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Archive for the 'Childcare' Category
Back To Work (Doesn’t sound as fun as back to school!)
For all of you new moms out there, here are some tips to help make the transition back to work as smooth as possible. This can be quite a traumatic time in your life, but like most moms know, it does (well, kind of) get easier.
Welcome Back: Returning to Work After Your Maternity Leave
By Caroline M. Levchuck
And you thought going back to work after a great vacation was rough…
Planning Your Return
Six weeks? Ten weeks? Twelve weeks? How can a new mom know she’s ready to return to work?
Proper planning can help you choose the best back-to-work date for you and your family. First, try to anticipate how much time you’ll need (and how much time you’ll get) to the best of your ability. Talk to other working mothers. Review your eligibility under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) as well as your employer’s maternity leave policy and your personal financial situation to assess not only when but how you’ll return to work.
Separation Anxiety
Whenever I think about separation anxiety, I start to get anxious! Although I haven’t really experienced any of this yet with my soon to be 1 year old, I keep thinking it’s going to happen at any minute.
Below is a very helpful article describing what separation anxiety is and why a lot of children go through this phase. And luckily, it is just a phase, as the experts discuss in the article, it’s temporary and we shouldn’t try to get too stressed out by the whole situation!
Good luck!
Unfortunately, teary and tantrum-filled goodbyes are a very common part of a child’s earliest years. Around the first birthday, it is common for kids to develop separation anxiety, getting upset when a parent tries to leave them with someone else. Though separation anxiety is a perfectly normal part of childhood development, it can be unsettling. Understanding what your child is going through and having a few coping strategies in mind can go a long way toward helping both of you get through it.
Help Your Child Get Organized
(via KidsHealth.org)
Any kid worth his or her salt will generate a little chaos and disorganization. Yours might tear through the house leaving a trail of toys, backpacks, shoes, and empty drink cups. Or flit from one thing to the next - forgetting books at school, leaving towels on the floor, and failing to finish projects once started. You’d like your child to be more organized and to stay focused on tasks, such as homework. Is it possible?
Yes, it is. A few kids seem naturally organized, but for the rest of them, organization is a skill learned over time. Does your child seem especially resistant to living in an orderly way? With your help and some practice, your child can develop an effective approach to getting stuff done. And you are the perfect person to teach your child, even if you don’t feel all that organized yourself!
Easy as 1-2-3
For kids, all tasks can be broken down into a 1-2-3 process.
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1. Getting organized means a kid gets where he or she needs to be and gathers the supplies needed to complete the task.
2. Staying focused means sticking with the task and learning to say “no” to distractions.
3. Getting it done means finishing up, checking your work, and putting on the finishing touches, like remembering to put a homework paper in the right folder and putting the folder inside the backpack so it’s ready for the next day.
Potty Training: Underwear at Night and Will He Ever Tell Us When He Needs to Go?
Parenting expert, Stephanie Brown, writes:
A reader has asked about some potty training issues with her son. He doesn’t ever indicate that he needs to go, and I believe part of the problem is that he doesn’t go on his own. He’s taken and put on the potty to go and this has been their practice for nearly a year. She’s also inquired about what her son should wear for night training — underwear or a diaper?
I’ve given her my answers and shared what forum members have said about the subject.
Read this interesting Q&A.
Those long, costly days of summer
Since some of us may be dealing with this situation soon, this recent story caught our eye and thought it would be of interest.
The Chronicle reports:
With the summer on the way, it isn’t hard to know what many parents feel as the school year comes to an end.
Panic.
“Every year it comes to the end of the school year and parents start scrambling,'’ says Monica Kortz, recreation director for the city of El Cerrito. “They start coming in our office when we open at 8 in the morning, and it just continues until we close at 5.'’
That’s nothing new, of course. Parents have been wondering what their kids are going to do for the summer since the days when school recessed so children could help with the harvest.
But this is different.
Last week Michelle Fadelli sent me an e-mail explaining the problem. She has a 3-year-old and an 11-year-old and works part time. When she and her husband calculated the cost of summer camps or day care, they came to an odd realization.