5 Tips On Doctor and Dentist Visits

1. Accept the fact that 
   everyone including your child can feel anxious about dentist and doctor visits.
2. 
   Many pediatric waiting rooms are full with toys, books and other sick or crying children.  Trying to pick the 1st appointment might help avoiding other sick and crying children.  If your child questions the reason of another child crying, be truthful and brief.
3. You can show your kids "how all of us need to go to the doctor or dentist to keep their bodies healthy" by taking them with you for a routine visit.
4. Never lie about the taste of a medicine, a shot or any anxiety-causing situation.  You can always give them choices about how they would like to get the shot or take the medicine.  "The doctor says you need to take this medicine to feel better. Would like to take it with orange juice or lemonade?"   
5. Take a favorite stuffed animal with you.  Ask the doctor or the dentist to examine it first.  This would help the child to find out what's ahead.

Allowances

'When is the right time for kids to start getting allowances?'

'How much is the right amount?'

'Should we give monthly or weekly allowances?'

'What to do when kids ask for more?'

'Should we help kids where and when to spend their allowance?'

'Can we use allowance as a tool of punishment?'

There are many more questions on this subject...  And there are many different approaches and answers.  I would like to point out to the fact that every child and every family is different. Therefore there's not just one answer that works for everyone!  

'When is the right time for kids to start getting allowances?'

Some experts say:

"Once your child shows both an interest in and an understanding of the concept of money - the fact that it can be exchanged for goods - they are ready to start learning the basics of money management. For some kids, this may be as young as three or four. "

'How much is the right amount?'

Although some say that a dollar for each year of age or the amount their friends are receiving is a good rule, I would recommend making your own decision based on your child's needs and your family's conditions.

Kids use money for spending, saving and sharing.  So having a little family meeting and discussing together how much your child needs and how much your family can afford giving could be the best answer.  It would not only help you to find the right amount but also would help your family come closer...

'Should we give monthly or weekly allowances?'

Time has a different meaning for young kids and therefore it would harder for them to manage their allowance for a month.  So scheduling the allowance should also be determined by the parents according to their child's age and needs.

'What to do when kids ask for more?'

Once the allowance is gone...  It is gone until next week/month...  until the next allowance!  This is very important for kids to learn how to manage their money.  It is actually the only way to learn, by mistakes...  

'Should we help kids where and when to spend their allowance?'

NO... The only way for kids to learn how to manage their money is through making mistakes.  So there are no restrictions for children on how to use their allowances.

'Can we use allowance as a tool of punishment?'

NO...  Allowances should never be earned (they shouldn't be tied to chores or rewards... Chores are children's fair shared amount of work) and should never be taken away.  

A Favorite Cookbook

When our first daughter Lidya started to her solids,  a lovely friend of mine (Wendy Krim) suggested a very practical cookbook:

"The Healthy Baby Meal Planner" by Annabel Karmel.  This book had good meal planners and especially very interesting food varieties for babies and young children. The Zucchini and Banana Puree on page 33 was a great hit between Lidya and Elizabeth (Wendy's daughter).  

"1 small zucchini, washed, trimmed and sliced

1/2 small banana, peeled and sliced

Steam the zucchini for 8 minutes and puree in a food mill with the banana."

It had an odd but very simple combination which I would never dare to put together by myself.  Yet kids loved it.

With well prepared and age appropriate meal planners and easy to understand+prepare recipes this book is a great help for mother...

Bon Appetite

Sedef

Happy Mother's Day :)

To all the mothers :potential, expecting, surrogate, foster, adaptive, biological and not biological...

The everlasting source of unconditional love in your hearts makes this world more beautiful and living.  

On be half of the children of our old planet, I would once more like to thank you for all your love, patience, compassion and kindness.  

Happy Mother's Day!!!

'To My Mother'

Because I feel that, in the Heavens above, The angels, whispering to one another, Can find, among their burning terms of love, None so devotional as that of “Mother,” Therefore by that dear name I long have called you— You who are more than mother unto me, And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you, In setting my Virginia’s spirit free. My mother—my own mother, who died early, Was but the mother of myself; but you Are mother to the one I loved so dearly, And thus are dearer than the mother I knew By that infinity with which my wife Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life. Edgar Allan Poe  (addressed to Poe’s mother-in-law) 'Mother o’ Mine' If I were hanged on the highest hill,    Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine I know whose love would follow me still,    Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine! If I were drowned in the deepest sea,    Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine I know whose tears would come down to me,    Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine! If I were damned of body and soul, I know whose prayers would make me whole,    Mother o’ mine, 0 mother o’ mine! Rudyard Kipling  (This was the dedication to Kipling’s novel: The Light That Failed)

'if there are any heavens my mother'

if there are any heavens my mother will(all by herself)have one. It will not be a pansy heaven nor a fragile heaven of lilies-of-the-valley but it will be a heaven of blackred roses my father will be(deep like a rose tall like a rose) standing near my (swaying over her silent) with eyes which are really petals and see nothing with the face of a poet really which is a flower and not a face with hands which whisper This is my beloved my (suddenly in sunlight he will bow, & the whole garden will bow)  e.e. cummings