At Wit's End?

This blog is courtesy of a magazine called Parent and Child. This article was in there and I wanted to share it with other moms and parents in general.

Forget yelling and nagging, focus on positive discipline to bring out the best in your kids and create a more harmonious household.

A Better Way: Positive Discipline, based on love and limits, is common sense. It's often the simple, sensible choices we tend to overlook as options, especially when we're in the heat of a kid battle. Unlike punishment, positive discipline works to maintain the dignity of both child and parent by helping the child want to cooperate because he knows it's the right thing to do, not because he feels he has to comply "or else" It has 3 main objectives:

• To put a stop to misbehavior
  
• To encourage good behaviors
• To strengthen the relationship between parent and child

8 Great Ways To Get Your Kids To Cooperate

1. Acknowledge strong feelings: A child who feels understood sees you as on his side rather then on his back and is more likely to cooperate.

2.Talk less: Say what needs to be done in a single word if you can. Children hate long explanations, which often turn into a screaming tirade of reasons it must be done. You're also modeling self control.

3. Tell your child what he can do, rather then what he cannot do: i.e. "we pet the cat" works better then "Don't pull the cat's tail like you did last time"

4. Give limited choices: Say to your child " you can get in your car seat all by yourself, or mommy can help you, do you need my help? It's your choice" ( but they have to get into their car seat) The more you do this, the more you'll get "self" cooperation

5. Lighten up: Make inanimate objects do the talking for you. Have your child shoes ask him to put them on.

6. Rewind!: This announcement means that your child will "take back" her words and actions and start anew with good behaviour. Silly babble and walking backwards indicate the bad behaviour has been "erased."

7. Take a break: To calm a frustrated child, stop and breathe together. Sitting across from one another hold hands and inhale slowly and deeply three times.

8. Take a silly break: A sense of humor is very positive and often works well to stop misbehaviour. When things are out of control, consider declaring " We need to get silly!" Dance, sing, tell a joke, talk in a silly voice or a foreign language. The children will join right in, or at least stop long enough to watch the show.

In truth, changing your ways and your children's isn't easy. and it can be especially difficult yo hold it together on crazy mornings. But even if you find that what comes out of your mouth is not what you had practiced, don't worry. Your child will give you another chance-sooner than you think-to say it better.

Written by:Gail Reichlin

The Singing Bee

I have to do this, I wasn't going to, but after last night, I decided I can't let it go. So, here we go.

I get it, ok, I get the idea of what the network is trying to do, but ultimately it all sums up to a show based on really bad karaoke. They try to get away with it with their slogan You don't have to sing it well, you just have to sing it right. Unfortunately for us, that means we have to sit through what feels like an eternity of bad singing.

Is it me or does it seem like ex boy bander Joey Fatone searches the audience for bad singers? Speaking of which, what is this the price is right?? I mean seriously, all they need is a guy yelling... Come On Down!!!!

In case you haven't caught the show, or don't know the rules, here is how it goes down. Joey goes through the audience to pick 6 contestants to start the show. Once on stage they narrow it down to 4 by having the band sing songs and each person gets a chance to finish where the band left off. Those four compete till they are down to 2. These 2 then sing a whole verse of a song and the person with the least amount of mistakes is left standing. I believe there is money involved although all they talk about is the coveted Singing Bee trophy. Give me a break!

To add insult to injury, they have dancers...yeah I know. The scantily clad girls are not only dressed like "Bees" but are only there to shake their butts at every opportunity. The sad part is, it's very obvious. Their dance skills are limited and let's just say, there are no ex-fly girls in that bunch. They also gave them a corny name which escapes me right now. You know something like, The Queen Bees, OH NO WAIT.... The Honey Bees!! Gag me with a spoon.

The MC is some black guy dressed in a HORRIBLE teal polyester suit that looks too big, and the bands singers dress like they shop at forever 21. ( Not that there is anything wrong with forever 21, but we're talking about national t.v. here)

I can't help but feel bad that with Justin Timberlake topping the charts, and Lance coming out of the closet, Joey has to add "The singing Bee Host" to his resume ( which believe me he will be using again soon)At least J.C. just fell off the face of the earth.

My theme for the show would "Bee" If you can't sing it well...go the hell home!
Thank you and Goodnight

Party Time Part 2 ( The Invitations)

The part planning continues for the kids. I have managed to keep both
parties "going" on in my head at the same time. Meaning I have oh, I
don't know about a thousand ideas for each and I have remembered to
keep them separate.

I finally started on the invitations for my soon to be one year old daughter. The plan was to make ladybug invitations. I got the idea for the template from an awesome website and changed it a little bit so that the wings were attached rather then a separate piece.

I headed off to the craft store and once there wandered the aisles for black and white paper, only to be side tracked by the fact that they also had pink
paper....hmmmm...pink paper. This may seem strange to you, but let me show you the theme of the party long story short, I went with the pink.

Making them was a whole different story. The first one took me 10 minutes from start to finish. The next day I made 5 more over an hours time. I now only have 22 left to make.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

My take on Maroon 5

I have been considering writing this blog for awhile. You see, I was putting it off because I wanted to find just the right thing to say to get my point across. The words may never come, and I can't afford to miss this opportunity.

Maroon 5's new CD (It Won't Be Soon Before Long) kicks a%$ you see I have found that listening to the CD puts me in a different place. My mind almost wanders, but not in the way that would cause you to miss your turn off on the freeway, or zone out completely. But the kind that makes it so you can think of nothing more then the music. As if you ARE the music. You may not even know the feeling he is expressing, but you become that feeling. You are who he is talking to or talking about.

Adam Levine's (lead vocals) voice is not like a voice at all, but an instrument that you can feel without understanding what he is even saying. Although his voice is heard over the awesome background music, it doesn't cut through, but flows with the sounds. It's all one easy flowing masterpiece.

The slow songs are sweet and leave a satisfied feeling in the pit of your stomach, and the up beat ones make your blood almost rush to your ears in hope that the sound will get sweeter. I LOVE THIS CD. Here is an example, put any other way and sung by any other group this would be thought of as dirty or derogatory:

See I touch myself like it's somebody else,
But to you I touch oh,
Oh na na oh I miss you

When you hear the song, as he says it, you won't even hear it, it's like it's part of you.

My musical taste has never been picky, but I know AWESOME when I hear it, and this my friends is awesome. No matter who you are, this CD will make you a fan.
Maroon 5 Official Website