Stuff Parents Need

Easing the chaos in the nest, one find at a time.

Call for Guest Posts!

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As you know, I am pregnant, and my due date (May 4) is inching closer! I would really love to have some guest posts on my blog right around the time when we will have a newborn at home. It will take a bit of work off my hands, and it will give readers something new and fresh to read!

If you have any interest in writing a guest post on Stuff Parents Need (you don’t have to be a blogger to write a post!), please send me an email at stuffparentsneed (at) gmail (dot) com with your idea and we’ll get you on the calendar for a post in May!

Thank you in advance for your help. I am fortunate enough to read all of your comments and I know that this community has a lot of great tips and advice to share!

The Best Professional Decision I Ever Made as a Blogger

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Today I’m guest posting at Simply Stacie about the best professional decision I ever made as a blogger. I’m not going to let the cat out of the bag here, so hop on over the Simply Stacie and see my answer. I’d love to get some comment love over there and hear what you think!

Visit Me at Vanderbilt Wife!

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Hello, readers!

Today I am the guest blogger at Vanderbilt Wife, and I’m talking about how I successfully line dry clothes, even during the winter months! Come check out the post, leave a comment and if you are looking for a new blog to check out, I enthusiastically recommend this one. Jessie just welcomed her second child a few weeks ago and writes great posts about adjusting to life at home with a kid (or 2!). I really enjoy reading her perspective, and I bet you will, too!

Easy Craft with Your Kids: Thanksgiving Placemats!

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As you prepare for Thanksgiving, I’ve got a wonderful guest post for you today, courtesy of My Baby Clothes Boutique. This should be a breath of fresh air for all of you, because yours truly doesn’t have a crafty bone in her body! Thank goodness other people do!!
Perfect Place Settings: Easy Thanksgiving Placemats for Children

Thanksgiving craft idea: placemats Do you like to set a beautiful table for your family’s Thanksgiving celebration? Though I am not graced with the creativity or vision to create designer tables, I am blessed with two children who love to make art, so when it comes to table décor, I am usually in pretty good shape.

This holiday, my children’s places will be set with homemade placements that remind them—and me—of all the people for whom they give thanks. Here’s a simple “recipe” for making Thanksgiving placemats:

Materials Needed:

    • Photographs of family members
  • 11” x 14” construction paper in a Fall Color of your choice
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Pre-Printed letters or words spelling out “Happy Thanksgiving” or other holiday message.
  • Contact paper or access to a laminating machine

 

Instructions:

    1. Tell your child that he will be making a Thanksgiving placement that represents the family members and loved ones for whom he is grateful. Allow him to select 6-7 photos of people that he wants to include on his placemat. The photos will be laminated, so be sure to give your kids prints you don’t mind parting with or ones of which you can easily print or get doubles.
  • Have your child select construction paper in the color of his choice. If you have access to it, use legal size (11” x 14”) sheets. If not, consider taping together two regular-sized sheets of paper to create an 11” x 14” mat.
  • Allow your child to lay out the photos on the construction paper. You may want to cut the papers into interesting shapes in order to arrange them in visually interesting layouts. Scrapbookers: go wild!
  • Affix the photos with glue to hold them in their desired spots
  • Add your holiday message to a desired spot on the mat.
  • If you have access to a laminating machine, laminate your entire placemat, leaving a ¼” border around all of the sides. If you do not have access to a laminator, contact paper will work fine to cover and seal your child’s placemat, though your creation may enjoy a shorter overall life-span.

 

That’s it! I made these placemats with my daughters when they were both two years old. Now, five and three Thanksgivings later respectively, I still have two adorable placemats that are the crowning glory of my child-friendly table and a keepsake I plan to have around for my grandchildren to eat on someday.

Signe Whitson is a licensed social worker and co-author of The Angry Smile: The Psychology of Passive Aggressive Behavior in Families, Schools, and Workplaces, 2nd, ed. As a mom of two girls she has been able to come up with some creative ways to handle many of the common issues facing parents today. My Baby Clothes Boutique partnered with her to increase her audience and give back to the parenting community. The holidays are upon us, now is the perfect time to find the perfect outfit for you little ones. They carry everything you need from baby dresses, coordinating baby headbands, fashionably warm baby hats and so much more.

Baby Sign Language and Potty Training

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sign language potty training Since we announced that Darah is working on potty training, and that sign language is really helping out with this endeavor, today I’m bringing you a helpful guest post on this very topic! Misty Weaver is the Chief Editor of Baby Sign Language, a FANTASTIC online resource center for parents and family members who want to use sign language (just a little, or even a lot!) with their young children to help communicate. Check out her helpful tips on using sign language to help with potty training!

For stress-free potty training, try teaching your baby sign language. Baby sign language is a fun way to communicate with your baby, and the signs are easy to learn. Best of all – Baby Sign Language really works. Signing is ideal for times when words aren’t enough – times like potty training! Read on for a some great signs to use when potty training…

When To Start Signing For Potty Training
At least three months before you plan to begin potty training, start using the signs for wet and dry, pee and poo, diaper and potty. Use the signs for wet and dry when bathing or washing and drying hands. This will help when it comes to showing your toddler the difference between a wet diaper and a dry one, so he can understand when he has done a pee. Eventually he will understand enough to be able to tell you – or sign to you – that he has a wet diaper.

First Steps
When you begin to sit him on the potty, make a big fuss whenever he does a pee in it, and show him the sign for Potty. Encourage him to sign Potty when he needs a pee, even if he does it in his diaper. The same for poo. When there are accidents (and there will be!), stay calm and merely sign Wet, so he knows what it feels like to wet himself. It’s important to sign calmly, with good eye contact, so your toddler can tell you aren’t angry with him.

Overcoming Frustration
It can be difficult for toddlers to get the hang of using the potty, and anything you can do to reduce any frustration is a good thing. This is why Baby Sign Language is such a great tool, as it doesn’t depend on a child’s ability to communicate verbally – an extra stress when trying to learn a new, important skill. Once he gets the hang of going on the potty, it will be easy for your toddler to tell you with sign language when he needs the potty, or if he’s had an accident, whatever his language skills at the time.

Make It Fun
Baby Sign Language can be an important part of communication for parents and babies, but it works best when you make it fun. Don’t take signing – or potty training – too seriously. Sign as part of your everyday routine and enjoy it!

Signs For Potty Training
Potty: To sign potty, make your hand into a fist with thumb peeking out between the index finger and the middle finger. Hold the fist out and shake it around a little.
It is like baby is ringing a bell to let you know it is potty time.

Diaper: Sign diaper by taking your hands and placing them down around your waist. Take your index fingers and middle finger together from each hand and tap them on your thumbs. It is like you are playing mini castanets at waist height.
sign language for potty training

Wet: The wet sign is made by reaching up with your hands bringing your fingers and thumbs together while pulling down. Use the wet sign for baby to tell us when she has wet her diaper and needs the diaper changed.
sign language for potty training

Thanks so much, Misty, for all the helpful info!

Want more resources? Check out a list of baby sign language products on Amazon!

What about all you great folks out there in bloggy land? Do/did you use sign language any with your kids? Any potty training tips to share???

Guest Post: The Baby and the Butterfly

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Today I have a guest post for you that offers a little bit of food for thought. I can relate to the conflict that parents have watching their little ones struggle to learn how to do something. I am still guilty of rarely letting Darah try to feed herself, and this story is a good reminder to me that I need to let her try it and get messy, or else she’ll never learn!

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Babies enter into the world utterly dependent on their caregivers. Long days, sleepless nights, and year upon year of loving, worrying, feeding, bathing, changing, soothing, and caring conditions us to help our children meet any need and overcome any challenge. The art of good parenting comes in knowing when to help our children grow strong by letting them struggle on their own.

The story of The Man and the Butterfly demonstrates the importance of helping wisely:

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

The man is driven by his compassion for the butterfly’s struggle and by his desire to make things easier for the emerging creature. But struggling through its restricting cocoon is the butterfly’s only way of forcing fluid from its body into its wings and it is only after this process is complete that a butterfly’s wings are prepared for flight. In his well-intentioned haste, the man bypassed one of nature’s most efficient and necessary processes, crippling the very life he meant to aid.

How do you feel when you watch your little one face struggles? It is so instinctual for parents to want to rush in and help (and certainly any health and safety-related situations call for immediate intervention) but how do you fight the urge to solve the kinds of challenges that are necessary for your child’s healthy emotional growth?

Sometimes struggles are exactly what our children need in order to grow strong and fly with their own competent wings. A childhood without challenges soothes our parenting minds but stunts our children’s ability to cope, persist, and persevere.

Signe Whitson is a licensed social worker and author of The Angry Smile: The Psychology of Passive Aggressive Behavior in Families, Schools, and Workplaces, 2nd, ed.