Perth’s SuperParents has been playing around with how our parenting blog would interface with our SuperParents FaceBook Page and our SuperParents_au Twitter Account since the start of the year. Just recently, we decided to make a bold move and disconnect the automated Blog-to-FaceBook RSS feed.
Our belief was that readers don’t want to get blasted by their Google Reader, Tweets, and FaceBook updates with the same boring blog posts over and over again. So why subject them to this abuse?
SuperParents takes a new crack at it on FaceBook
The RSS feed originally meant that whatever parenting article of ours which was posted on the blog would also immediately feature on our FaceBook page. Taking this automated publishing out seemed counter-intuitive. However, SuperParents felt that there was a new direction for us on FaceBook.
FaceBook would act as a behind-the-scenes hub – highlighting other great parenting and care-giving articles from other parenting blogs. Like other things we’ve done in the past, our philosophy is to help other parents – after all parents need parents – and this will bring value to our audience and the other bloggers on the net.
Our fan base on FaceBook grew to have 50 members in the first 7 months. In the last two weeks however, our FaceBook page has doubled to over 100 members with this new direction.
Please come and join our FaceBook page. Joining SuperParents on FaceBook makes it much easier for us to help you promote your own blog and interesting articles.
This is dedicated to all the parents who pick up, who give up, and who tidy up. It’s soul destroying to do this menial work day-in, day out AND have to nag the household to constantly lift their game.
To all of my friends, I feel for you … it’s time to SHOUT OUT LOUD.
I moved house a couple of months ago and left some archery equipment in my mother-in-law’s house. When I retrieved it recently, she insisted that I don’t store ’sharp things’ or ‘weapons’ under the bed. She even went so far to say she didn’t want me to take my equipment back until I confirmed where exactly I was going to put my gear.
For more information about Feng Shui and what my mother in law is on about, check out Feng Shui Guidelines for Storage Spaces, its point 5 reads:
Avoid under-bed storage if you can. If you must use this space, use it for extra bedding and for soft, seasonal clothing such as sweaters. Never store any kind of sharp objects, information (books, videos or DVDs, paperwork), or exercise equipment under the bed; …
Apparently any storage of weapons or sharp objects under the bed prevents me from having a good night’s sleep, may lead to exhaustion and worse of all – and this is according to my mother-in-law, may cause arguments between my wife and I.
My wife and I hardly argue – we are not the bickering type. Already in our 11th year of being married, we have done quite well to myth-bust and disprove point 5 – having always stored some form of Feng Shui labelled contraband under our bed. A sharp object isn’t going to start an argument. If anything is going to start an argument it’s going to probably be my pig-headedness, rather than a sharp object.
I’m not saying that the Feng Shui guidelines are impractical. Look through them, they actually mention sensible things like not to overload shelves and not to clutter up the room. Those are practical ideas that anyone should follow.
However, to blame marital problems on symbolic objects under your bed is utter CRAP. If you’ve got personality problems, call it that. If you’ve got financial issues, child rearing disagreements, character differences, or whatever, sure – argue away. But to blame your disagreement on Feng Shui or to argue without seeking to resolve your problem – that’s criminal.
Easing back into a work routine for parents re-entering the workforce.
Parents need to guage their fuel tank daily.
In Part Time Employment for Parents – Ace that Interview! I talked about ways in which to present the best of yourself after a period of not working for an employer. Mostly, I encouraged greater self confidence and a more objective appraisal of your strengths and weaknesses. When however you get the job, you might still be facing off with more challenges, especially scum like the one in Part-timers and Parents Re-entering the Workforce – Beware this Man that might not truly understand what parents go through to get ready for work. In this post, I will discuss some points that will help you navigate your way through through the first few weeks of work.
Attention Span: Being a parent means vacuous periods of brain inactivity, short bursts of frenetic adrenaline-rushed motions, and struggling through sleep-deprived haze. You might need to re-train your attention for longer dragged out meetings. I suggest getting a notebook and using it for taking notes, jotting down your associated thoughts, and follow ups. I would also use the back of the notebook to write down the requests you’ve asked of other people in the organisation. Date everything. CYA!
Meetings: Everything in an organisation is influenced by people. Everyone has their own agendas. You need to go beyond taking things at face value, and question the motives of the people around you. This increases your clarity of events around you. Not to do so will put you on the back foot and may be detrimental to your own deliverables.
Expectations: If you are working part time, you need to be clear as to how much of your time you are selling to the organisation and what you can achieve (see Part Timers Disease: Juggling School and Work). Just because you’ve got one foot in the company doesn’t mean you should be sucked into every single meeting. Make sure you are clear as to what you should be involved in, get it documented in your job description. Parents have a tendency of spreading themselves too thin; in the end you’ll be blamed for not accomplishing your goals.
Leave on Time: If you’ve got to pick up the kids, get out of the office on time. There is NO POINT speeding and getting fined when you feel time pressured. Remind your colleagues at the beginning of the meeting that you need to leave by a certain time, and always schedule meetings earlier.
Back-up: Seek help from others in the organisation. Make sure you take over/hand off nicely so at least a few people know what’s going on without having to check up on your status from their email. It’s important to give the people around you confidence that they know what is happening with the work you are handling.
Relax: Working part time and juggling the house and kids is stressful. Take time to relax by exercising (see Parents and Exercise). You can watch TV alternate days or the weekends. It’s too easy to plonk yourself in front of the telly, and veg.
What’s a really good way to teach your kids how to do research, health, the importance of mathematics, organisation, following a process, keeping your work area clean, and the need to make minute little adjustments along the way? Alright, so getting the kids cooking is a really stressful activity. But it teaches them good skills, it’s fun, and the best thing is that at the end of it, something really nice, warm and delicious gets produced. It’s really worth it.
I’ve taken a little departure for this Kids Cooking post, and have done research for songs about cooking. It might be nice prepping your children for a cooking activity during the weekend by looking out for some kids recipes or songs about food. I’ve included a few below, and at the end of it is a link to an extensive list of songs about food. Some of them are hilarious, and you might have some luck finding them on youtube.
As an example, you can play the song about ‘Hot Cross Buns’ and ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch’ if you plan to cook with your daughter. I’ve included a kids recipe below for some home made Hot Cross Buns. It serves 12, so you might want to make less or more and discuss with your child how you’d do that. You can talk about the following calculators:
As you plan your recipe, take the opportunity to discuss with your child what exactly are you expecting to make. This makes the child know the importance of being ‘objective oriented.’
I found an article ‘Taste Test: Hot Cross Buns‘ – which discusses the best points of a Hot Cross Bun ala MasterChef. Along those lines, you can ask your child what at the ingredients you’ll need, and test them on this knowledge at the end, when they’re sinking their teeth into their creations.
Enjoy your session with the kids!
Kids Recipes: Hot Cross Buns
Enjoy the warm, spicy scent of these delicious buns baking in the oven – easy enough for a young child to make!
Makes 12
What you will need
110g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
2 teaspoons dried yeast
250ml (1 cup) milk (at room temperature)
75g butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
600g (4 cups) plain flour, plus extra, if necessary
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
225g (11/3 cups) sultanas or raisins
55g (1/3 cup) mixed peel
CROSSES
75g (1/2 cup) plain flour
GLAZE
75g (1/3 cup) caster sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
In a small bowl, combine a large pinch of the sugar with 125ml (1/2 cup) body temperature water, then sprinkle yeast over it. Stand mixture in a draught-free place for 7 minutes or until it becomes foamy.
Combine yeast mixture in a large bowl with the milk, butter and egg and stir to combine well.
Add flour, spices, dried fruits and 1 teaspoon salt, then stir until combined and a coarse dough forms (it may be necessary to use your hands).
Turn dough out onto a lightly-floured surface then, using your hands, knead dough for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic, adding a little more fl our if dough is sticky. Take care not to add too much extra fl our or buns will be heavy.
Place dough in a large, greased bowl, turning to coat, then cover with plastic wrap and leave in a draught-free place for 1-1 1/2 hours or until doubled in bulk.
Using your fist, gently punch dough down to deflate. Turn dough out onto a lightly-floured surface, pat into a rough round shape, then ask an adult to cut into 12 even-sized pieces with a large, sharp knife.
Roll each piece into a ball then place, 6cm or so apart, on a greased tray. Cover loosely with a kitchen towel and stand in a draughtfree place for 1 hour or until doubled in size. Grease base and side of one 58×30cm (or base and sides of two 29×16cm) baking dish(es) and pre-heat oven to 200°C. Using a metal spatula, and taking care not to deflate buns, place in dish(es), spacing them evenly apart.
For crosses, combine flour and 80ml (1/3 cup) water in a small bowl and stir until smooth and combined. Place mixture in a piping bag fitted with a small, plain nozzle and pipe a cross shape over the top of each bun. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden and risen, then turn out onto a wire rack and allow to cool.
For glaze, combine sugar, lemon juice and 80ml (1/3 cup) water in a small saucepan and slowly bring to the boil, swirling pan occasionally to dissolve sugar. Simmer over medium heat for 4-5 minutes or until mixture has reduced a little and is syrupy. Cool slightly, then brush mixture over top of buns. Buns are best served on the day they are made, but they will keep, frozen, in an airtight plastic bag for up to two months.
CSIRO Wellbeing Plan for Kids was recently mentioned in Choice Magazine, and from what I’ve previewed of it from CSIRO’s website, it’s impressively covering a number of topics of concern for any SuperParent.
CSIRO Screenshot Wellbeing for Kids
Just looking at the sample checklists and monitoring tables, you can see: vegetable checklist, breakfast foods checklist, breakfast foods monitoring table, lunchbox foods monitoring table, evening meal monitoring table, screen use monitoring table and actvitiy monitoring table. Check out the free downloads available at their website.
These are all important basic stuff that will improve the overall health and continuing wellbeing of any family.
What I would say is that the CSIRO book would have benefited from discussing behaviour modification tips. What parent would be able to pull off a new diet and a healthy lifestyle if they don’t have the skills to sell the idea to their children? They need a list of monetary and non-monetary incentives and disincentives. Should discipline be all reward or can you pull out some innovative punitive measures and still raise happy, healthy children?
And what about those parents who are stressed out and time poor. Or those other parents happy to feed them ‘healthy’ food, but also overdoses their child with plenty of rewards – chocolate, gummy bears, fruit loops, pop tops, you name it. If happy, healthy children is the objective, the book should include adult and family issues.
I’ve been unimpressed with the traffic in front of Christ Church Grammar School but I’ve been looking to get stuck in it for the last couple of months. This was so I could take a picture of the (newish) Times Square Claremont billboard and have a rant about it. The billboard is quite an arresting sight – it features a youngish model basically nude promoting Times Square Claremont.
Nude Model in front of Claremont
The slogan on the ad reads “Get Dressed.” I assume this means that you go to Times Square Claremont in order to get yourself dressed. But is it really necessary to use nudity in order to emphasize this point? Is it really necessary to use sex to sell a place?
Children see nudity and care less about it. But the image isn’t just about innocent nudity, is it? I for one don’t need for my children to be exposed to this sort of thing.
Claremont has a certain branding for itself. In my opinion, it has a classy and conservative feel about it. I don’t see how this image matches that branding, nor how it strengthens Claremont’s image in the minds of Western Suburb consumers. Any opinions? Am I a prude?
Times Square Claremont
Entry via St Quentin Avenue
337-339 Stirling Highway Claremont
I was running a women self defence course two weeks ago and it occurred to me that some of the self defence principles can be tailored for children who have to rough it out in the school playground. Of course, I’m not saying that children face the same risks as adults, but playground antics can be difficult to deal with; and not all children can deal with rough play. To manage your young child’s well-being, you may benefit from having a discussion of what to do when rough play comes knocking on the door. The following are simple safety tips.
1. Physical attacks from other children would probably not be very serious, sustained or malicious. Bringing the arms up in front of the face, or held side-to-side (so you’re looking out of a ‘post box’ slot) will help shield your child’s face from upper body attacks whilst allowing your child to still see where they are and where they should be going. Back away and then get to the safest place – a public area or to a teacher.
2. Most any of all attacks will usually end up with the aggressor or the larger opponent dragging the victim to the ground. At this point, safe breakfalling is essential so that we don’t break any hands or elbows. Get your child to practice pushing their butts onto the ground before rolling the rest of their body backwards – keeping their heads off the floor. Putting their hands to the ground to cushion their fall is a NO NO. The easiest way to hurt yourself is to stop the fall with an open palm – you can easily dislocate an elbow this way. Remember to keep your head off the ground so your child doesn’t knock himself or herself out during the process.
3. There will be grabbing, pushing and striking on the ground. To simplify a defence, get your child to hug his aggressor tightly, keeping his head close the the aggressor. Hugging and holding the aggressor in place takes a surprising little effort, whilst the attacker who is shoving and trying to control the other person burns a lot of effort. This means your child can get to ‘relax’ whilst the attacker is expending energy roughhousing.
4. No playground safety tip is complete without a call for help. Your child should be calling for help at the first opportunity.
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Colin is a martial arts instructor with 25+ years of experience in three martial arts across three continents. He has a small martial art school focusing on Traditional Taekwondo in Perth Western Australia.
I had a tough workout last night. Got home blasted. Slept past twelve. Then got woken up at 6am by early-riser Beth4. This morning at work I had a difficult deadline in the morning. A few hours free around lunchtime to go see Beth’s School ’show and tell’ which allows the school children practice at public speaking. In the afternoon, I return to my company for a marathon monthly management meeting. It started 3:30, supposed to end at 5pm, but eventually ends at 7pm! How is this supposed to be a part-time job? Please tell me.
But yet, I felt strangely rested …
You know what the secret was? Well, it’s not really a secret … when I came back home after Beth’s school, I had a 15 minute power nap while Beth and I were watching the teletubbies!!!
Parenthood is draining. Many of us complain half-jokingly of a fading mental faculty, get anxious when there’s no clear child-raising manual, and are constantly in fire-fighting trying-to-take-care-of-the-kids-and-trashed-up-house mode. On top of this we try to gauge our own what-seems-to-be-diminishing capabilities when you’re hammered day-in and day-out.
You just can’t continue like this. You got to give yourself a break, my friend. Be fair – give up internet time, your blogging, get more sleep, shift and balance child-rearing duties, and squirrel away for some personal time.
Once you are refreshed then let’s get back to those memory ‘name’ games, that quirky smile you somehow misplaced in the frenzy of getting the children ready for school, and your basic love of life.
Take heart that there are others out there that understand where you are coming from. Today I had an interviewee in front of me who ‘included’ in his resume the fact that he has a baby girl (15mo). Immediately I could understand the need for flexi-time (and work-life balance), understood the level of maturity he had, and the kind of work situation he was looking for. Before kids and school drop offs and pickups, I would have just blown all of these away! Now I am happy in fact to give more latitude to parents who are trying to establish some work-life balance.
Any parent interested in Carpark Safety? Anyone care about carpark safety?
Parents cannot afford to be distracted!
All I need to do is follow that one ‘carpark safety conscious’ parent to the carpark. She’ll be loaded with her grocery bags, child throwing a tantrum or demanding food, shopping cart would be rolling away, and she’d be trying to get her child strapped into her seat. I’ll just walk normally maybe to one car away, and when she’s clicking the seatbelt in, I’d just stroll toward the car and kick the door HARD. The door will slam her shins into the car and it would not take a lot to remove child, throw child to mother, grab handbag and keys, and jump in for the ride. Free gas. Free shopping. It’s too EASY.
Child Safety in Carpark Tips
All child safety rules apply in the carpark especially when parents are distracted to the max. Parents do get distracted should think about some of the following, and also perhaps practicing better safety habits:
1. Parents must always have keys ready to open the car before you get to the car. No fumbling accepted!
2. You must always have your keys on your body. Not on the hood. Not on the bonnet.
3. You should get your child into the car before your groceries.
4. While strapping your child into the car, look around and be prepared to back off, slam and lock door to keep your car between any potential assailant and your child. As a side note, if the weather is hot, you should always wind down all the windows so that the interior of the car is kept relatively cool.
5. While strapping your child into the car, make sure to stand with one foot placed closer to the car, and the other foot holding the car door opened. This way if the car door is kicked into you, the probability that you will be incapacitated by the pain will be minimised.
6. Learn how to use the largest of your keys as a pointing/thrusting weapon. This type of weapon reduces the striking area, increasing the pressure applied by the striking force exponentially. Also aim for vulnerable spots. Doesn’t take much to pop that eye or puncture skin around the neck.
7. Be prepared to throw your keys away in order that the assailant would not be able to take possession of your car or child.
8. Be prepared to scream loudly in order to attract attention. No point in trying to rely on physical defence only to be winded by a blow to the gut or throat or face.
9. When under duress OR IF IN DOUBT be prepared to attack first and to attack hard. If the assailant is ready to harm or rob you, chances are it’ll take a lot to dissuade him.
10. If you have secured your vehicle and are forced to defend yourself, place yourself in a defensible location. It’s hard to perform a multiple attack if the person is between two cars. So get between two cars and defend yourself from there.
11. If you haven’t secured your vehicle and are forced to defend yourself, don’t leave your vehicle if your child is strapped in it. Get your child out if you have to. Or get back into the vehicle and lock yourself in.
12. You may try to escape by going under a parked vehicle.
13. You may try to equip yourself with a weapon if you have given up your keys – a car’s antenna or windshield wiper may form convenient hand held weapons.
14. If all fails make sure you do not get pulled back into the vehicle and forced to drive off. FBI stats say there is little chance for survival in such a situation. One survivor told of how she decided to drive her car into the supermarket wall in order to ensure her assailant wasn’t going to rape and kill her.
