Messy Home Problems Discouraging Parents from Having More Kids

Okay, maybe not really discouraging them to have more kids, but certainly making them think twice, or even thrice, about adding more children to the brood. When you have one kid, you find that following them around and cleaning up after them is easy enough to do. When you have another one however, you find that after you have cleaned on kid’s mess, you have to go take care of what the other kid just did, and so on and so forth.

Some parents find that thinking about the work involved with having another child, in terms of keeping a home clean anyway, is rather discouraging. Imagine having to clean after one kid, then needing to do the same with another kid, and then another kid. This does not have to be the case. You can actually find ways to make the task of keeping your home clean less stressful and tiring, and all you need are clever ways to teach your kids to clean up after themselves, as well as storage units that they can easily use.

One particular storage unit that you can consider for your kids toys, books, and other odds and ends, is the storage cubby. You can find this kind of storage furniture used in many pre-schools, and you can use this in your home too. These can come in various configurations, with the most popular being the 12 cubby variant. There are smaller versions of such a storage facility, like the 6 cubby and 9 cubby ones, however the one with 12 storage slots is chosen more-often-than-not due to it not being too big or too small.

Having a storage unit is just one of the things you need. Next thing you need to consider is how to teach your kids to put away their stuff when they are done using these. To make such a task appealing to children, you should try to make a game out of it. First thing you need to do is to divide the cubbies among your two kids, and assign them their own units. You should then label each one with their name and the kind of things that should be placed in each cubby.

In order to encourage them to put their things away, make this into a contest for both of them. The last one to put away everything they own will have one less cookie, or one less scoop of ice cream for their snack. This will make them want to put away their stuff after using these, and eventually, they will get used to putting these away without a fuss.


Image Credit: Design Bolts

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Believing In Oneself – It Starts at Home

Some people blame their children’s peers for their lack of confidence in themselves. Others point out that bullies make their kids feel inferior about their looks, and who they are. What they might have forgotten is that in order to raise a confident and well-balanced child, you need to start instilling in them a sense of self worth at home, and there are many ways for you to help them achieve this.

While today’s society puts a lot of stock in how a person looks, with magazines even going out of their way to alter how a model looks on its pages with the help of a photo-editing programs, you should not have your kid focus too much on this. Of course, you cannot also tell them that looking clean, neat, and presentable can be neglected. You cannot tell them that looks do not matter. Balance is the key to raising a child that is confident and is well centered.

Teaching your kids confidence in themselves by being as presentable as they can be with clothes that suit them, and in believing in what they are capable of, despite what others may say or think. How do you do this? You can start by giving them what they need in order to help them build up their confidence in themselves. This includes clothing that suits them, talks about balancing looks with smarts, and telling them that they are special no matter what.

As they grow up, help them see themselves as good looking, neat, and well-dressed individuals with the help of mirrors. Invest in a good mirror that they can grow up with, one that they can see themselves from head to foot in. They can use this mirror to develop their own fashion sense (with some help from you, of course), and do not discourage them or ridicule them when they come up with mismatched clothing the first few times. Teach them how to dress fashionably but without using ridicule as a tool.

Tell them that looking neat and clean is a good thing, and that they should always strive to look as neat and clean as possible. That while you are aiming for them to not center themselves on how they look, but rather on what they are capable of, you don’t want them to become an outcast either with an attitude that tells others that they don’t care about how they look. Confidence is not only about them knowing that they are special and that they are smart, but it is also about them seeing that they can look good as well.

 

 

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Do You Believe That Happy Kids Make Happy Parents?

When you become a parent, one thing that you realize after having to control your bladder numerous times to take care of a crying baby, is that your life is essentially not yours alone anymore. You realize that your life now belongs to one other person, and that is your kid. You then find yourself devoting a lot of your time to ensuring not only your child’s wellbeing and future, but also seeing that they are happy.

Some people say that happy kids make happy parents, and I for one believe that this is true. When you see your child smile for the first time, it generates a warm glow inside of you that you find hard to describe. When your baby gurgles with laughter at something silly you did, you can’t help but smile as well. You even go out of your way to be silly and stupid just to see them smile or hear them laugh, not minding what people around you think. In short, you devote yourself to their happiness, no matter what.

When it comes to their belongings, no matter how expensive some things may be, you want what is best for your child, and so you go out of your way to get it for them. You take on two, maybe even three jobs, just to afford that amazing looking toddler bed, or that adorable desk and chair set they can use when they do their arts and crafts. You even max out your credit card just to be able to buy that bedroom set, complete with curtains, bed sheets, and rugs, for your little girl who simply has to have it.

You do everything in your power to provide more than what people deem as your obligation to your child. You do everything you can to make them happy, even when it means having to spend countless hours working to save up enough for that trip to Disneyland, to buy them that new toy they were talking about, and to get them that dress they want for the prom.

Of course, you will need to balance what you give to them with certain rules. Giving without any rules in place is really not a great idea, even if you know that they will be happy with what you give. Parenthood after all is not just about being happy that your kids are happy. It is also about raising responsible kids who know how to value what they get and to appreciate it, no matter how big or how small the gift may be.

Image Credit: Design Bolts

 

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