Archive for February, 2012

A Georgia mom who is regularly featured with her first-grade daughter on “Toddler and Tiaras” is under fire for giving her child caffeine and sugar to keep her “up” on long pageant days.

June Shannon of McIntyre makes a concoction of Red Bull and Mountain Dew that she calls “Go-Go Juice.”

The mom turned to the Go-Go Juice after finding that two bags of Pixy Stixs – also known as “Pageant Crack” – were not enough to keep her first-grader alert during an 8- to 10-hour pageant.

From ABC News:

“ ‘When they do get on stage you have to be alive and…your personality has to shine a long day,’ Shannon told ‘Good Morning America.’  ‘A pageant day can last from 7 in the morning to 6,7,8,9, 10 at night, so performing and getting a kid up that early and lasting all day without a rest, you have to energize their body.’ ”

“There are far worse things,” she said, defending her choice.  “I could be giving her alcohol….”

“Everybody does it,” …

Continue reading ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’: Kids using ‘Go-Go Juice’ and ‘Pageant Crack’ to help compete »

The same parents that showed up to colleges to help their kids pick classes and fight with professors are now showing up to work.

NPR is reporting that helicopter parents are sending resumes, joining their kids for interviews and even calling to demand a higher salary for their adult child.

From NPR:

“…Margaret Fiester of the Society for Human Resource Management, or SHRM, says when it comes to parents acting as lobbyists, she’s heard it all — from parents calling to negotiate better salaries or vacation time for their kids to complaining when their child isn’t hired. ‘Surely you’ve overlooked these wonderful qualities that my child has,’ Fiester says parents often tell her.”

“Michigan State University surveyed more than 700 employers seeking to hire recent college graduates. Nearly one-third said parents had submitted resumes on their child’s behalf, some without even informing the child. One-quarter reported hearing from parents urging the employer to hire their son …

Continue reading Helicopter parents head off to work with their adult kids »

My kitchen table is constantly covered with art projects and my storage for all the art materials was inefficient and messy.

A bin for crayons, a bin for markers, a bin for each type of paper, etc… It makes me so happy!

We all have spots in our house that make us crazy. A place that always appears messy and unorganized.

For the last year and a half, the kids’ arts and craft supplies in the kitchen have been making me batty.  All three kids are constantly using crayons, markers, scissors, glue, paper, and leaving the supplies all over the kitchen table. They also were always asking for white paper (stored by the computer), card stock (stored in the office desk), or notebook paper (stored in the laundry room).

I had part of the art supplies in a crazy triangular kitchen cabinet that isn’t very efficient. The suppliers were stacked and whenever they would reach in, it would fall over, Also they rarely put the stuff back. I also had some supplies in a rolling file cabinet …

Continue reading What are your home organizing challenges? Share via Facebook/Pinterest »

These are some of my boards on Pinterest.

If Twitter is the social network for athletes and celebrities, then Pinterest is the social network for moms.

All of my mom friends are flocking to this new social media site that enables you to visually bookmark things you like from the web.

You download a quick-click button to your tool bar that lets you “pin” things to your virtual bulletin boards on the site. So while you are reading articles or looking at photos or finding recipes, you can click “pin” and place it on your appropriate bulletin board.

You can also click through other people’s bulletin boards by topic or by friends to find things that you too would like.

“Pinterest has become the social media network to watch after growing more than 4,000 percent in the last six months. At an average of 88.3 minutes per visitor, it ranks third on engagement behind Facebook and Tumblr and well ahead of LinkedIn (16 minutes) and Google Plus (5.1 minutes),” according to

Continue reading Is Pinterest the social network for moms? »

Many schools host daddy/daughter dances this month. The little girls dress up, sometimes get little corsages or go out to dinner and then go “dancing” with daddy at the school.

Our school, and I know other schools, also are hosting son/mother bowling nights out.  It is supposed to be the boy equivalent but it just doesn’t feel as important to me. What do you think?

What would be a comparable activity that a boy would want to do? What’s the point of the father/daughter dance or the mom/son bowling? Are you participating in either?

Continue reading Daddy/daughter dances: Is bowling comparable for sons? »

A mom sent me a message wondering if a bed wetting monitor would help her child stop wetting the bed?

The child is in first grade and they believe it is a genetic physical issue that the child will eventually out grow – ie size or shape of the bladder. However, the mother is wondering what she can do to help in the interim. The child talks about going to sleepovers but cannot do that in a Pull Up. Also the bed wetting is stressful for the family as a whole.

The mom bought a Malem Ultimate Selectable Bedwetting alarm. You can see the description and photo at this link. She thought the comments on Amazon were helpful.

I believe the idea is when wetness is felt the monitor goes off to awaken the child. This one has sound and vibration. I guess the theory is it will help the child realize the sensation of peeing and or will help them hold it and make it to the bathroom.

Another mom advised her to sleep with or near the child while working with the alarm. She said at first it …

Continue reading Mom needs our help: Do bed wetting monitors work? »

My mom used to get so mad at my brother for using tacks on his walls to stick up posters of girls and rock bands. I don’t think she cared so much about the content. She just didn’t want things stuck to her walls. Oh how she worried about her walls.

His favorite was of course the Farrah Fawcett poster in her red bathing suit. It was posted right over his desk. (He gave her a black eye with a pen one time when he was mad.)

My mom gave him so much heck about posting things on his wall that I don’t remember ever putting anything up. It wasn’t worth being yelled at.

I wondered with the advent of the stretchy-tacky putty (kind of of like gum  that can be pulled off easily) if parents even care anymore about posters and stuff being stuck to walls?

I love it when my kids decorate their rooms. I love to see what they feel expresses their personalities. My 10-year-old is all about Taylor Swift and the 8-year-old loves Angry Birds and Skylanders. The 4-year-old wants a calendar to …

Continue reading Do you let your kids stick/tack stuff to their walls? »

The little figurines hold computer chips. You place them on the stand to bring the characters into the game. The stand connects wirelessly to your game system such as a Wii.

Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure is a relatively new video game that is also a toy line. It’s different than other toys with video games because you need the toy to actually play the game!

It is a brilliant marketing plan that my 8-year-old says “ is to upsell” the kids. You have to buy more figures to use them in the game. And you can’t play the game with just one character. Each character has different skills that you will need to complete the game.

The starter pack costs about $50 and includes among other things three figurines and this pond-looking wireless pad that the characters sit on. The wireless pad connects you to your game console such as Wii or X-Box.

You can buy additional characters individually for $7.99 or in three-packs. But they are often hard to find.

Kids can take their …

Continue reading Skylanders: Is your kid hooked on this ingeniously marketed game? »

We received a note from the local public high school that it would be holding an informational meeting for parents of kids in 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade.

The meeting will cover:

Getting a jump start for high school

New state and math and science requirements

Scholarship information

Earning college credit in high school

How middle school course apply toward high school graduation

Honors courses

While this seems somewhat premature to me we actually do have questions about middle school courses applying toward the high school degree and then what you take in high school since you would be ahead.

Our fifth-grader could potentially be in 8th grade math in 6th grade and would then start high school math in 7th grade. So then what happens. Is she forced to take some crazy hard math in high school to graduate? Do you have to switch to paid college classes?

It seems like in the past it was in the eighth grade when parents went to learn about high school.

So what do you think: …

Continue reading Planning for high school in elementary school? »

A mother from Wales is taking some heat over a photo of her rock climbing with her 2-year-old daughter strapped to her back.

The mom posted it on Facebook. Not sure how everyone is seeing it though. (She needs to check her privacy settings.)

Here is the photo in question.

From NBC Sports:

“Our Mom of the Year is Menna Pritchard, 26, and she has a perfectly logical explanation. From the London Daily Mail:

“ ‘I can appreciate if you didn’t realize how safe the environment I was in, it could be worrying, but I was top-roping which means if you fall you don’t fall any further than where you came off.’ ”

“ ‘It is the safest form of climbing you can do. I was also in a beach environment surrounded by experienced climbers. Health and safety legislation and the sue and blame culture mean so many people are nervous, so afraid of getting into trouble, and taking small risks. Life is all about risks, whether that’s something as simple as getting in your car every day …

Continue reading OK to rock climb with a child strapped to your back? »