Moms and Matters of the Heart

I just read an article and video on moms, stress, and heart disease on thestressedmom.com. Great information and hilarious video! You’ve got to watch the video…

“February is National Heart month. More and more women are being diagnosed with, and even dying from heart disease. Most of us know the important things to do to take care of your heart. Many of you are doing those things, like eating decently healthy, and getting some exercise (if chasing kids count). You don’t smoke, you have a few glasses of red wine a week…”

But there is a symptom that’s sneaking up on us – read the rest of the story…

Should Boys’ Grades Suffer Due to Their Behavior in School?

My son is in kindergarten. He’s smart but sometimes he has a problem staying in his seat …and standing in line …and not talking. He’s not the only one. My husband and I worked with him at home, and he’s improved. So have his ‘report card grades.’ Even though, I feel his school work performance remains the same. And I’m concerned. 

This article gives documentation to my concern. It’s extremely relative and important to read, share, and discuss. Is your son’s physical behavior at school negatively impacting his academic grade?

The Boys at the Back by Christina Hoff Summers – NYTimes.com

Boys score as well as or better than girls on most standardized tests, yet they are far less likely to get good grades, take advanced classes or attend college. Why? A study coming out this week in The Journal of Human Resources gives an important answer….  No previous study, to my knowledge, has demonstrated that the well-known gender gap in school grades begins so early and is almost entirely attributable to differences in behavior. The researchers found that teachers rated boys as less proficient even when the boys did just as well as the girls on tests of reading, math and science. (The teachers did not know the test scores in advance.) If the teachers had not accounted for classroom behavior, the boys’ grades, like the girls’, would have matched their test scores.

Click here to continue.

Related articles

• Do Teachers Discriminate Against Boys? (erikachristakis.wordpress.com)
• Grade disparities by gender start in kindergarten, and they have profound, long-term effects that can last a lifetime (aei-ideas.org)
• New Study Explains Why Girls Do Better at School (medicaldaily.com)

Bad Mommy Moment #974: Cavities are Contagious!

February is National Children’s Dental Health Month! But it’s also the first time my oldest was treated for a CAVITY!

Oy vey! The shame! It’s a bad mommy moment that’s not even funny. But while you can’t laugh at my pain (get the Kevin Hart reference), I hope you can learn from it! Here’s where I think we went wrong:

* We brush twice a day… well… for the most part. We’ve upped the consistency on that. 
* I was letting him brush by himself. (I thought he was doing a good job 😦 ) And I would follow-up most times. Now, I brush his teeth for him all the time – and I let him practice.
* I don’t buy hard candy, but I packed raisins in his lunch – almost everyday. (They are his favorite!) Yeah – he even had a piece of raisin in his mouth when he went to get the cavity filled! These have been axed from his diet and replaced with grapes. Grapes are more expensive but not as much as the bill to get that cavity filled! 

 Apparently, I’m not alone. You’ve got to read this article claiming that cavities are contagious! Crazy, right? Wrong! The dentist said my youngest is also showing signs of a potential cavity – IN THE SAME TOOTH as my oldest! Ugh – the article reads …

     “…cavities are the most common chronic childhood disease, five times more common than asthma and seven times more common than hay fever.”

Who knew? Well, YOU do, now! Check out the American Dental Association’s website for fun activity sheets for the kids and more tips.
Alright, alright, alrriiigghhtt! (again, Kevin Hart – I’m done now)…

Related articles

• New Survey from Delta Dental Finds Kids Need Brushing up on Oral Health (prweb.com)
• Toothbrush Hero! Candy Maker Plans to Fight Cavities through Video Games (en.rocketnews24.com)
• Can Children Get Cavities in Their Baby Teeth? (newgrandmas.com)

SAFESKIN for Kids Saves the Day – Win Free Sample

It felt weird.
But once I received the SAFESKIN* sample in the mail, I was actually waiting around for my kids to hurt themselves (eek!). You know, a scrape or a cut or something?! Normally, it happens every other day, right? Not so much in the ‘winter’.

Nothing that a trip to the grandparents’ didn’t cure, with the Florida weather and open play area.  When my youngest scraped his knee, through his jeans, grandma called for Neosporin but I whipped out my SAFESKIN* tube.  

It was most important that I could the bandaid on without it slipping off, that it didn’t hurt, and that it healed the bruise.  It succeeded! The texture of SAFESKIN isn’t greasy at all and the scrape was practically healed overnight! 

Mom Gets $2,500 Ticket for 3-Year-Old Peeing In Yard

I am in awe over this (especially since my family just had such an emergency this evening). And I’m mystified that the ticket was so high… I love the last line of this interview – the grandmother’s take on this whole thing. Why didn’t the officer issue a warning first?
What do you think?

Related articles

• Piedmont Mom Gets $2,500 Ticket After Son, 3, Urinates In Front Yard (sott.net)
• Cop Cites Toddler For Trying To Pee (personalliberty.com)

 

Book Review: Jacob O’Reilly Wants a Pet

This is another goodie from the library written by Lynne Rickards. I love the little boy in this story – you know why?  
* He’s got tenacity. He presented his case to his parents about what he wanted (I used to do that).
* He’s an entrepreneur! Upon his parent’s suggestion he started a pet-sitting business.
* He’s a realist! It takes a lot to care for a pet. He ended up choosing a low cost, low maintenance pet any parent would love for their child to be happy with.

And the book has a pleasant rhyme with active pictures and a wild imagination to make it an all around fun read. Is your child begging for a pet?

** October is National Down Syndrome Awareness Month. Death rates among Black or African-American infants with Down syndrome seem to be higher than death rates among White infants with Down syndrome. **

5 Reasons Your Kindergartner Had a Bad Day

I visited my son’s kindergarten class recently.

When I walked in the room of crayon-drawings and pint-sized desks, I was so happy to be away from my reality of ‘work’ and  in this utopia of innocence and wonder. Or so I thought -until I started listening and observing the children and their interactions. It was AWKWARD! I can see why a kindergartner would want a tall glass of milk with cookies when he gets home. The emotional stress is similar to being in corporate America! There’s … 

1. Rejection. It’s a sandwich deal in the workplace…
B.S.+ REJECTION+political correctness
But there’s just no sugar-coating it in kindergarten. One child asked another, “Can I play with you?”  The answer, “No, I don’t like you.”  Ouch!

A Mother of Inventions

I met Tiffany Krumins, inventor of Ava the Elephant , who won $50k on ABC’s Shark Tank.  Three days later, and I’m still psyched! 

I’m also now a Shark Tank junkie. Do you have an idea for an invention?

Tiffany is a mom who saw a problem and had the guts to create and produce a solution, even after being diagnosed with cancer.  Her journey  is just one of those stories that stays with you for a lifetime and inspires you to reach higher – while appreciating what you already have… family, health, life!

Bad Mommy Moment #16: No Tooth Fairy

Brace yourself … this is a bbaaadd one.

My oldest lost his two bottom teeth.  But, not at the same time.
He actually took the first tooth out himself while at the playground (yes, that playground ).  He handed it to me right before climbing the rock wall. 

The second time slips my mind where and how it happened – but it was kinda more of the same. So, the bad mommy moment comes in what happened next – which was nothing. I did preserve the tooth – but I didn’t do the ‘tooth fairy’ thing. I somehow haven’t been able to spin the tale of an imaginary, winged ‘fairy’ that flies into his room at night and takes his tooth and does God knows what with it – for whatever reason.

The Parenthood Walk of Faith

Our youngest is the dare-devil.
You should see his eyes glitter and his mouth twist into a grin when he’s about to engage in foolery. And then he laughs when you reprimand him. Like when he was about to go down a particular slide — which he’s done a ton of times on his BOTTOM. But this time he decided to stand up…

“Sit down,” my husband – his daddy – told him.

Slide (Photo credit: mrpbps)

He laughed.
“Sit down NOW,” my husband’s voice was more stern so our son obeyed – momentarily. My husband looked in another direction to check on our oldest son and quickly looked back to the slide – just in time to see our youngest go airborne, slam into a pole and crash into the ground with a horrific thud.  He rushed to our child’s side, scooped up his limp body and repeatedly called his name – only there was no response. He wasn’t breathing…

Boys will be Boys – really?

What do you think? Are we excusing certain behaviors exhibited by our boys – just because they are boys? I appreciate the opinion of this ‘girl mom’ Lean Green Mommy Machine and would love to hear what you think.

“I am the mother of 4 daughters and no sons so many would deem me unqualified to comment on all things related to parenting boys. To be fair, there are many aspects that I probably can’t relate to. I do, however, run an in-home daycare and my general life is about kids even apart from my work.

I do believe there are differences ingrained in each gender that naturally come through. But I also believe within each gender there are various personalities and quirks that can’t be pinned to one gender or another. I don’t believe in boy toys or girl toys or gender specific color.

All that being said, there is one thing that I hear from parents and grandparents of boys that gets my hackles up. Boys Will Be Boys.”

Read more by clicking here.