Archive for September, 2010
50 Blogs for First-Time Parents
First-time parents are generally clueless the first go-round. Sure, they have probably talked with their doctor and read the latest parenting books and how-to guides, but sometimes the best way to prepare yourself is to learn from other’s successes and mistakes. Parenting blogs provide an outlet for real moms and dads to teach one another about the thrills and challenges of parenthood. With all of the helpful blogs and resources at your fingertips today, there’s no reason why any first-time parent should be left in the dark about parenting, children’s health, baby food and financial responsibilities. Here are 50 blogs for first-time parents:
Moms Know Best
From first-time mommies to supermoms, these women share their individual stories of motherhood by blogging.
- The Adventure of Motherhood.
Learn how to plan a successful play date, master potty training and see what books this mother of one is reading on this informative blog. - The Snyder 5.
This mother of three boys shares her advice on working, parenting and keeping it all together, here. - a mom amok.
This New York mom talks about living in the city with her two kids, and documents their many adventures, here. - Another Day, Another Moment.
See how this first time mom is handling her son’s terrible twos, here. - Janet Lansbury.
This former model and actress, turned mother and parent educator shares her insights into early childhood and parenting, here. - Motherlode.
The Motherlode, a New York Times blog covers some intriguing topics, such as adoption, autism, and other points of interest for parents. - Click Clack Mom.
This Army wife and fist time mom shares her experiences with pregnancy and parenting on this blog. - Just By Living.
This stepmother of one writes about her transition from fashionista to mommy on this colorful blog. - Notes from the Trenches.
With six boys and one daughter, this busy mom writes about her daily adventures of motherhood and madness. - Suburb Sanity.
See what this mom of the ‘burbs has to say about raising a tween and teenagers, here.
Fatherly Figures
These dads don’t hold back from sharing the many ups and downs of fatherhood, but will make you laugh along the way.
- First Time Father.
This first time dad shares his excitements, challenges and lessons learned from fatherhood, thus far. - The New Dad Blog.
This dad documents his family life and children’s activities through pictures and posts. - Daddy’s Lil’ Squirt.
This first time dad and stepdad writes about his adventures parenting “Squirt,” while living in Belize. - Dorky Dad.
See what this dorky dad has to say about household projects and surviving fatherhood. - DadCentric.
Modern dads unite on this hilarious blog that breaks the mold on what fatherhood is all about. - DadRevolution.
Fourteen dads from different backgrounds and locations collaborate to share their experiences and advice on how to be a good dad. - Daddy Dialectic.
This blog is written by and for the modern-day dad, with a special focus on egalitarian relationships and redefining gender roles in the 21st century. - Real Men Drive Minivans.
Here you’ll find father-approved recipes and parenting tips from this work-at-home father. - Out-Numbered.
You’ll get a good laugh from this dad’s blog about the adventures of fatherhood and raising two girls. - DadLabs.
DadLabs is the place to find cool, do-it-yourself crafts and activities your kids will love.
Health
These blogs provide current news, information and health discussions that every first-time parent should know about.
- Mayo Clinic News.
You’ll find comprehensive and credible news about children’s health and safety, here. - Milestone Mom.
This occupational therapist shares her knowledge of child development and provides home therapy exercises and activities to attain important developmental milestones. - Parenting and Health Daily.
Here you’ll find news and advice about children’s health, as well as how-to guides for first time parents. - Center on Media and Child Health.
Check out the latest news and research about the effects of media on children and adolescents’ health, from this reputable health blog. - News Anchor Mom.
From one mother to another, this news anchor and mom filters the news to provide information that specifically impacts mothers and children on her blog. - Momma Data.
This psychologist, former researcher and mom of three devotes her time to investigating the biggest health issues affecting children today and setting the record straight on her blog. - Postpartum Progress.
Katherine Stone sheds light on postpartum depression and other mental illnesses related to childbirth in this widely-read and praised blog. - Healthy Child.
This blog discusses environmental hazards that can affect you and your child’s health, what preventative measures to take and how you can spread awareness. - ParentDish.
Get the latest health and safety news, tips and advice from every stage of pregnancy to your child’s infant, toddler, big kid, tween and teen years. - Baby Shrink.
This psychologist and mother of four can help you understand the developmental stages of children and what’s going on in your baby’s head.
Food and Fitness
Learn how to make homemade baby food, lose baby weight and live a healthier life with the help of these food and fitness blogs.
- Simply Baby Food Recipes.
Find quick and easy recipes for homemade baby food categorized by age range, food group, ingredients on hand and even picky eaters. - Wholesome Baby Food.
Learn about the benefits and tricks to making wholesome baby food from home. - Baby Food Charts.
This blog discusses infant nutrition, feeding guides and provides a handy food chart for your growing baby. - Mush Homemade Baby Food.
This momma is serving up homemade baby food and teaching new moms how to do the same with simple recipes you can try at home. - Super Healthy Kids.
This blog provides healthy eating tips, nutritious recipes and realistic meal plans that your kids will love. - What are my kids eating?.
This mom explores what her kids are eating at school and at home, and shares healthy recipes you can try at home. - Healthy Kids Challenge.
This blog teaches parents and kids about nutrition, exercise and ways to make your school a healthier environment. - The Active Family.
From one family to another, this active bunch shares fitness advice, healthy eating tips and exercises that are fun for the whole family. - Baby Fat Diet Blog.
Moms will find dietary tips to lose unwanted baby weight on this mom and dietician approved blog. - Fit Moms Fit Kids Club.
This blog encourages mothers to create fitness goals, eat well and make healthy lifestyle choices that they can pass on to their children.
Family Finances
These financial blogs and parent-approved resources can help any first-time parent prepare, save and plan for the future of their expensive bundles of joy.
- Working Parents and Finances.
This working dad shares his money saving tips and how to lessen debt on this financial blog for parents. - Everything Finance.
This blog provides tips to manage your account, get out of credit card debt, save more money and plan for future expenses. - Wise Bread.
This team of bloggers provides personal finance advice, debt management tips and financial news. - My Dollar Plan.
Here you’ll find investing tips, credit information and active free money ideas to help you save now and in the future. - Frugal Dad.
Frugal Dad teaches parents about money saving tips that could make you a millionaire in 10 years, as well as ways to get out of debt and be financially prepared for an emergency. - Money Saving Mom.
This mother of three shows parents how to stretch their money, save with coupons and live frugally. - Not Made of Money.
This wife and husband team teaches other couples how to save money, eliminate debt and make more cost effective decisions. - Penny Pinching Parent.
Here you’ll find coupons, deals at popular stores and several other ways to penny pinch. - The Centsible Life.
This stay-at-home mother of four helps other parents get a hold of their finances, stretch their money further and fulfill their dreams on a budget.
10 Signs You’re in a Cult
Cults are more than just convenient narrative devices for thriller and mystery writers. In reality, they penetrate families and peer groups and leave an emotional trail of destruction behind. Whether disguised as a religious organization, a job opportunity or a self-help group the three most common masquerades they share many sociological and psychological phenomena. While not a definitive list by any means, this one points out a few of the more typical and dangerous amongst them for the benefit of those afraid for their lives or the lives of a loved one. Organizations such as Cult Hotline and Clinic, reFOCUS and Cult Awareness and Information Library dedicate themselves to promoting an awareness of how these dangerous groups operate. Most major metropolitan areas and college towns host their own cult hotlines and rehabilitation centers as well, all of them far better equipped to providing valuable resources on either escaping or staging an intervention than a mere website. Look them up, give them a call and help save a loved one from a horrifyingly restrictive, exploitative situation. If you think you might be in a cult, please read over this and other available resources (the links provided above are a good start) and analyze the situation at hand. Escaping and intervening will prove neither easy nor safe, so be thorough in research and prudent in exercise.
- Were you approached to join in a moment of weakness?
A common misconception about cults is that they tend to attract those marginalized from mainstream society because of their looks, quirks, pocketbooks, etc. Interestingly enough, people from all walks of life can fall vulnerable to these groups. One of their main recruitment tactics involves seeking out individuals suffering from periods of depression, grief, low self-esteem and other emotional universals everyone unfortunately seems reluctant to acknowledge. Cults prey on their need for companionship and validation, offering them a loving, nonjudgmental environment where they can (supposedly) be free. Most of the people who end up entwined in such organizations merely want some degree of release and love from others who ask little of them. When recruiting, cults sound great; their reality isn’t quite so much, though. - Are you incapable of leaving?
Cults, most especially those with commercial interests, make escape incredibly difficult for members fed up with their tenets. Emotional manipulation and pressure and, in more extreme cases, threats or acts of physical violence are utilized to intimidate possible defectors into staying. Those whose recruitment strategies involve preying on individuals experiencing moments of emotional weakness typically bring up how they “rescued” or “saved” or “provided a home and/or family” for them. Hoping, of course, to guilt trip them into staying by cutting down their defenses and forcing them to feel like ingrates. Any reasonable organization would realize that not everyone fits their expectations and ideologies and grant their members the freedom to depart as they see fit. - Do the leaders or members higher up in the organization enjoy tossing out shame, guilt and insults?
Even when members do not pose any threat of leaving, they find themselves subjected to regular batteries of humiliation and degradation. Questioning anyone in any position of authority results in insulting or condescending language meant to break their spirits rather than civil discourse. Whenever members grow concerned with unfulfilled promises, they end up bearing the brunt of the blame told that their lack of faith or slack work ethic resulted in dissatisfaction rather than the fact that higher-ups held no intentions of actually doing anything for them in the first place. Spunkier participants may end up undergoing specially choreographed “breaking sessions,” subjected to a series of verbal abuses meant to snap their psyche. Instead of offering the loving home and family promised during recruitment sessions, they strive to reinforce the negative emotions that initially inspired people to join. - Do you feel isolated from loved ones?
In order to prevent outside influences from leading adherents outside the fold, cults attempt to isolate them from the friends and family who loved them before they joined up. This undoubtedly ties in with their desire to exploit the depressed and unsure, reaching out with false promises of a ready-made set of replacements entirely without judgments or prejudices. Provided, of course, that they question nothing. A cult’s brand of “unconditional love” comes saddled with an agreement of unyielding conformity without it, these newfound companions drift off at best and participate in shaming rituals at worst. Kind of like junior high. Some organizations with a religious bent may ram the opinion that anyone outside their circle deserves ridicule and spite for rejecting the “one true path.” Reinforcing an “us vs. them” mindset drives larger wedges between victims and their family and friends from a “previous life,” nurturing paranoia to prevent rescues and escapes. - Have absolute truth claims ever slipped into the conversation?
One of the more common scare tactics employed by cults involves absolute truth rhetoric, where only adherents receive ultimate rewards. Along with those experiencing personal weak points, they also tend to target anyone encumbered with spiritual questions. Preying on existential fear, more religious cults tout their ideologies as the only real solution to life’s big answers. All others come packaged and sold as dead ends where nothing but torment and toil await. Natural questioning gets squelched, dismissed as evil and shameful. Leadership demonizes friends and family outside the collective for not believing in their doctrine, furthering the isolation of its individual components. Be wary of any organization whose literature and discussions claim that what they have to offer is the only possible path towards happiness and salvation in life. - Is your reading material censored?
As a means of perpetuating isolation and unquestioning compliance, cult leaders and their appointed authority figures censor the reading materials available to members. Anything critical or revealing of their strategies never makes it to the lower tiers as a means of keeping them under control. Their media intake revolves around glorifying the organization, and more extreme cases may ban any works promoting free thought and intellectualism that could result in some seriously questioning followers. Legitimate groups with any degree of transparency take no issue with their members reading, watching or listening to any criticisms levied out on the practices. They may not agree with what’s being said, of course, but they see no real imperative to restrict access to any of the people or publications, either. - Can your “friends” keep a secret?
Gossip runs rampant amongst cult leadership and members, in spite of referring to themselves as “family” and “friends.” Lower-tier individuals eager to slink up the ranks attempt to earn the trust of their peers, relaying any whispers of insubordination to their superiors. These shady communities encourage members to spy on one another and report back. Sound familiar? Like something out of Orwell or the Third Reich? If you start suspecting that your peers may be taking advantage of any trust for their own personal gain not to mention your rather brutal punishment then you might just very well be in a cult! Likewise, if upper echelons of the hierarchy start sniffing around asking questions about what your friends have told you in the strictest confidence, then you may want to make your way out of the organization as quickly as you can. - Are you expected to hand over money or possessions to move up?Not every cult structures itself around a level system requiring some type of compensation to move up, but enough of them do to render the practice a warning sign. Both religious and commercial cults can employ this method, and monetary, sexual, servile or other types of favors sometimes work in tandem with snitching to score a promotion. Because many of these groups exist under the leadership of one particularly charismatic individual, the tributes go straight into his or her bank account and all the givers receive in turn is a usually negligible amount of status. Rare is the cult that operates under a meritocracy, seeing as how that generally defeats the purpose of heaping obscene amounts of possession and power on the leader.
- Do you have to go to a meeting to even understand what the organization is about?
When it comes time to recruit more troubled individuals into the fold, cults typically utilize vague language when first encountering a potential new member. Rather than explaining up front what the organization hopes to accomplish and offer, they push them towards informational meetings. Oftentimes coached to remain upbeat and happy at all times, members sent out into the fertile fields of the real world skirt questions about their “benefactor’s” true motives and keep on promoting those group sessions instead. Either that or they speak in vagaries and absolute truths if not a combination. After ensnaring unsuspecting individuals looking for a little guidance and a couple of friends, cults typically occupy adherents’ time with a cramped schedule full of largely meaningless work. Like pretty much everything else they do, this tactic is just one more weapon to combat thinking, escaping and thinking about escaping. - Is the leader a megalomaniacal, paranoid, power-hungry tyrant of a crazy person?
Yes, yes, it probably is an unfair stereotype to paint all cult leaders as less-than-benevolent, egomaniacal sociopaths who exploit individuals suffering from entirely-too-human doubts and depressions for their own personal, monetary and sexual gain. In reality, though, most cult leaders are less-than-benevolent, egomaniacal sociopaths who exploit individuals suffering from entirely-too-human doubts and depressions for their own personal, monetary and sexual gain. Why else would they go out of their way to lie, steal, cheat and manipulate their way through life? Most of the common strategies wielded by cult leaders aren’t exactly the nicest or the sanest out there. So keep a sharp eye tuned to his or her behavior. If the suspect reacts to questions regarding authority with verbal or physical violence, starts spouting off absolute truth rhetoric, requests some type of compensation in order to reach some sort of inner sanctum (PROTIP: You won’t.) and enjoys disavowing the First Amendment, then he or she is either a cult leader or just a really, really, really terrible person.
10 Reasons Your Child Needs a Tutor
A new school year has arrived and your child is ready for the next challenge. But what if the new subjects they’re studying prove to be too difficult? Not every parent is equipped with the knowledge – or memory – to give their child adequate tutelage, and let’s face it, patience can wear thin from both sides even if you know what you’re doing. If you can afford it, the easiest solution is to hire a qualified tutor. Determining who to hire is dependent on how much you can afford to pay, their qualifications and how well they get along with your child. If it works, you’ll find that not only will your child’s grades improve, but so will their self-esteem and outlook for the future. Here are 10 reasons your child needs a tutor.
- They work hard, but results are minimal
If your child puts forth the effort each night but isn’t seeing results, a well-trained tutor would be a good investment. A tutor will teach them how to study independently, which is a basic skill they’ll need to have mastered by the time they enter college. They also offer tutelage pertaining to note-taking, organizational and time management skills that will improve your child’s chances of success in every subject. - They’re easily discouraged
Does your child’s motivation wane as the subject becomes more difficult? A couple of bad grades can lead to several more, and before you know it, they’ve fallen into an academic hole of which they’re unable to find their way out. The personal attention provided by a tutor can steer them around it, giving them the confidence needed to conquer a challenge. - Lessons don’t match their learning style
Not every student learns in the same manner. Perhaps your child is a social learner who needs consistent interaction in order to fully grasp a subject. If their teacher is more of a lecturer, a tutor can provide the social learning experience your child desires. Additionally, lesson plans tend to be rigid and teachers generally prefer not to stray away from them. The use of alternative methods can provide your child with easier and more efficient ways to solve a math problem, balance an equation or write an essay. - Their teacher is subpar
Like any other profession, the teaching profession has its good and bad apples. During secondary school, students typically lack the study skills to learn a subject on their own, so they’re unable to compensate for wasted class time. A qualified tutor can teach your child everything they need to know and more, breaking their dependence on their subpar teacher. - They consistently struggle in one subject
Perhaps a subject like math just isn’t your child’s strong-suit and they’ve never performed well in those classes. By hiring tutor who specializes in that particular area, you can turn your child’s weakness into a strength. A good tutor should be able to tap into your child’s potential, or at the very least, ensure the subject is no longer a drag on their transcript. - Curves only cover the problem
Your child may have a decent grade, but it doesn’t mean they fully understand the subject matter. What they miss now could affect them in the future, causing them to fall behind their peers. For example, if they struggle with polynomials in Algebra, they’re destined to struggle in chemistry and physics. - They’re nervous about college
The ultra-competitive nature of high schools these days has caused many kids to fold under the pressure. Teenagers who can barely manage their current lives are expected to know exactly what they want to accomplish in the future. A tutor encourages them to focus on the task at hand, teaching the study skills, time management skills and mindset they need for success -now. - They experience test anxiety
There’s no denying the SAT and ACT are key components of the college application process. A good or bad score can affect your child’s ability to gain admission into the school of their dreams. Luckily, there is an abundance of experienced SAT and ACT tutors who can teach your child essential test-taking strategies that will enable them to maximize their score. These tutors possess the resources – like practice exams – that can be used to quell big test anxiety. - School isn’t challenging enough
Perhaps your child isn’t being sufficiently challenged by their studies and you don’t want their potential to go to waste. Or maybe they’ve taken an interest in a particular subject – like a foreign language – and you want to cultivate a passion. Either way, a tutor will utilize your child’s free time in a stimulating manner. - No other help is available
As previously mentioned, you may not be able to offer the help your child needs in order to realize their potential in a subject. After all, it has been years since you were in their shoes, and more likely than not, teaching isn’t your strength. A good tutor will be able to explain the tedious details of a subject in way that your child can understand.
