Life… measured by the glass….

A more classical definition from the Mayo Clinic: “Optimism is the belief that good things will happen to you and that negative events are temporary setbacks to be overcome.”

A Richer Life by Seeing the Glass Half Full – NYTimes.com.

I am a glass full person…although I am fairly realistic about what I can actually accomplish in any given day. There is no end to the list of my things to do on my personal “bucket list

Having a successful blog is one of my to do’s. The question that looms in my head is, “How does one measure a blog’s success?”

Is it by numbers of readers, numbers of comments, quality of discussions or is by what the writer, in this case me, derives from publishing meaningful content on a regular basis.

There are many blogs that I admire and enjoy. The reason I read these blogs is because they are well written and I enjoy what the writers have to say. Some of these  blogs are “mom” blogs…they talk about family, parenting, they share personal stories and pictures…they are sort of autobiography crossed with a  personal diary. I find these blogs entertaining, heartwarming and sometimes heart wrenching.

Some other favorite blogs of mine are photographic ones…by talented amateur photographers…then there are the blogs that are educational.

I always need to be educated about something…social media, blogging, medicine, parenting, etc.

What are some of your favorite blogs…why do you read them and if you write one why do you do it?

Staying Connected…

 

As a grandparent, who spends a fair amount of time with my own granddaughter,  there are times when I am exhausted but I don’t want to give in to the tiredness nor do I want to melt down when she melts down.

I find myself reading “mom blogs” which are comforting…since the moms are quite a few years younger than I and they feel exactly the same way I do at times.

I remember often feeling totally destroyed as a young mom of two under two…I had a few friends with whom to commiserate on the wall phone with the ultra long cord that practically went all around the house with me  as I talked and chased my girls. No cell phones or wireless for this 1980’s mom. No internet …no instant messages that could issue an SOS around the world on Twitter or other social media.

But thank God for social media at this stage of my life as a grandmother… it is very comforting to read other moms “daily” comings and goings and all that they do to keep sane.

This morning, I found this post on my Facebook page…it was a much needed one. I am on vacation from my home in Chicago…I am supposed to relax at the seashore for 5+ days. Now, I am not complaining but when you are with a 3 year old it is harder to find those much needed relaxing moments.

I share the following with all of you in hopes that it will help when you are exhausted some day…you don’t even need to have kids or be a grandmother to use the tips in this article.

What do you do to relax and stay connected with your kids and grandkids when your energy is tapped out?

Connecting with Kids When You’re Exhausted.

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. ~Carl Bard


In Memory of Marina Keegan…

Today, I want to honor Marina Keegan, a young writer who recently graduated from Yale but sadly died in a car crash this past weekend. What a special talent she possessed…what a special daughter, granddaughter, sibling and friend she must have been!

A tragic loss of a young life…a writer that we will never get to really know…

KEEGAN: The Opposite of Loneliness | Cross Campus | Yale Daily News.

Related:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-marina-keegan-news-brief

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2011/sep/09/keegan-song-special/?weekend

Lazy Days of Summer…

As summer vacation is about to begin our children and grandchildren will have some days that will be free and easy without much of a structured schedule. That is a beautiful time for parents, grandparents and kids to do some fun spur of the moment activities.

Free time is wonderful in many ways. It is such a good opportunity to play using your imagination. I find too much structure can dampen a child’s natural imaginary play. For me it is all about balance…structured planned activities mixed with activities that push the imagination…the outcome of this can be amazing.

Sometimes it is a stretch for me to get my imagination to wake-up. Having a grandchild is a blessing…allowing he/she to take control of certain aspects of an activity can really stimulate the creative juices.

I am going to try to incorporate a little imagination each day in the ordinary-

  • Food creations – This can start with breakfast..make pancakes and let everyone decorate their own with fruit…lunch creations… make a picnic…let everyone help put together the picnic basket with foods from each food group…dinner creations decide a menu together and make it together, again using the food groups.
  • Exercise – This one is a little harder for me as a grandparent… but balls are a great way to get kids to run around and bubbles are fun also.We get a lot of mileage out of both of these in our yard… if we get the dogs outside it is even more fun.
  • Reading –  Story reading is quiet  afternoon activity for us…  when it is too hot to be outside. Sometimes, we make up our own stories looking at the pictures that we took that day or old photos from Christmas or other holiday.  Picture taking is so easy  these days…I try to make the most of it!

Summer is a wonderful time to have some fun…all you need is your imagination and your child or grandchild!

 

 

What are some of your summer activities with the kids in your life?

How do you use “free time”?

Related reading:

7 Habits of Healthy Kids | Kid Scoop.

 

Spammers…

I really hate spam comments … and for those who post spam I will forever keep deleting them

Please stop posting to my comment section if you really have nothing to comment about with the hope of my publishing them.

If you all you want is to be annoying you have accomplished that so now you can stop.

 

 

Parenting in the Loop…Week in Review

Here are my pick reads for the week…

Have a nice weekend…

 

 

You could argue that women have never been able to easily access the “birthing experience” they desired. The old days of childbirth, fraught with risk to mother and baby, were followed by a variety of innovations, some more welcome than others. In her story on Ina May Gaskin and the home birth movement, “Mommy Wars: The Prequel,” in  this coming weekend’s New York Times Magazine, Samantha M. Shapiro writes that women once fought to move birth “out of the domain of midwives and the home and into the hospital:”

What do you do when you discover that diabetes is also a disease that strikes children even babies?

Do you feel like helping this little one when you watch this video? I did! #guilty

What Every Parent and Grandparent Should Know…

This video and post could be one of the most important ones that any parent reads  or watches, especially if you ever have to take your baby or child to an emergency room.

We all know that Emergency Rooms are not all created equal… and that is something that should concern any adult who takes a sick baby or child to a hospital in an emergency situation.

Why???

Apparently, there is no standardization for how equipped an ER needs to be when it comes to caring for children. Sadly, this can prove and has proven fatal for some babies and young children.

I have recently learned about the R Baby Foundation and it mission to save babies lives by improving pediatric ER care.

I hope you will read about this Foundation. Baby R’s  story is heart wrenching. It is my hope that Baby R’s parents are able to derive some solace knowing that they are helping to make life saving health care available to all babies and children.

Our Mission

R Baby Foundation is the first and only not-for-profit foundation uniquely focused on saving babies lives through improving pediatric emergency care.

R Baby Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that babies, including those in the first month of life suffering from viral infections and other infectious diseases, receive the highest quality of care and service through supporting life-saving pediatric training, education, research, treatment and equipment.

Related stories:

Jenny Isenman: How a Friend Saved Lives After the Death of Her Baby — What Every Mom Should Know.

 

R Baby Foundation Fundraiser and Gala

“I Really Don’t Trust Anyone, Sometimes”

Noteworthy Wednesday!

As a mom, I was very protective…yes I admit, I was one of those moms who sought not just to protect my children but other children as well. I guess I still am “that” mom and now “that” grandmother”

For example…

In the early 80’s my children went to a very nice elementary school in a small suburban village on the far south side of Chicago. All the schools entrance doors were open and accessible during the entire school day. It was bucolic town filled with the summer homes of the Illinois Central Railroad executives from “back in the day”. It is fair to say that the railroad went straight through the middle of town and stopped within walking distance of the grammar school.

Now..

On one end of the school were the younger kids, kindergarten and first graders…there was an unlocked door adjacent to the kindergarten so “room” moms could walk right in from the parking area. The other end of the school housed the older children 3rd through 6th grades and another couple of doors which were always unlocked to welcome visitors.

This lack of security was unacceptable to my New York City mentality, so I took it upon myself to speak to the Prinicpal about my concern for his “open door” policy. It was a perfect opportunity for an abduction in my eyes.

“Mrs. Lavine, it would be such an inconvenience for the parents to have to all come through the front door when they are picking up their children…I really don’t think that locking the doors is warranted.” My response was …”this is 1987, Mr. Deadbolt”.

Enter Laurie Dann…May 20th, 1988

On that day, Laurie Dann entered a grammar school in Winnetka, a north shore suburb of Chicago…she killed one young boy and wounded two girls and 3 boys before killing herself after taking a nearby family hostage after fleeing from the school.

You should not be surprised when I tell you that in the Fall of 1988 when our grammar school reopened, all the doors were locked and everyone had to check in after coming through the main entrance. A printed announcement went out to each child’s family saying that in light of the tragedy in Winnetka our school would   be secure.

Now, I am not one to say ” I told you so” and I wish that Laurie Dann had never taken a gun and shot innocent children at school where they are supposed to be safe but sometimes it takes a tragic event to stimulate people to take safety precautions.

That is how I felt when I read a recent post about the safety of sleepovers. WHAT SAFETY? When you have a group of kids the same age, together in your house, things tend to get out of hand rather quickly when the supervision drops off for even a short period of time. It is just a fact. Have you had that experience? Then why would anyone in their right minds want a group of kids sleeping over at their house ever…really?

Here is my one and only story about sleep overs. My niece came to live with us temporarily when she was in the 8th Grade…Junior High. That should already set up your antennae. She came home one day and asked if she could sleep over at a friends house. Mind you, we were living in the same town that I have already described…a sort of Mayberry if you will.

I had no idea what to say to her…so I called her mother and asked her what she thought, since I did not know the girl that well nor her family. I did know she was the youngest of three. She had two brothers in their twenties and her father was a bank president, as if that should make a difference. It was a mutual decision to let the sleep over take place. It went off without a hitch and all was well. I breathed a sigh of relief and hoped that I would never hear the word sleep over again in the near future.

Not too short a time passed and my niece came home from school to tell me that her girl friend’s father had killed himself. It was the same friend with whom she had spent the night.

The story goes this way…the father and one of the young girl’s brothers had a fight and the dad took a gun from the house, went  outside to the front yard and shot himself in the head…end of story. The family vacated the house and all was forever hush, hush in our bucolic suburb.

To say, I was stunned is an understatement. It became apparent that I had learned a great deal about how I felt about sleep overs before I really needed.  My uneasy feelings concerning them were suddenly and sadly validated.

You just do not know what goes on behind the closed doors of you neighbors and friends homes.

At the time my own children were only 2 years and 4 years old . Sleepovers had not even been a topic yet…we had no relatives nearby so my kids had only slept at home or with us in a hotel on vacation.

I also knew that children are molested often by family members or someone they know and trust. This scares me beyond anything I can rationally explain because as a nurse and clinical social worker I have seen the horrible harm that sexual abuse does to children.

My advice would be to not trust anyone with your kids until you can comfortably explain good touch, bad touch to them. They must be able to tell you anything and never be afraid of the consequences.

I know this is a very hard statement to read and it seems so OVERPRTOTECTIVE,,,and it is just that…but if you at least feel like you are overprotective and accept it, you will examine the potential hazards in situations where you think there are none and hopefully never have to deal with unforeseen situations.

Educate your children…give them what they need to protect themselves…start early and if you don’t know what to say or when to begin, do your homework get the information you need.

Do not look through rose colored glasses forever …don’t let your hidden fears become a disaster waiting to happen.

Are you basically trusting?

How trusting are you as a parent or grandparent?

Do you consider yourself protective or overprotective as a parent or grandparent?

Related Reading:

The Safety of Sleepovers: I Dont Trust Other Parents | BlogHer.

Sleep Over Nightmare

What Should You Do? Helping Children Protect Themselves in theTwenty-First Century by Melinda Reynolds Tripp

Toast Tuesday!

It’s Tuesday’s Toast to a favorite blogger of mine….Christine Coppa!

via”Christine Coppa on her Facebook page”

Christine is a young single mom, her son is almost five and about to start kindergarten in the Fall. She has an honest blog about raising her son without any involvement of his father. She has courageously written about her pregnancy in “Rattled” which has just been released as an audio book.

I love Christine’s book and blog…she really is one of my all time favorites…she tells it like it is with emotion and candor. I admire and respect her, and love the relationship she has with her son JD.

She has a great group of followers and their comments on her blog will let you know that she connects with her readers like none other.

She is active on Facebook and Twitter as well. Click and take a look/read for yourself.

About this BlogChristine Coppa is the author of the Target Breakout Book, Rattled! Broadway Books, 2009 and the founding blogger of glamour.coms Storked! blog. A professional writer/editor, shes contributed to GlamourMarie Claire Australia, First, In Touch, and Pregnancy magazine among other publications. Her work has been buzzed about in The New York TimesWall Street Journal and on ABCs 20/20. The Sunday London Times called her a writer “at the forefront of a wave of modern moms who are reinventing the parental publishing genre.” Coppa lives in North Jersey with her son Jack Domenic and has no problem admitting that her Marc Jacobs bag is often filled with Matchbox cars. Visit ChristineCoppa.net for more.

via Welcome To Mamas Boy – Parenting.com.