages. You can easily log in to see what is going on in your child’s every life just by checking their website.

Even though you may not be able to show your face on a regular basis, you can be involved in your child’s classroom in other ways. You can plan your work schedule so you can volunteer for field trips or volunteer after work. There are always committees and other work that needs to be done in the evenings that will help the teachers. You might even be able to use your work expertise to help out. Design a website, or help organize other activities.

Filed Under: Family, Mom Tagged With: Child, Housewife, Mother

The Effects of Working Moms on Kids

The debate about the negative effects on kids that come from homes where their mothers work has been going on for years. There is probably no changing the minds of those who are against it, or those who believe it doesn’t have any lasting effects. Whether you are for or against it, here are some of the facts.

A recent review of over 50 years worth of research has come up with some interesting findings.

Kids who had moms who went back to work full time before they were three years old were no worse of academically or behaviorally than those who had moms who stayed home. There were actually some areas where they performed better. It was found that these kids who were in daycare often had less problems with anxiety and depression.
It was also found that kids who were from single family homes where their parent worked often performed better than kids from single family homes where their parent did not work. This should relieve the minds of single parents who have no choice but to work outside of the home.
The biggest benefit of having a mother that works is having a good role model for kids. They are showing their kids the value of work, and the value of providing. It is not necessarily the extra money that it brings into a household. Having a good role model can also help to decrease other stresses and pressure in the home that have nothing to do with money.

The problem with having mothers taking over a bigger share of the work outside of the household is the lack of good daycare. It is no secret that day cares have not kept up with the demand. There is much more of a need for good child care in many areas than there is child care. This often causes anxiety and guilt for many mothers who have no choice but to have a full time job outside of the household.

Filed Under: Family, Mom Tagged With: Day care, Mother, Single-parent

Determining If Payday Loans Are Right for You

Over the past couple of years there has been an increased amount of attention drawn to payday loans. People who have never heard the term payday loans are now hearing it everywhere they go. The problem with this increased interest in payday loans is that it gives many people the opportunity to misuse payday loans.

The misuse of payday loans can lead to high interest rates or extremely high monthly payments. These situations can potentially suck a person further and further into debt. This is why it is recommended that people think carefully about using a payday loan so that they don’t find themselves in this type of financial position. If you or someone you know is considering the use of payday loan here are some questions you can ask yourself that will help you determine if a payday loan is right for you.

What Type of Situation Are You in?

Try to assess what type of situation you’re in at the moment. If it is a situation where you cannot possibly wait to get the money or need cash right away, a payday loan from a company like paydayone.com might be the best solution. Payday loans can get you the money you need quickly which can help in an emergency type of situation.

What Are You Spending the Money on?

The reason payday loans were invented was to help people out in emergency situations. To assess whether or not you should use payday loans consider what you’re spending the money on. If it is for an unexpected bill or emergency car repair then payday loans might be ideal. However, if you’re using it to buy your child toys, or fund a vacation, you may want to reconsider applying for a payday loan as these are not situations that warrant needing emergency cash.

Asking yourself these questions will help you determine whether a payday loan is right for you or not.

Filed Under: Family, Mom Tagged With: Business, Loan, Payday loan

Tips for Easing Back in toWork After Maternity Leave

One of the hardest days of a working moms life is the day they have to go back to work after being out on maternity leave. Not only do you have to leave your baby for the first time, but you also have to get back into the routine of getting up and getting yourself ready for work.

There are some things you can do to help prepare for this transition, and although there will be some hiccups as you get into a new routine, these tips may help make the transition a little easier.

Do a practice run. The week before you go back to work set your alarm and get up and go through the routine you have planned for your back to work day. This way you will know if something will not work and you have to adjust the time you get up or the order of your routine.
Get some sleep. If you have been taking advantage of your time off you may be used to sleeping some during the day. Get in the habit of going to bed earlier so you can get enough sleep when you have to wake up early.
Stay in touch with other moms. Many moms start new friendships when they are out on maternity leave. It is important to keep these friendships going even after you return to work. If your friends are also going through the same thing you can offer encouragement and advice to each other when the going gets tough.
Keep focused at the office. It is important to keep your focus on work while you are there. It may be difficult, but it won’t do any good to worry about your baby while you are at work.

Filed Under: Family, Mom Tagged With: Family, Mother, Parental leave

Cell Phones and Children

Image by premasagar via Flickr

In this day and age, the cell phone has stopped being just for adults. Wealthier folks get them, then middle class folks, and then poorer folks finally have their own of whatever the thing in question may happen to be. And when it comes to cell phones, we have finally gotten to the point where a lot of kids (even under 10) have a cell phone of their own, naturally being paid for by their parents. While not every kid is going to naturally be of a responsible enough bent that they can handle having a cell phone right off the bat, as your child’s parent you obviously know them better than anybody else in the world.

Now, giving a child access to all of the powerful features of an expensive cell phone would obviously be a mistake of the first order. Most children simply are not ready for that degree of personal freedom, at least not to start with. So, while an unlimited plan would probably not be too bad, often times it is best to start off with some limits. If your child goes over their limit as far as minutes or number of texts, they can do no more, no matter how much they might hate it. That’s just too bad, isn’t it?

Of course, there are a lot of different cell phone plans you can make use of, make sure to do your research and compare cell phone plans available for your specific needs. You could always just go with a very high limit or unlimited plan, but that might defeat the purpose of instilling responsibility in your kids. You might even want to go with a low-limit plan, just to allow them to adapt to having to be pretty frugal about their usage. Kids do like to text just a little bit too much these days. A site like www.mycricket.com will help you find a plan that will work for both your kid’s responsibility level and your budget.

Filed Under: Family, Mom Tagged With: cell phone, Mobile phone, Science and Technology

My Kid Sick, Now What

Having a sick child is difficult, but when you are a full time working mother it can add a whole new level of stress. There are many jobs where it is difficult to call in sick when you are sick, let alone when it is your child. In order to keep the stress to a minimum, it is important to have a plan.

If you are not able to stay home from work, you need to have a back up plan in advance. This could be a grandparent or neighbor that you can call at the last minute who would be willing to take care of a sick child for the day. The important things is to have a plan in place before you run into the situation.

There also may be days where you can split it up with your husband. One of you can stay home in the morning while the other one goes in to to work for half the day. Switch at lunchtime so neither one of you misses a whole day of work. If you can work from home you can also spend some time getting your work done while your sick child is sleeping.

If you have sick time available, you can also save these days for when you children are sick. It is important to offer flexibility to your boss so they will be flexible with you. If you can offer to put extra time in either in the evening or the weekend, this could go a long way towards your boss being flexible when you need them to.

Filed Under: Family, Mom Tagged With: Child, Home, Sick leave

Taking Time Out of Your Work Schedule To Understand Your Child’s Development

Being a parent is never easy. Being a parent and having a career is even tougher. Due to the fact that you have a job that requires you to be out of the house from nine to five, you can really miss out on a lot of those special moments in your child’s life.

Working parents often complain about missing out on their child’s first words, first steps, first friends or first time going to the bathroom because they have to leave them at daycare or with a babysitter. While these are the most common complaints of working parents, another complaint that working parents have is their inability to understand where their child is in the developmental process.

For the first two years of your child’s life they will be undergoing a lot of different changes and experiences. Many working parents will not be able to keep up with what stage of child development their child is in because they are not around them all the time. This situation can be frustrating to many parents because they will often not understand why their child is acting out or doing certain things.

Luckily, there is a solution for these parents. Many working parents find comfort in seeking information from their pediatrician on what stage of child development their child is in. The pediatrician can offer information on what their child is experiencing and what type of growth they are having.

Understanding what stage of development your child is in is important as it allows you to develop a better relationship between you and your child. No matter how busy you are with work or how stressful parenting can be, you should take the time to understand what stage of development your child is in as you will feel a lot closer to them.

Filed Under: Mom Tagged With: Family