How to Parent with Purpose: A Book Review

Do your children throw a lot of tantrums? Do you feel frustrated when you have power struggles with your children? Do you feel like you yell too much?  

I know I sometimes feel like I’m making discipline mistakes with my kids. That’s why I was so happy to get a free digital copy of Nina Garcia’s new book Parenting with Purpose that focuses on “How to Raise Well-Behaved Children and Build a Strong Parent-Child Relationship.”

One of my favorite parts of the book was Chapter 1 where readers will learn about connecting with their children to prevent conflict.  Personally, I know I sometimes become frustrated, and my kids become frustrated, when I’m not completely present. For instance, I might be trying to blog but my kids want to play with me. Sometimes, you need to forget about all the housework, put the smartphones away, and connect with your kids. In her book, Nina suggests to “give your child your full attention, even if only for  a few minutes.” By fully connecting with your child, you’ll prevent outbursts and frustration from setting in.  

Throughout the book, Nina also gives advice on how to communicate with your child, prevent tantrums, effectively use routines, parent calmly, and more.  The book ends with 20 actionable steps parents can take to create strong connections with their kids. I love how specific the actions were and how I could start using these tips right away. Since reading the book, I have been spending less time multitasking and more time where my focus is on my children only.  

Nina’s book will be released on October 18. You can find out more about the book and download a free chapter here. For those of you who are interested in this book, I have some great news. You can snag a free copy of the ebook version of Parenting with Purpose on Amazon from October 18 to 22.  In addition, you can become an email subscriber and get a free bonus chapter along with other great information and freebies.

Nina is a fellow parenting blogger over at Sleeping Should be Easy.  If you haven’t checked out her blog, it is full of helpful advice. She’s also a working mom with toddler twins and a six-year-old, all boys.  

I hope you all get a chance to read this great book!

20 Signs You're a Parent

Parenthood!  It’s a big lifetime change. Before you had kids, you might have enjoyed sleeping in and watching a little more reality television than you should. But now, things are different. Here are 20 signs you’re a parent (especially a parent with younger children):

1. You say to your significant other (feeling pretty bad ass),  I can’t believe we stayed out so late!(it’s 10:00 o'clock …..okay it’s 9:00 o’clock).

2. When you reach for the keys in your purse/diaper bag/pocket, you often also pull out some cracker crumbs, a Lego, and a Bandaid.  

3. You get excited to go get the mail, take out the trash, etc, because hey it’s alone time. 

4. You’ve had a conversation about poop or pee in the last hour. No, you’ve had three conversations about poop or pee in the last hour. 

5. Going to the grocery store feels like a mini-vacation.

6. Going to Target feels like a mini-vacation.

7. Going just about anywhere by yourself feel like a mini-vacation….now what’s this I hear about something called a kid-free weekend? 

8. You woke up past 8:00 am and no one else was up yet!  You looked around to see if there were any unicorns or flying pigs in the room.

Tweet this: Woke up past 8 am and my kids weren't up! I looked to see if there were any unicorns or flying pigs in the room too. http://ctt.ec/5b4dP

9. Your dinner often consists of someone wanting the food off your plate, someone else complaining ‘I don’t like this’, and maybe a third child trying to slip some peas to the family dog.

10. When you’re at the grocery store with your threenager,  you say a prayer for a tantrum-free shopping experience.

11. You stay up way too late every night and every morning you say I’m not going to do that again. You go through a lot of coffee. 

12. You find yourself humming the tunes of your kids’ favorite television programs, even the ones that you hate.

13. You can never seem to get the laundry completely done.

14. You’re amazed at how much room a toddler can take up in a king bed and how their feet always end up in your face.

15. You’ve signed more documents (for school, daycare, sports, bounce houses, etc) than the president has for his entire term. 

16. When your house is quiet (and your kids are home), you automatically assume something is wrong.

17. You sometimes play hide and seek just so you can have a few minutes of me time, or scarf down the last cookie without having to share. 

18. You can’t believe how much time you spend cleaning stuff off your walls. Before having kids, you hardly ever had to do this.  

19. You’ve held your pee or sat in an uncomfortable position because your baby/toddler fell asleep on you. You wouldn’t dare chance waking him or her up.  

20. You have a sign over your doorbell that says baby sleeping….your child is five but you just kept it up there because it sounds better than a ‘No solicitors’ sign…..if you’ve never done that, it’s a good idea huh?

I hope you could relate to some of these!  Anything else you want to add?

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The Benefits of Starting a Parenting Blog

I’ve been blogging for a little over a year.  It’s been a great journey and even though blogging has it’s own share of frustrations, there are a lot of benefits.  Here are some ways blogging has benefited me, and I think it could help you too!

Meeting Other Parents

I know you can meet other parents pretty much anywhere.  However, sometimes, it can be hard to make parent friends.  And, if you don’t have a great support system, parenting can be isolating. Through blogging, I have met some amazing people. Some of them are like-minded and some of them challenge my beliefs. Some of them live in the same county as me and others live thousands of miles away.  As a southern California parent, it’s interesting to get the inside scoop about places to visit in Washington or Thailand. I’m hoping someday I will get to meet some of my blogging friends in person or visit the places they have talked about.

Tweet this: Writing is therapeutic.....and other reasons why I blog.  http://ctt.ec/4p419

Working Through your Feelings

I believe writing is therapeutic. While I often write humorous or practical posts, I also like to share personal parts of my life such as the time my son stayed in the NICU or my feelings of imperfection. While it’s sometimes hard to share your parenting trials and blunders, it can be helpful to share these feelings.

Helping Others

By writing about your own feelings, you may also find that you help someone else in the process. You may be the voice that a struggling parent needs, the inspiration for the mom who is not sure if she wants to home school, or the blogger that opens up the dialogue about a difficult topic.  Or you may give someone a much needed laugh or a great tip about how to get food coloring off their kids’ faces.

Seeing Life Through Another Person's Eyes

I think it’s easy to judge other parents because we haven't walked in their shoes. I read blogs by working parents, single parents, and really parents from all walks of life.  Each one of them has different experiences. Sometimes I can relate to these experiences and sometimes I can’t. However, it has opened my eyes, challenged my thoughts, and made me appreciate other parents.  Of course, you don't have to blog to read other blogs. However, if I didn't blog myself, I probably wouldn't network and be exposed to so many different types of blogs.

Making Money

It’s always nice to make money doing something you love.  I make money through ads, affiliates, and sponsored posts.  Money doesn’t have to be a focus but it’s nice to have the opportunity to bring in some income. 

Blogging isn’t for everyone!  However, if you’re on the fence about starting one, I encourage you to jump right in….the water is perfect.

Why do you blog?  If you don’t, have you ever considered it?
 
 

How to Do the Laundry, with Kids, in 22 Steps

Laundry is my biggest housekeeping foe. I always seem to over-sort and wash too many things separately. I wish I could be like my husband and throw everything together and just hope for the best. I’ve tried to do that but my clothing seems to suffer. As for my kids, they go through more wardrobe changes than the Kardashian family. They also like to soil freshly washed sheets. And that makes for a lot of laundry.  

So here’s how the laundry process goes in my house, give or take a few steps (and perhaps a little exaggeration thrown in). 

1). Sort laundry: Gross, really dirty, and dirty. Then separate by lights, darks, red/pinks, and fuzzy (see I told you I over sort). Remind myself not to purchase fuzzy pajamas or clothing.  Say thanks to three-year-old who insists that the white shirt belongs in the red pile.

2). Take clothes that say 'dry clean only' and 'wash separately' and put those off to the side in the ‘Yeah right’ pile. Those are going to sit there for a long time.  Laugh at myself for buying too many ‘high maintenance’ clothes. 

3). Go around the house and pick up stray clothing...underwear that missed the hamper, rogue socks under the sheets, and the clothes my three-year-old took off and threw on the ground, because that’s just what three-year-olds do.  

4). Return to sorted clothes to find my little angel has thrown a pile of the ‘really gross’ laundry into the air.  

5) Just grab the clothes and bring them out into the laundry room.

6) Remind myself to organize the laundry “room” (if you’re like me, the laundry room is just a fancy name for the section of the garage that houses the washer and dryer).

7) Stain stick clothing.  Heck, who am I kidding?  Just rub the stain stick all over everything. As you know, kids are messy! 

8) While small child clings to my leg, put really gross and dirty laundry into washer and wash on hot...pray all clothes are pre-shrunk.  

9) When laundry is done, put in the next load, and the next load, and the...wait that’s enough...because who wants to put away all of those clean clothes in one day. I know they'll just end up wrinkled again from sitting in the laundry basket too long.

10) Ding!  The last load is done.  Bring clean clothes in from the dryer!

11) Face palm!  I missed a spot or spots.  There’s a green stain on that new light blue shirt I bought, an oil spot on a black shirt, and, ew, what is that?

12) Toss the light blue shirt back into the dirty clothes and hang up the black shirt..because no one will probably notice...or I’ll wear it as a house/workout/pajama shirt….who really cares, it’s technically clean. 

13) Now to sort  the socks.  I have 50 socks and only 22 matches.  Even though I followed through with my New Year’s resolution to only purchase white socks, there are still other leftover colored socks, different sizes of socks, and different styles.  Soccer socks, boot socks, holiday socks.   

14) Decide what to do with mismatched socks.  Sock puppets?  Dusting mitts?  Get frustrated and toss socks into empty drawer.  Get used to the fact that, unless I throw out all my old socks and purchase all new ones, I will be wearing mismatched socks to bed and under my yoga pants for the rest of the year. 

15) Hang up clothes and fold towels, intermittently while dealing with sibling rivalry, spilt milk (literally), homework, dinner…

16) Put older child’s clothes on bed for them to put away…hopefully.

17) Encourage three-year-old to put away his underwear.  Laugh when he puts it on his head. 

18) Smile!  All the laundry is done! Okay fine….. MOST, of the laundry is done.

19) Wait, what’s that mound of laundry in the hamper?

20) Oh, realize that’s the laundry that’s accumulated while I’ve been doing the laundry. Wait, What?

21) Start again at number #1.  

22) Or, go to bed!  It will still be there in the morning.

So how many loads of laundry do you usually do in a week? Do you sort too much or just throw everything in together?

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For more laughs, check out this Humor for Moms from the Complete Guide for Stay-at-Home-Moms.