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How School Dress Codes Can Harm Your Daughter’s Education

Does the school your children attend have a dress code? Many of them do. Some schools opt for a specific, very limited, dress code. Others are a little less stringent. While a dress code might annoy your son, school dress codes can harm your daughter’s education. Here are some things for parents to watch out for. Ideally, a school dress code is designed to equalize students. Everyone has to wear the same type of uniform, with limited variations. (Typical variations include skirts for girls and pants for boys). Schools might choose to only allow clothing of specific colors. The goal … Continue reading →

More Young Adults are Living With Their Parents

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Years ago, when the “Baby Boomer” generation was young, it was expected that they would graduate, get married, and start having children in their early 20’s. Today, for the first time in more than 130 years, Americans who are between the ages of 18-34 are more likely to live with their parents than any other living situation. A Pew Research Center analysis gathered data about Americans who are between the ages of 18-34. They found that 32.1% are still living in their parents’ homes. Another 31.6% have moved out of their parents’ homes and are currently living in their own … Continue reading →

Things to Know About Preschoolers and YouTube Videos

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Your preschooler may have developed an interest in YouTube videos. There are some videos out there that were created for young children to view. The majority of YouTube, however, is not intended for young children. Here are some things that parents need to know about preschoolers and YouTube videos. Limit Screen Time The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that television and other entertainment media should be avoided for infants and children under age 2. They also recommend that children and teens should engage with entertainment media for no more than two hours per day – and that the media … Continue reading →

Does It Cost More for a Homemade Lunch?

I started out making homemade lunches for my first-born child for financial reasons. It just seemed cheaper that way than to buy lunch from the cafeteria. Years later, all of my kids still pack their lunch bags every day. They actually prefer it because they don’t have to spend time waiting in a cafeteria line or trying to decide on food they might not like. A friend of mine agrees with the preference but not with the cost. She says she winds up spending more money when her kids pack a lunch compared to when they buy it at school. … Continue reading →

When Your Child Doesn’t Want to go to Preschool

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Your child has been happily attending preschool for a while now. He or she always comes home with a smile and a story about something fun that happened that day. Now, suddenly, your child has started to resist going to preschool. What happened? Here is a quick checklist for parents who are baffled by their child’s declaration of “I don’t want to go to preschool!” Keep in mind that it is totally normal for a child to decided that he or she no longer wants to attend preschool. There are days when you don’t particularly want to go to work, … Continue reading →

Frugal Is as Frugal Does

Life may be a like a box of chocolates, but for the really frugal minded, those chocolates were half price and purchased with a coupon. Pick a random group of 25 people and ask them what it means to be frugal and how they make choices to be good stewards of their money. Chances are that you will get a lot of different answers all across the board concerning frugality and saving money. It tends to mean different things to different people. I recently read an article in a national women’s magazine about a family that decided to be frugal, … Continue reading →

Balancing Blogging and Mothering

I squinted to make sense of scattered letters through the glare on my screen.  Focused attempts at deciphering HTML became distracted by bursts of giggling from the other side of my window.  Rejoicing from finally making a text box that scrolled, I missed a small excited voice asking me to “look at me”.  Dripping hair and sopping wet footsteps ran inside to beckon me to join their mini water park complete with a blow up monkey pool.  Promising just five more minutes I shooed away wet fingers from my computer.  Next I looked up and the time for sprinklers, popsicles, and water slides … Continue reading →

Staging Your House for Less

Something about spring makes me start watching all of those home shows. You know the ones where couples and sometimes singles look for the perfect house, fix up and put their homes on the market or just do some renovations. Maybe it is because spring is the most popular time of the year to list a house and get a buyer. While the housing market has promise of turning around, there is still quite a lot of “stock,” houses on the market. This means that in order to make yours sell, it needs to shine. One thing that helps house … Continue reading →

5 Frugal Practices That May Be Costing You Money

Sometimes even the best intentions to save money fail. Are you losing money while trying to be frugal? Here are five frugal practices that may be costing you money. • Stockpiling Do you still have cans of vegetables from 2001? Have the breadcrumbs gone stale? Stockpiling is a great way to save money and to be prepared for rising prices, but when you have half a pantry full of expired food then stockpiling is costing you money. To solve this problem, don’t give up on the stockpiling, just get a little more organized. Rotate your pantry items and keep track … Continue reading →

Online Safety in the Home

I read a disheartening statistic today. A recent study showed that children are only three clicks away from viewing adult content on youtube. Since we don’t have cable in our home, we often turn to youtube to watch some of my son’s favorite shows together. He knows how to navigate the site well enough to get to the shows he wants, but now I’m not so sure that’s a good thing. The study showed that while watching Dora children were only four clicks away from a music video featuring swearing and nudity. While watching Sesame Street they were a mere … Continue reading →