Tag Archives: Child

Moms Night Out

Posted in Chidren, family, grandkids, Grandparenting, Moms by

Throughout history moms have been applauded for their ability to do many different roles.

Some moms are cab drivers. “I’ll pick you up after school.” No computer for one hour for hitting your brother. Still others fashion consultants: Don’t forget your coat its cold outside or great at compromises; tonight’s special is pizza or pizza. Which can I interest you in?

Moms seem to have three pairs of eyes. One pair that see through closed doors another in the back of her head and,of course, the ones in front that can look at their child when they goof up and say I understand and I love you without so much as uttering a word.

Moms deliver their lines with laughter, smiles or a straight face and they always have a twinkle in their eyes because they know they’re responsible for the well-being of their children. Whether they are burping a three-month baby, wrestling with a two-year old girl who wants to put glue in her hair, or comforting a six-year-old boy who didn’t make the team. Moms always know what to say. Don’t they? 

With their knowledge and insight into the hearts of their babies whether two-months or twenty-six moms may not have all the answers. But they know the best answer is usually just a smile and a hug. Because that’s what moms do best. Forget the applause! Moms can take home all the trophies and awards . But the biggest reward is always love of their children.

Motherhood is like Albania you can’t trust the brochures you have to go there. Oh! What a power motherhood is possessing a potent spell. Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.

When you have your own children they’re a part of you and part not-you and then they get away from you and part of you goes with them. But you have to try to remember that part of you that’s you and not them. That way, you can let them go. It’s been said that a mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnecessary. 

Moms dilemma is to clean the house or girls night out? I say choose the girls night out. The trouble with cleaning the house is that it gets dirty the next day anyway. So skip a week if you have to. The children are the most important thing and moms night out is important for moms too. 

Moms should never miss a girls night out is because their children will grow up and leave and their girlfriends don’t. Dads and grandparents love moms night out with the girls because they get to spend time with the kids.  

Create A Family Value’s List

Posted in Chidren, family, Family Values, grandkids, Grandparenting, Life by

 What are your top five family values?  What traits do you hope your child or grandchildren will have as an adult? 

 Using the following five strategies in the acronym “TEACH”  can help you decide which traits really mean the most to you.

T- Target the value you want to apply right this minute in your home. Focus on only one at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed and spin you wheels trying to do to much. Many moms and grandmothers target a different key value each month. Write down your choices so you don’t forget.

E- Exemplify this value in your own everyday behavior. The easiest way for children and grandchildren to learn any new value is by actually seeing it in action. So intentionally start looking for ways to tune up your chosen value anytime you’re with your children or grandchildren.

A- Accentuate the targeted value in simple ways. For example, if respect is your targeted value seize the opportunity to make a point about treating all people with dignity by showing respect to the people in your life. 

C-Catch your children displaying the value and praise them for it. ” Hey, I know it was hard to admit you broke your brother’s hockey stick. I appreciate your honesty.

H- Highlight the value of the value. ” I loved how you smiled at Grandma today. That was being really kind. Did you see how her face lit up? Whenever you’re kind, it helps make the world a better place.” Whenever you highlight a value be sure you name the value and tell your child exactly how they made a different.

Here is an example of a few values : assertiveness, caring, charitableness, courage, excellence, fairness, friendliness, dependability, determination, generosity, helpfulness, honesty,industriousness, kindness, joyousness, politeness, tolerance, understanding, unselfishness, wisdom, purposefulness and a hundred more words that describe family values. This is something that grandparents can do to.

Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus…

Posted in family, grandkids, Santa Claus, traditions by

  Does Santa Claus still bring toys and gifts to good little boys and girls around the world? Sometimes children have doubts about Santa Claus and wonder if he is real.

In 1897 a little 8-year-old girl  named Virgina O’ Hanlon decided the way to find out if there really was a Santa Claus was to ask the best source she could find was The New York Sun.

This is the story about a letter that Virgin wrote to The New York Sun I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.  I am 8 years old and some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says,  If you see it in The Sun then it’s so please tell me the truth. Is there a Santa Claus?

Signed Virginia O’Hanlon

This is the response as published in The New York Sun.

Virginia, your little friends are wrong they have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist. You know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginians.

 There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to  make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your Papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa  Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus.

The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or image all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, romance, can push aside that curtain and view the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? 

 Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus!  Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of children.

Francis P. Church   

 

Those Wonderful Toddler Years…

Posted in family, generational changes, grandkids, relationships, Uncategorized by

My youngest grandson is in his toddler years and I delight in him. His world is an adventure of discovery. He wants to taste, eat, smell and experience everything in his path. He is faster that a speeding bullet more powerful than a locomotive, Route 66 has nothing on him. Jesse is on the move and most of the time he walks to get to where he is going. Sometimes he seems like a toddler hurricane with gusty winds faster than Katrina and Ike combined. He has been known to blow through the house like a mighty wind.

I find that as my grandson’s toddling is tamed by the love and oversight of his parents. I find myself in the mist of a new but yet a familiar adventure. I can’t begin to tell you how often I have had to resist laughing at the most inappropriate times because Jesse is doing something just the way his dad did it at that age.

The truth is when my children went through a few rough patches as toddlers like          when they were teething or learning to walk. There were a few sleepless nights and a few times they had head on crashes with doors and walls. I remember with humor considering getting my son a helmet while he was learning to walk. I wondered if he was going to walk or fly.

As a young mom I didn’t think those,” I just want to pull my hair out kind of days” were fun and as a grandmother I still don’t. But as a seasoned mother I am more relaxed and confident that our little toddler will be just fine as he developes into becoming a big boy and his parents become pros at this parenting stuff. However I do find myself saying; I can’t believe I did that when my children were that age or how in the world did we ever get through their toddler years?

What is best for babies and toddlers has changed throughout the decades but the one thing that remains the same is the little ones are still teething and mothers still have those I just want to pull my hair out kind of days. When I ask myself how did I make it through parenthood?  I stop and remind myself it was all the love and hugs that we shared that got me through parenthood and them through their toddler years. Now they are loving and hugging their children and experiencing “those I just want to pull my hair out kind of days” and doing a terrific job. It’s amazing how much things change and yet how things still stay the same isn’t it?