Date night, something we cover again and again at this site, gets the Dr. Ruth Westheimer treatment in this excellent video clip. Say what you will about the mismatching cute grandma persona and the usual sexual frankness, this particular piece has her offering practical tips on keeping a relationship vital while raising kids. She addresses the reality of how hard it is to stay in touch with your partner through every stage of parenting a child and warns that if you don’t schedule regular time away from the kids, it could do serious harm to your bond.
It’s difficult to show as much appreciation for the joy family-music entertainers as I feel. It’s even more daunting to select just 10 of the best. But I’m confident that parents cannot go wrong with acquiring this list of fantastic recordings, which represents the finest albums I had a chance to sample. Congrats to the winners and a tip of my hat to the numerous other excellents albums released during the time period of November 1, 2008, to October 31, 2009. (Click on the album titles for full reviews where applicable.)
1. Milkshake - Great Day - The hearts, minds, and talents of this group were in the right place. So is their ranking on this list.
2. Billy Jonas - Happy Accidents - Waiting such a long time after What Kind of Cat Are You? could have been a diaster. It wasn’t.
3. The Sippy Cups - The Time Machine - Clever themes and fine musicianship make for a great time for all.
4. Peter Himmelman - My Trampoline - This guy’s the Pixar of music. A hit every time out.
5. They Might Be Giants - Here Comes Science - They’re making edu-tainment cool again.
6. Recess Monkey - Field Trip - They may have the deepest well of zany creativity of any trio out there.
7. Ziggy Marley - Family Time - Can I take some credit for this album after sharing a Piano Play classroom with Ziggy and his kid?
8. Lunch Money - Dizzy - One of my favorite surpises of the year.
9. Captain Bogg & Salty - Emphatical Piratical - How do they keep making the priate theme so fresh and well seasoned?
10. Buck Howdy - Pete Seeger Tribute - It sounds like Buck is singing these timeless tunes just to your kid.
With its candy-colored emoticon graphics and remarkable ease of use, FaceChipz ™ serves as a holiday gift that will outlast most of the presents parents might buy. This is because it offers something its grown-up counterpart, Facebook, cannot — a community made of kids with abundant safety features and no chance kids can wander to inappropriate pages or have inappropriate adults trying to log on to their profiles. Because of this, it allows kids to be children and parents to breath easier if they are concerned (and there’s plenty of reason to be worried) that Facebook is just not safe enough — even with some decent protective layers that parents can use — for their sophisticated grade-schooler, tween, or teen.
The FaceChipz ™ team has collected every safey certification imaginable (including the Socially Safe Seal of approval). And collecting is a key mechanism for the social networking site. Here’s how it works: Once a child signs up for FaceChipz ™ with a parent (both must have logins), the child can set up a page at which the kid can chat, play games, get e-mail, share pictures, etc. To get a friend to join, the child must purchase and register the code of a FaceChip, which looks like a poker chip only cuter. Then, the child can deliver or send the chip to a friend, who also registers the chip. In this way, only a child given a physical chip by another child can be a friend on FaceChipz ™. This kind of safety does have a price, albeit a small one, as the FaceChipz cost $7.99 for a pack of 5. But the concept is ingenius because it incorporates kids’ love of collecting with high-end Web technology. You can also earn points with the FaceChipz ™ with which kids can buy stuff on the Web site.
This really is a terrific invention that is already growing quickly and will continue to evolve to keep up with kids’ demands. As a sort of a bridge between Club Penguin and Facebook, it makes a safe home (kids can even block members who are mean to them) in a world of social networking that is a staple of contemporary children’s lives. It’s an indoor activity worth checking out, particularly with the extra time many of us will have over the holidays and the cold winter months.
My eldest son and I are huge fans of the Alex Rider young-adult books by Anthony Horowitz. It’s a rare series aimed at boys that puts the protagonist in a young James Bond position while still grappling with the issues of growing up. So, we’re going to pass the coolness on to you. The first person to offer the name of their favorite young-adult novel at the blog entry about Alex Rider books will win a copy of the new Crocodile Tears: An Alex Rider Adventure.
A while back, I wrote a piece called “Taming the Hulk Within,” in which I aired my struggle with keeping cool, especially around the kids. In talking to other parents, it seems anger management is one of the most common regrets we have. For me, it’s frequently about the feeling of not being able to control my children’s behavior, which is followed by my frustration with what’s really worth controlling in them, which is followed by the feeling that I do not want to be a wimp with my whining child. The ideal is to be calm in directing my children, but there are all these stressors that I allow to fray me. Financial restraints are probably the biggest culprits at this point. So my children hear me yell way too much. The good thing is that my kids know I love ‘em. Yet, I’m still looking for ways to put the chill in my hot-headedness.
A recent study acknowledges what I and many other parents go through. A LiveScience.com story explains that, “Having children was also associated with angry feelings and behaviors, such as yelling, particularly in women, the survey found. ‘There’s obviously a lot of joys and benefits that come with parenthood,’ but other aspects of parenting, such as having to discipline a misbehaving child, can cause feelings of anger and annoyance,’” said study researcher Scott Schieman.
It’s interesting to note what the study said regarding women and yelling because I hear more about men yelling from the dads I speak with. Whoever is doing it, we all have our work cut out for us. Especially during the holidays, when extended family, spending issues, and more time with the kids will put added weight on our emotions. These days, I’m trying to allow myself to leave the room rather than keep trying to control the situation. I also find that talking over possible upcoming stressors with my wife helps me head off some of what triggers my anger. The goal is to feel better about myself and to role model for my kids how to handle emotions. It helps, not all the time, so I keep searching for every tool I can get.
How about you all out there? What do you do to keep calm?
For the third time, I joined the Fids and Kamily - Kids and Family Music Awards, run by Stefan Shepard of the Zooglobble family music blog. To be eligible, albums had to be released during the period of November 1, 2008, to October 31, 2009. A stellar group of family music critics, ranging from Gwyneth Buter of Gooney Bird Kids to Robbie Schaefer of Sirius/XM Radio (the Kid Place Live channel) each sent in their 10 favorite picks. This year, the They Might Be Giants snagged the #1 poistion, followed by Lunch Money. Get the entire poll and read about the runners-up and everyone else who was nominated.
And watch for the fourth annual Family Man Recommends list of the year’s best albums to be posted in January.
This is an important safety alert because of the number of cribs and the severity of the possible accident. Stork Craft Manufacturing Inc. is recalling 2.1 million drop-side cribs, 147,000 of which have the Fisher-Price logo on them. Prompting this is the death of four infants who became trapped and suffocated when a space was created between the drop-side door and the mattress due to faulty parts. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) urges “parents and caregivers to immediately stop using the recalled cribs, wait for the free repair kit, and do not attempt to fix the cribs without the kit. They should find an alternative, safe sleeping environment for their baby. Consumers should contact Stork Craft to receive a free repair kit that converts the drop-side on these cribs to a fixed side.” Go to the CPSC site for more information.
Romi Lassally, Editor in Chief of the Truu Confessions sites (including True Mom Confessions), is distributing a weekly rundown of highlights from her sites. The concept is for people to unload their thoughts about what really matters in life in an anonymous way to form communities of people supporting each other to make it through all the nuttiness we experience. One example: Not So Quiet Time - “If I thought I could actually do it comfortably, I would go to the bathroom and try and take a nap while sitting on the toilet.” Check out this week’s list.
A few years ago, I sought the counsel of Dr. David Swanson when my wife and I needed more help with managing our parenting challenges. Swanson was down-to-earth, non-judgmental, and incredibly direct in his advice, which we use to this day. Now, any parent can access Swanson’s insights by reading his new book, Help–My Kid is Driving Me Crazy: The 17 Ways Kids Manipulate Their Parents, and What You Can Do About It. Part of what makes Swanson such a valuable resource — in addition to being a husband and father — is that he treats children, teens, and families as a whole. Even though he’s writing for parents who are beleagured by their children’s use of negotiation, self-victimization, and emotional blackmail, he’s also firmly advocating for the well-being of the children. This book can really help adults feel better and stronger in their efforts to parent their kids.
Decades after we last ran between high-school classes and around the campus track and field, Jeremy Toback sent me an e-mail to say hello and talk about our common interest of family music. Jeremy’s been performing and recording for many years, but he’s never sounded so good as on his newest album, C’mon (a review of which will appear on this site in a coupla weeks). In the meantime, check out this free song to hear what makes the duo of Renee and Jeremy such a warm and vibrant treat for the early holiday season.
