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How to Get Started Planning for Your New Family

January 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

What are some things you’ve thought about in preparing the arrival of your child? It’s name? How about diapers? Cloth or disposable? How do you feel about breast feeding? Do you know what kind of statistics there are about formula-fed babies? Is it expensive? What about shots? How about a pediatrician?

Planning for a family is so much more than choosing a name and deciding if you want to go with gender-neutral infant clothing. In fact, family planning experts have broken the process into three primary stages: preconception, pregnancy and everything that comes afterwards.

For some people, the preconception process requires the most amount of actual planning, whereas pregnancy and everything else involves the implementation of those plans. Yet, anyone who has ever planned for anything knows that things don’t always work out the way we expect. That’s why family planning is a process — a constant attention to detail.

This is what makes parenting as exciting as it is scary. It’s hard to know if you’ve thought of everything. Well, that’s where the resources provided by Planning Family come in. Its website and others are invaluable planning resources which can pose possible answers the kinds of questions you haven’t even thought about yet.

In fact, the amount of online resources available has brought the process of planning for a family into the 21st century. Whereas young couples used to once be in the dark about conception, financial stability and child-rearing philosophies, the Internet has made that kind of information accessible and easily navigable.

Raising a family is not as easy as we’d like it to be, but this is why getting involved with a family planning community and finding reliable resources are of absolute importance. They can help streamline every part of the process, from before conception to everything afterwards. This way, you can spend less time thinking and more time actually being a family. What’s more important than that?

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Helping Your Child Prepare for the First Day of School

January 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Helping your child be prepared for his/her first day of school can be stressful and joyful at the same time. If this is your first child you may be experiencing some anxiety about your child going off to school. Remember that your child is also feeling anxiety about this and needs your assurance that everything will be okay.

Making a big deal out of buying the supplies your child will need for school as well as new clothes, backpack, shoes, etc. can keep your child excited and interested in the whole process rather than worrying about making new friends and finding his/her way around that big building.

Talk to your child about all the positive things school has to offer. Focus on the things your child enjoys. If your child loves art, explain all the fun art projects he/she might be able to do. Most likely there will be other children in your neighborhood that will be attending school with your child. Plan some play dates with them so that your children can have a friend to share their first day of school with.

Watch for “meet the teacher” nights and make sure you take the time to attend. Meeting the teacher and seeing the classroom ahead of time without the stress and chaos of the first day of school will help alleviate some of your child’s fears. This gives your child the opportunity to see that there really are fun things to do at school and that school really isn’t as scary as he/she originally thought it would be.

You may find that reading stories to your child about going to school or watching movies or videos about the first day of school will also help with your child’s misconceptions and/or anxiety.

Finding ways for you to deal with the anxiety you may be feeling about your child going off to his first day of school is important also. If you are feeling stressed, worried, or sad about your baby growing up and heading off to school, he/she will most likely pick up on it.

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Try A New Game Plan To Entertain Your Family

December 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Go Fish
Image by jesiehart via Flickr

The good old days of Monopoly or Go Fish are dead and done and any smart parent is best to observe and take note.  Kids today want to hang out with their friends or stay glued to their techno gadgets. So what do we, as parents do to spice up the old family games night?

Introduce poker.  It is a fun new games that all kids will enjoy and need not be a gambling addiction type of game.  You can use chips and make the loser do chores.  Custom poker tables these days are elegant additions to a games room and even have spill proof drinks holders. You can customize your table to make it unique and if you don’t have a games room there are collapsible tables that can be stored.

Watch and see how that disinterested teenager who thinks you are lame and boring starts to wake up and show a renewed interest in joining family activities. Poker is very popular game these days and is played by children and adults alike.  It is a game that can occupy the kids when it is cold and rainy outsides and teens can congregate in your basement instead of hanging out on the streets.  At least when they are making a noise in the basement playing poker, you know that they are safe and away from the disturbing influences that boredom attracts.

Change your family games night to Poker Night and teach your kids a new game that you will all enjoy. It is time to get kids to interact with each other and put the techno gadgets on hold for one night a week.

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Relating to Your Children to Get the Message Through

December 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The divide between adults and children is vast, one that’s created by age and instincts. Thing is, children do age, mature and in general grow up. Treating them as befits their age is key to getting through to them.

Many events occur in life, such as the death of a loved one or pet, a family member suffers a serious illness, or someone has been injured in an accident. These are periods of time that tend to be fraught with emotion and high with tension, with younger children not understanding why the adults are so upset. Much of this is related to grasping a concept, something that a child at a certain age simply cannot grasp. The brain is simply not ready at that stage.

Finding language to suit the situation is not easy. For instance, a six year old who has lost a pet will not understand the finality of death. They will keep asking when the pet will be coming home and may not be satisfied with the explanation given. Sometimes it’s simpler to say that the pet ran away instead of trying to say that the animal is gone forever and it’s not coming back. Whether this is a good idea or not depends solely on the situation and the child. It also depends on the ability of the adult to handle the problem as well.

Approach a traumatic event with delicacy. Bluntness will not do anyone any good. The child will only become more confused and upset, adding to the atmosphere of sad emotions. Be tactful as can be. It may be painful to not tell the whole truth, as we teach our children to be as honest as possible, but sometimes a white lie preserves sanity. And in times of tragedy, a little sanity will go a long way towards healing.

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