: North Texas Kids : Your family guide to raising happy, healthy kids

How to Keep Your Sanity When It’s Back-to-School Time

5 Tips for Mom’s Back-to-School Sanity

1. Heal self-defeating thoughts: “I stunk at math and my kids will stink too!” This was my greatest self-sabotaging thought as a Mom, and I had to heal! As Moms we allow toxic negative thoughts to run through our minds every single day. It’s time to stop it this school year! Moms can be defeated in their parenting before they get out of bed in the morning. Thoughts can’t be removed—they have to be replaced. So here is what every Mom needs to try: Face the fear. Just because you aren’t good at math, for example, doesn’t mean that’s going to be your child’s truth. It’s hard, but arrest those thoughts as soon as they enter into your mind (handcuff it literally). Then replace the negative “Jimmy isn’t going to “get” math thought with “Jimmy is smart, resourceful and able to do it!” (Plus Mom, you can hire a tutor or grab a homework coach to support him). Repeat these “healing” thoughts and strategies every time those old self-defeating ones come up.

How You Can be a High Energy Mom

How Moms Can Keep Energy Levels High Through the Day

by Heidi Smith Luedtke, PhD

You hurry all day, tackling your too-long to-do list. By mid-afternoon, you want to collapse on the couch or get a quick fix of caffeine and carbs. Don’t. We have expert advice on how to get – and sustain – the physical and emotional energy you need.

A New Year; A New YOU

Tips for Achieving More Balance in the New Year

With the holidays almost behind us, many of us are already starting to think about how to start the New Year off on the right foot. Since we can all use one less thing to stress about, we’re sharing a few tips that are sure to help make 2014 your best year yet – thanks to Leslie Hendry yoga and meditation expert and author of the kids app “Tejas & Lollipops: The Great Clean-Up.”

Leslie’s Top Tips For Creating a New Year, New You:

1) Start With a Clean Slate – Take an inventory of items in your home you no longer use or need and donate, recycle or pass on to a friend or family member. Creating more space in your home will make room to physically and emotionally invite new energy into your life!

2) Get Organized – One easy way to get rid of time wasters like searching for keys, sunglasses, etc. is to create a ‘home’ for items you use regularly. By keeping these items in one consistent place, you alleviate stress and create a more efficient, calm living environment.

Moms Need a ‘Mommy Time Out’

‘Mommy Time Out’ – Moms Can Run on Empty Too

by Diana Guintu, M.Ed.

“In my house the laundry always piles up” she sighed. She was tired and overwhelmed. There wasn’t enough time in the day to finish all that she “had” to do.” This juggling act between motherhood and womanhood had reached a breaking point. She was losing it!

‘Me Time’ for Mom

Making Time for YOU is Essential to Good Parenting

By Amy Egan

When we are pregnant, have a new baby, and into the child’s toddlerhood, we have to put our little one’s needs before our own. We put ourselves on the back burner–a necessary sacrifice we are often happy to make. Then, once our kids are about two years old, they tend to have not only needs, but wants, and lots of them. It becomes so important around this time to make sure we are fitting in some ‘me time’ for mom. Taking care of ourselves comes in many forms; getting our nails done, having dates with our spouse (especially important!), nurturing our social relationships and interests as well as having firm boundaries with our kids.

If you wonder what the benefits to our kids are by taking care of ourselves, check out a few I have listed below: