I often why working parents who have children in daycare leave them at daycare when they have a day off from work. Is it because they don’t know what to do with their children when they are off?  Is it because they don’t want to pay for daycare and not send them?  Is it that they don’t have fun with their kids so they don’t want to spend time with their children?

I used to work at a daycare center while I was in college and watched too many parents leave their children at daycare while they went out and had fun.  Watching children be crushed when their parents would drop them off at daycare knowing their parents were not going to work.  They would ask, “Why can’t I stay home with you?”  and listen to the parents respond, Mommy and Daddy need some time to relax. When parents would pick up their children right before closing time after spending a full day by themselves and see those children be crushed, asking “Why didn’t you pick me up?”    After watching children be crushed for years because their parents dropped them off when they were not working, I vowed to never be one of those parents!  I vowed that would never send my children to daycare when I was not working.  If you have appointments to go to then that is not really a day off, but if you are spending a week of vacation relaxing while you ship off your kids to daycare, then why did you have kids if you don’t want to spend time with them?

I have heard people make so many excuses as to why they send their kids to daycare when they have a day off.  ‘I need run errands and my kids are hard to control.”  or, ” They have more fun at daycare than they would at home with me.”  Bologna!  Unless it is a special day at daycare, they would rather be with you. “I need time to myself.” Ugh!  Do you get to go to the OB/GYN by yourself?  Then you have time to yourself!  Next time you have to bring your kids to your annual appointment then you will learn what it means to appreciate having time to yourself. Learn how to have fun with your kids, don’t leave them at daycare, pick them up and go out and do fun stuff with them!   Enjoy your children when they are young and spend as much time with them as possible, quit making excuses of why you don’t spend time with them when you are off work.

This weekend it was sunny for the first time in days, so our family went out to search for a good outdoor place to take pictures of the kids.  I love it when people have outdoor photos for their Christmas cards and we had not had a good photo shoot of the kids in months.  My husband grabbed his camera, I dressed the kids, did both of their hair, my husband restyled my son’s hair, I grabbed an extra set of clothes and a blanket, was armed with snacks and juice boxes and ran out the door.  I had a place close to home in mind but my husband had a place further away in mind, so we went to his location after all he was the one driving.

We drove down a dirt road, found the right place, unloaded the kids next to the corn field and instantly the little guy decided he wanted to be whiny.  He didn’t want his coat taken off, the tears came on, so I put his coat back on him but he was still worked up and whiny.  My daughter was ready to take pictures but she hates smiling right now.  She has created this fake smile where she completely closes her eyes and holds her mouth in a smile that looks like she is trying to pee.   My husband snapped pictures while I wrangled the kids and tried to make them both smile while looking towards the camera.  If someone was listening to us you would have heard, “Smile Please! Look at Daddy! No a real smile! Open your eyes! Sit down! Look over here!  Singing If your happy and you know it! Gross, Don’t pick that up! Please walk, OK fine, I will carry you.”

I realized that I have not had a good picture of both kids looking at the camera at the same time in months.    One will be looking at the dog while the other will have a great smile.  Then one will have a great smile and the other one will be smiling or will turn their head.   Trying to get them both focused is enough to work up a sweat, now add walking to try to find the perfect location to the mix, and you will need a nap when you are done!

After one hour of hiking down the dirt path, and taking hundreds of pictures we ended up with about five decent shots of the kids together, none that we are ready to create a Christmas card out o,f but at least decent.   Last night I was trying to retrain my daughter who has a normally beautiful smile until the camera comes out, how to smile again.     “Please don’t close your eyes, Please smile like you are saying cheese, You can keep your head upright, Look at the camera, right here.”  Someday I am sure she will smile for the camera again,  of course by that time, her little brother will probably decide he prefers a fake smile.    Maybe I should just become a Photoshop pro, take a head from one pic and a head from another and create a perfect perfect picture, until then, our Christmas card may show two kids looking in opposite directions.  Good luck with your family photos.

My daughter starts her first day of preschool tomorrow.  I will be dropping her off at the school she will be attending for elementary school, in hopes that it will be a good transition into her being comfortable with her school and surroundings before going  kindergarten. She will go to school two days per week for two and a half hours each day.

My daughter has had horrible separation anxiety, just last year that separation anxiety led me to have to quit my job. Now I am truly hoping that she has no problem leaving me tomorrow.   She will have two friends in her preschool class to hopefully help her feel comfortable with staying.    I am afraid it will not be a seamless transition when I leave her there on her own.   I am OK with her growing up, I am just afraid that the same horrible separation anxiety and throwing up episodes that we worked so hard and finally got past last year, might sneak back into her mind again.  I will be positive and have faith she will be fine with her new big kid place, preschool!

I forgot to publish this last night and here is the update- She did great!  She was excited to go in, she smiled in her pictures, she sat down and played with the other kids, she said to me “Bye Mom”!   I have to admit that I worried the whole time I was gone that I was going to get a phone call to have to pick her up, but the phone never rang!

She was happy when I picked her up!  She told me that she played with play-dough, then they had carpet time, read a book, sang a song, did a project, washed their hands, had a snack of mini teddy bears, went outside to the playground and then I picked her up!   Ahhhh!  It is so nice to pick up a happy kid!

Will the risks of the H1N1 Flu Vaccine outweigh the benefits?   In the 1976 Swine Flu outbreak the CDC quickly created a flu vaccine to control the Swine Flu outbreak and rushing the process had dramatic neurological effects like the Gullain Barre Syndrome on children.   Will this new vaccine protect the population since today’s vaccine was created based upon the current strain, not the possible mutated version the medical community believes will spread this winter?

I am actually grateful my children were part of the first wave of H1N1 cases that swept across the country back in June. I will not be getting the H1N1 vaccine for my family because the vaccine is being created to fight the strain that we have already contracted.

Do the research before getting the H1N1 vaccine for your children! Keep in mind that the reason you put your signature next to each vaccine your child receives is you are saying you understand the risks and side effects each vaccine poses to your children.  Don’t let your pediatrician or Doctor pressure you into agreeing to a vaccine you are not sure of! The ultimate responsibility lies on your shoulders if something horrible happens to your children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4SmFxyust0&feature=player_embedded

http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/swineflu.asp

I sit here and watch my son play with his Elmo drill I remember how loud children’s toys can be. Children’s toys have increased in noise level dramatically in the last ten years, and with the close proximity that babies and toddlers play with their toys to their heads, they can actually cause irreparable hearing damage such as Tinnitus or actual hearing loss.

As a child after being somewhere loud like fireworks or a concert, I remember laying in bed hearing my ears ring all night long, and I am grateful every time the ringing stops. Due to the loud level of toys some young children have damaged their ears so bad that the ringing never stops, which is called tinnitus. My mother has this condition and it is actually debilitating to her on some days she can’t focus or relax because the ringing is so loud, so I am very aware and cautious with noise levels around my children. I carry ear plugs with me in my diaper bag in case the noise levels are too high like at an indoor activity with lots of screaming kids or a children’s concert.

I had a friend who saved her original Tickle Me Elmo doll from when her 14 year old daughter was a toddler and she gave it to me. I was playing with both the Tickle me Elmo TMX and the original doll with my children on the floor and the new one is so loud that it actually drones out the normal volume of the original Elmo doll. When the TMX is not playing you can hear the original Tickle Me Elmo just fine and a child can actually hug it and put it next to his face without risking hearing damage. Why are toy manufacturers making everything so loud? Some toys when produced have higher decibel levels than a rock concert. Is the insanely loud noise level to attract attention for children to pick the loudest toy off the shelf? Maybe but it is unnecessary. Elmo’s high pitched voice at too high of volume can actually do more damage than a jet engine to a child’s ears, then you give it to them to play while they sit on the floor and lean over it like toddlers play.

Since I am so aware of these high noise levels every single new toy my children receive gets the noise treatment. If you walk around my house, every toy that makes noise has tape permanently pasted over the speaker to lower the damaging levels of noise. If the tape does not control the noise level down to a safe level I will open the toys and disconnect or permanently quiet the sound box. Just looking around in the living room, each of the books with buttons has tape over it, the ride on car, the activity tables, the Tag reader, the Barbie Cinderella Walking Horse and of course the Elmo talking Drill.

Not only do we have to worry about the lead paint used in creating the colors on the toy, make sure it is not leak hormones that can feminize our boys and develop reproductive health problems in our girls like in vinyl toys, make sure it does not have any small parts that our children can choke on, we also need to make sure that they are at an appropriate noise level to protect our children’s ears. Hearing damage is not only something grandparents need to worry about anymore!

http://www.asha.org/public/hearing/disorders/noise.htm
http://www.dancewithshadows.com/society/noisy-toys.asp
http://www.ata.org/about-tinnitus/how-loud-too-loud#loss