Advice for Working Moms Juggling Career and Kids

Mastering the Mommy Track book

Book Review of Mastering the Mommy Track: Juggling Career and Kids in Uncertain Times

 

If you are looking for advice for working moms who are struggling to juggle kids and their career, then this book was written for you and for me. I recently had the chance to review Erin Flynn Jay’s new book, Mastering the Mommy Track: Juggling Career and Kids in Uncertain Times. Jay addresses four areas of life that concern each of us as women and mothers: home, health, parenting and work-life issues. Self-care is the underlying theme throughout the book and Jay reminds us how important it is to keep ourselves healthy! This book is full of tips, advice and reminders on everything from triggers that cause communications problems with your spouse to how to select the right type of childcare for your family. I found the book to be an easy read, full of stories of real women who have experienced struggles similar to mine and my friends. Plus Jay offers effective, simple solutions for finding the balance we crave.

Keeping Kids Healthy at Halloween: Are You Worried?

Healthy Halloween

I have been bombarded with posts lately pitching healthier products, low-sugar candy, recipes and advice on managing how much candy our kids consume at Halloween. I am just curious, are you concerned? Do you let your kids go crazy one day of the year? I had a friend who was a nutritionist who says it’s not what you eat during the holidays that matter, it’s what you eat all of the other days in between! I know that I personally am concerned with keeping kids healthy at Halloween and year-round.

Help Your Tween Handle Stress

Help your tween handle stress

How to teach your children effective ways of handling stress

by Dr. Caron Goode

For many people the words childhood and carefree are interchangeable. Lazy summer days, best friends, and Friday night pizza parties are the stuff childhood memories are made of. Unfortunately, so is stress. Stress, the overwhelming feeling of self-doubt in one’s ability to cope, has become as much a part of childhood as Little League.

Children experience stress in different ways during different stages in their development. An elementary age child may complain of stomach aches and headaches. Older children might become irritable or depressed, while teens may rebel. In the case of my daughter, her middle school years were fraught with low self-esteem and sleepless nights.

I began to notice a change in her behavior in seventh grade shortly after she joined the track team. She had always been an active child. She played basketball for a local league and was on the swim team at our neighborhood pool. Therefore, when she tried out for her middle school track team, I wasn’t surprised. At first, she met the challenge of daily practice and Saturday meets with enthusiasm. Towards the middle of the season, however, there was a change in her attitude. Her stories about practice were not as animated as they once were. I had also started to notice dark circles under her eyes. When I asked if everything was alright, her reply was a meek and unconvincing, “Sure.”

For Moms: How to Bond with Your Tween Daughter

Bonding Over Beauty book encourages mother daughter relationships

 

Over the long weekend I made some time to sit down with a great new book, Bonding Over Beauty: A Mother-Daughter Beauty Guide to Foster Self-Esteem, Confidence and Trust, by Erika Katz. As the mother of an almost 11-year-old daughter, I am always looking for new ways to stay connected to my tween daughter and ways to talk to her about all the changes she is about to experience in her body.

What to do when you have a shy child

Nurturing Social Growth in Your Child

by Dr. Caron B. Goode

I birthed a social butterfly named Kristin. From the day of her birth, she saw all people as her friend and always said hello. My friend, Karen, birthed a shy daughter named Lisa. Parents don’t often worry about how social butterflies flit through the world; however a shy child usually needs a parent’s help in learning to negotiate relationships in a safe way. Karen understood this. Here is how she helped Lisa.

Karen’s daughter was painfully shy until she entered second grade. When she did interact with other children, it was on a very selective basis and always one-on-one. This was of great concern to her teachers. For a few years, Lisa’s progress reports all read the same: Needs improvement in group interaction and socialization.

Karen was always an optimist and thankful that Lisa wasn’t disruptive in class! Still, it was Karen’s job to usher Lisa into the world of friendships and group dynamics. Karen joined a playgroup and invited classmates over. She and Lisa took part in their local babysitting coop and signed her up for pee wee soccer. Lisa was a good sport about all this socialization. She entered into each situation with her chin up and her eye peeled for the one child she would interact with. So much for group dynamics.

Back to School Healthy Eating

healthy snacks for kids

Healthy eating and lunch ideas for kids

 

For weeks both parents and children have been preparing for the first day of school. And with everything from book bags to wardrobe purchased, there is one area that parents may have overlooked—preparing your kids for a healthy school year. Though schools have been cutting back on unhealthy meals and snack, it does not necessarily mean your child will be eating healthy foods. Whether you send off your first grader or high school senior, the same rules apply when it comes to eating right. Here, Co-founder of BeyondDiet.com and Nutritionist Isabel De Los Rios provides helpful tips to best prepare parents and students for a healthy school year.

What to Pack

“You want to be sure your child is fueled with the right combination of healthy protein, carbohydrates and fat to maintain energy levels, avoiding fatigue and cranky behavior,” explains Isabel.

Your Teen’s Most Annoying Response? Whatever!

guide to teen self-esteem

Getting Beyond Whatever

In December 2011, the annual Marist Poll revealed that “whatever” had for the third consecutive year been judged as the most annoying conversational word or phrase in the English language.  Indeed, nearly four in ten adults in the United States found this word obnoxious.

What is it about the word “whatever” that gets people so worked up?  Its continual usage is certainly a contributing factor.  Whenever people don’t want to commit to a particular opinion, choice or course of action this word gets trotted out.   The excessive use of the word, however, is only part of the problem because the attitude that accompanies it is, arguably, what really gets people hot under the collar.  Think about it.  Whenever someone says the word “whatever” they generally roll their eyes, curl their lip and apathetically shrug their shoulders.   These gestures aren’t exactly pretty and this is because they convey an air of contempt along with a “count me out” stance.