Momania: A Blog for Busy Moms

I was thinking about getting a trampoline for the kids, and I thought that the nets placed around the sides had made them relatively safe. But then I ran across a surprising statistic in a magazine (that I later found online as well):

Seventy-five percent of injuries on trampolines occur from multiple people jumping at the same time.  The American Academy of Pediatrics contends that nets and pads do not significantly reduce the risk of injury.

From Parenting.com:

“In light of approximately 98,000 trampoline-related injuries in the U.S. each year, the American Academy of Pediatrics is advising against playing on home trampolines. Although injuries have been on a downward trend for the last few years, trampolines still led to about 31,000 hospitalizations in 2009–and injuries tend to happen most frequently in kids under 5.”

“Think you’ve safety-proofed your trampoline with nets and pads? Think again. “Families need to know that many injuries occur on the mat itself, and current …

Continue reading Nets, pads don’t make trampolines significantly safer »

A small Canadian study suggests that women who have obesity surgery can break the cycle of obesity in kids that are born to the women after the surgery. The researchers studied siblings – some born before surgery and some born after – to study the affects of the surgery.

From The Associated Press:

“WASHINGTON (AP) – Obese mothers tend to have kids who become obese. Now provocative research suggests weight-loss surgery may help break that unhealthy cycle in an unexpected way – by affecting how their children’s genes behave.

“In a first-of-a-kind study, Canadian researchers tested children born to obese women, plus their brothers and sisters who were conceived after the mother had obesity surgery. Youngsters born after mom lost lots of weight were slimmer than their siblings. They also had fewer risk factors for diabetes or heart disease later in life.

“More intriguing, the researchers discovered that numerous genes linked to obesity-related health problems worked differently in …

Continue reading Study suggests obesity surgery can break cycle in kids »

Our friend’s seventh-grade son had an interesting ethical/safety dilemma and she wrote about it for The New York Time’s Motherlode.

Her son was walking home from school with a friend. An elderly woman standing on her stoop asked the boys to give her hand a moving a box inside her house. At first the boys politely declined but then she asked again. The son’s friend went up to help. She then asked him to move some recyclable containers. All turned out fine and they were on their way.

However, the event lead to an interesting discussion at our friend’s home that night – when is it safe to help someone and how do you know? Should there be just a standard answer of “no” and stay away from any strangers or should the child try to weigh how safe the situation is?

Our friend, Lisa Flam, called some experts for advice. From The New York Times:

“For Nancy McBride, safety director for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the situation was clear-cut. Even though the …

Continue reading Is helping an old lady stranger danger? How do kids know? »

New York magazine is examining “Grups” or adults who won’t grow up. The author describes a “Grup” as a 40-year-old (or could be in their 30s) man or woman who look, talk, act and dress like they are in their 20s.  The author, Adam Sternbergh, says it has eliminated the generation gap and describes how this state of being affects their clothes, their music, their jobs and their parenting.

From New York:

“…This cohort is not interested in putting away childish things. They are a generation or two of affluent, urban adults who are now happily sailing through their thirties and forties, and even fifties, clad in beat-up sneakers and cashmere hoodies, content that they can enjoy all the good parts of being a grown-up (a real paycheck, a family, the warm touch of cashmere) with none of the bad parts (Dockers, management seminars, indentured servitude at the local Gymboree). It’s about a brave new world whose citizens are radically rethinking what it means to be a grown-up and …

Continue reading ‘Grups’: Are you a parent who won’t grow up? »

With at least 18 states allowing medical marijuana and the recent legalization of the drug in Colorado and Washington, doctors are concerned about children accidentally ingesting the legal marijuana.

About four years ago doctors at the Children’s Hospital Colorado noticed more kids coming in after accidentally eating marijuana. However, they weren’t sure if the kids were just finding the marijuana or if it was due to more relaxed policies.

From Time Healthland:

“To find out, they analyzed emergency room visits for kids under 12 seen for poisonings and ingestions of any kind between 2005 to 2011, using the fall of 2009 — when new enforcement guidelines were issued — as a dividing line.”

“From Jan. 2005 through Sept. 2009, there were no marijuana-related visits among 790 patients, according to the research, which was published in JAMA Pediatrics. Between Oct. 2009 to Dec. 2011, however, 14 of 588 children were seen for marijuana exposure — eight involving medical marijuana and …

Continue reading Hospital finds uptick in kids accidentally ingesting marijuana »

You may remember that we bought a Town and Country minivan when our youngest was born in 2007. It has served us well during the last six years. It has traveled numerous times up and down the East Coast and has crossed the United States three times. I’ve got about 84,000 miles on it.

But alas since November my electric sliding doors have been broken. They are broken in different ways. The left side will open when you hit the button but will not close when you hit the button. You have to slam it very hard into the front part for it to engage. The right door will pop open when you hit the button but only about 2 inches. So you then have to manually open it. You also have to manually close it. The doors are extremely heavy and I actually think the electronic mechanism is fighting against you as you try to open and close the doors.

So we finally took it into the dealership to find out how much the doors would cost to be fixed. They said $3400 to fix both doors. They would …

Continue reading Fix it, trade it or tolerate it: The electric sliding doors on my minivan broke! »

I’m so glad it’s summer. I love not having a set routine or a set time to get up. I love the kids being able to pursue their own agendas – lollygagging in bed reading a book, filling water balloons in the backyard, creating a You Tube channel. (Guess who’s making the You Tube channel?)

We love to swim in the late afternoons while grilling our dinner. We love to play card games at night around the kitchen table. We love curling up for movies on the couch after a long day of swimming.

Summer also means travel for our family. The kids love seeing new places and crossing states off our list. We will cross three states off this summer when we visit Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons – Idaho, Montana and Wyoming!

We love being on the open road and seeing the West. (Although there are minivan problems. Check out Tuesday’s blog on our minivan dilemma.) I am excited to get them unplugged and back to nature with hiking and camping.

We’re starting the summer off slowly this weekend. My …

Continue reading Three cheers for summer: What’s your big plan? »

The Boy Scouts of America decided Thursday to allow openly gay boys to join the Scouts but not to allow openly gay leaders.

From The Associated Press:

“Of the roughly 1,400 voting members of the BSA’s National Council who cast ballots, 61 percent supported the proposal drafted by the governing Executive Committee. The policy change takes effect Jan. 1.

“This has been a challenging chapter in our history,” the BSA chief executive, Wayne Brock, said after the vote. “While people have differing opinions on this policy, kids are better off when they’re in Scouting.”

“However, the outcome will not end the bitter debate over the Scouts’ membership policy.

“Liberal Scout leaders — while supporting the proposal to accept gay youth — have made clear they want the ban on gay adults lifted as well.

“In contrast, conservatives with the Scouts — including some churches that sponsor Scout units — wanted to continue excluding gay youths, in some cases threatening to defect if the ban were …

Continue reading Gay boys OK, Gay leaders not OK: Does Boy Scout compromise solve anything? »

A few weeks back the dog groomer told me that my dog was suffering from allergies and needed to see the vet.

I went home and immediately called the vet to set up an appointment for the dog.

I hung up the phone, itched my eyes, wiped my nose and realized that I had needed to see the allergist for weeks but never fit myself into the family schedule. I put everyone in our family before me – even the family pet.

I went to the gynecologist on Jan. 30 and brought home the paperwork to set up an appointment for a mammogram but I never called. The paperwork sat on my dresser for several months until I finally moved it to a hanging organizer so I wouldn’t lose it. But it continued to sit.

I finally made my mammogram appointment Tuesday for today. The last thing I can fit in before the kids get out of school.

During those five months I took kids to countless pediatrician appointments, orthopedists appointments, physical therapy appointments, swim meetings, church meetings, birthday …

Continue reading Moms, put YOU on the to-do list! »

I cannot even imagine the stress and grief of the Oklahoma parents as they try to find their children in the rubble of two elementary schools hit by tornadoes on Monday.

There was an awful description in an AP story:

“A man with a megaphone stood Monday evening near St. Andrews United Methodist Church and called out the names of surviving children. Parents waited nearby, hoping to hear their sons’ and daughters’ names.”

I feel so terrible for those families and wanted to share ways that we can help victims of the tornadoes.

From USA Today:

“American Red Cross

The American Red Cross has several shelters open in Oklahoma and Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles have begun delivering hot meals throughout the affected areas. The Red Cross is also working to link loved ones in Moore who are OK through a website called Safe and Well. Text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief, donate online, or donate by phone at 1-800-RED CROSS.

“Salvation Army

The …

Continue reading How you can help the Oklahoma tornado victims »