Times Have Changed

Whilst many of us adults would have jumped at the chance, during our own childhood, to own and use as many gadgets as our children now have access to, the growing concern is how we monitor and decide when enough is enough. For gadgets that are dotted throughout the home, it is easier to monitor their use. When children go to bed, they simply don’t have access to them. However, the trend for children to fill their bedrooms with the latest technological devices every year, means the ability for children to switch off at bedtime is a whole new concern.

Night Time Electronics

Children will be children; which means when we shut that bedroom door to say goodnight, they aren’t always going to fall off to sleep straight away. As children ourselves, bedtime never always meant bedtime. Many a times would we resort to playing with the teddies on the bottom of our beds, the toy boxes stashed conveniently beneath the mattresses or perhaps some of us even read by torch light underneath the bed covers! Yet, can we expect our children now to do the same? Teddy’s, toy boxes and indeed books don’t quite have the same appeal as the TV at the bottom of their bed, the console immediately next to the TV, or the glow of the mobile phone connected to the latest social media app. It’s no surprise then that most children wake up feeling tired and agitated, and are consequently sitting through school like this, when they only managed a few hours’ sleep the night before.

Parental Intervention is Key

As parents, carers and guardians of children, we ultimately have the responsibility of ensuring our children are looked after. Yet, when it comes to the subject of technology and devices remaining in the room at night, we still seem divided in response. Many a time, a newspaper or magazine will run with the caption of My Child Doesn’t Sleep, and reading a few lines into the article will reveal the same reason time and time again; they repeatedly use a tablet or watch TV through out the night, resulting in a lack of sleeping pattern. Funnily enough, most parents wouldn’t dream of allowing their child to stay up each school night past midnight, but for some the concept of allowing them to remain in bed with an electronical device doesn’t seem to register the same scenario!

Switching Off

With so many parents flocking to sleep specialists, there seems to be one answer that remains the simplest solution to all of this, and yet is rarely discussed; remove all electronic devices from children’s rooms at night-time! The idea is so primitive and basic and yet remains ignored. Mobile phones can be handed in to parents before children climb into bed, as can hand-held gadgets. Consoles in the bedroom can be quickly set to ensure they aren’t able to work during bedtime hours, and children can even be barred from using the internet from the late evening to the early morning.

Using Technology Wisely

No one can doubt the progress technological advances allow us all to make in our everyday lives. As adults, we certainly take advantage of most gadgets that offer to make our lives that little bit easier. However, the one difference remains is many of us had a childhood without most of them. Whilst no one is saying our childhood was better for the lack of technology, we were certainly allowed to stop, unwind and disconnect from the problems of the world, whilst we got on with the important task of just being children. Technology can play a great part in our children’s life, and indeed it is certainly the way forwards, but what it cannot do is provide a good 8 hours sleep per night. That task is still yet to be conquered by any gadget!

As parents, until we learn to take back control and teach our children how to use technology wisely, this problem will continue to pervade our younger generation and those to come. If you feel your child is suffering from gadget overload in their room, perhaps now would be the time to look at offering a solution. Let us get back to making a child’s bedroom exactly that; a place to relax and sleep; a haven for children to escape to at the end of the day. Our children most certainly deserve it.

Use Pillows And Cushions

Using pillows and cushions to get you into a more comfortable position, and keep you there, is a great way to help you sleep better. The problem isn’t usually that you’re not tired (far from it, especially late in your pregnancy), but that you simply can’t find a spot in the bed or a position that will allow you to get relaxed enough for sleep. A curved pregnancy pillow is a great investment, and Parent Guide has useful information on which ones are best. You can use one of these specially designed pillows to wedge between your legs or behind your back. They’ll give you extra support and allow you to elevate your bump a little, which can help get you more comfortable.

Wear Loose Clothing

Try to avoid tight nightwear as much as possible. It’s best for you and your quality of sleep to wear comfortable, loose nightwear. Ideally, it should be made of cotton so that it is breathable and can help you doze off more easily.

Bed? Not Necessarily

When you think of sleep, you think of bed, but that isn’t necessarily going to be the best place for you to rest when you’re pregnant. If you find that you are more comfortable in a chair or on a couch, stay there. You need to be somewhere that sleep comes easily, not somewhere you’re going to be tossing and turning in all night. Make sure you have a blanket nearby so that if you start to feel sleepy, you can cover yourself up to keep warm (or someone can cover you up if they notice you’ve gone to sleep).

Eat Light Meals

You’re going to find that you’re super hungry during the last few months of your pregnancy – your baby needs a lot more nutrients to finish their growing. However, eating a heavy dinner before heading up to bed is going to be a problem when it comes to getting to sleep. You’ll be uncomfortable, and you’ll probably suffer from heartburn too. The best idea is to eat the heavier meals during the day (assuming you want them) and then eat a light supper. Plus try to stay away from spicy foods as this will aggravate your heartburn even more.

Exercise

When you are heavily pregnant, it’s likely that the last thing you’ll want to do is do any exercise. However, light, careful exercise (ideally in a class that is supervised) can really help when it comes to getting to bed and getting to sleep – and staying asleep. You’ll be more tired, but you’ll also be more relaxed due to the hormones being released into your body, and this will help sleep come a lot more quickly.

Get Outside Each Day

Depending on how old your kids are, it may seem much easier to just stay at home all day and not venture outside your own walls. However, for the sake of your children and your own sanity, you may want to make more of an effort to get outside each day. According to Marion Winik, a contributor to Parent.com, being outside and in some fresh air can improve your mood and the mood of your children. Not only this, but being outside can also help your kids burn off some extra energy, making the time you do spend inside much more calm and relaxed.

Say “No” More Often

Many modern moms feel that they’re simply stretched too thin on a daily basis. While this can often be something that’s completely out of your control, you can give yourself more control over these types of situations by allowing yourself to say “no” more often. According to Jessica Bowers, a contributor to Parenting.com, moms shouldn’t feel bad for saying “no” to things that either don’t help them feel like they’re contributing or that simply don’t fit into their schedules. While this can be challenging, and can potentially make you feel like you’re not doing all you should be as a mom, simplifying your life will actually help to make you a better mom to your own children rather than worrying about everyone else.

Increase Your Socialization

If you’re a mom who spends the majority of her time at home with her kids, one things you’re likely lacking is socialization. Because of this, Denise Stirk, a contributor to PopSugar.com, recommends that you join a group, club, or class that allows you to spend time with other moms in similar life situations as you are. By doing this, you’ll be able to get some adult conversation as well as work through any frustrations you feel regarding your family, kids, job, and much more.

To help you become the best mom you can be, consider using the tips mentioned above to take better care of yourself so you can take better care of your family.

To prevent that sort of problem, you really need to construct a revision timetable. Here are just four tips to make sure you get it right.

1. Start with the Basics

Consider how long you have until the exams start, then divide that time between each topic that needs to be studied. Remember to take the dates of certain exams into account – if there’s a week between the penultimate and final exam, you can devote all of that time to the subject covered in that final examination.

2. Prioritise

After you get the basics down, consider where your child is strongest. Ask them if there’s any areas that demand special attention – you can also take a look at their projected grades. Don’t neglect the areas where your child is strongest, but remember to allocate a little more time for areas they’ve previously found challenging.

3. Regular refreshers

You can’t just cover an area once and move on. Unless your child is blessed with a photographic memory, this isn’t going to cut it. Revision should be reinforced through regular refresher sessions to ensure information is retained, so schedule a few throughout the timetable for each subject – remember, they don’t need to be long.

4. Remain Flexible

Resist the urge to make the GCSE revision timetable too complicated. For starters, doing so can stress your teen out. More importantly, you have to account for interruptions. Instead of planning every second and leaving no room for unforeseen issues, leave some spaces blank. These times can be used for areas your teen found tricky or used to catch up if other sessions were missed.

Start thinking about things like seasonal transitions for hygiene supplies, the best way to organize decorations, what your next vacation is going to be like, and even the best way to store all of your seasonal clothing. By thinking two seasons in advance, you’ll finally get caught up with everything about six months after you start this process.

Seasonal Transitions for Hygiene Supplies

I’m sure you’ve noticed that hygiene items are expensive, especially when they are in demand during a particular season. If you want to save some money as well as getting organized, then put together your summer hygiene checklist this winter. Get your shampoos, soaps, deodorants, mouthwash, and everything else that you can think of that you use specifically in the summer. This includes makeup! In the winter, these items will be less expensive, and you can also buy them far enough in advance that you know where to store them before the season comes through.

Organizing Decorations

Lots of families have a ton of holiday decorations. If you plan on feeling settled a few seasons from now, then start organizing your seasonal decorations in the most efficient way possible immediately. A big part of this is probably going to be throwing things away, to tell you the truth. But beyond that, if everything is labeled and put away the way that it should, the transition periods should be smooth and easy like butter.

Preparing Vacation Time Off

Have you ever noticed that when it’s time to take your summer vacation, family members don’t have the right days off? It honestly does take many months of advanced organization to get everyone on the same page if you’re planning a family trip. You literally have to start thinking about summer vacation right around the Christmas season. If you do that, there won’t be any surprises later regarding time off. Moreover, there are so many things to do when planning a vacation, be it in summer or any other season. These things cannot be left for the last moment. For instance, you have to consider finalizing a destination and book flight tickets (or check the cost of private jet if you are planning to fly by one). Besides this, you have to buy the right kind of clothes for the vacation and prepare your home as it would be left empty (you might have to install CCTV cameras, alarms, and other security fixtures).

Getting Your Clothes In Order

Organizing your clothes is always going to be a process. That’s why it’s not good enough to cram it all into the two or three days when the weather starts changing. By getting your clothes ready for summer while it’s still cold and snowing outside, you’re preparing yourself several months in advance for the transition period. If everyone in your household is willing to do this, you’ll avoid a lot of aggravation later.

Many parents leave the hospital with expectations of their perfect little bundle of joy sleeping through the night in a blissful deep sleep while they get to enjoy staring at them sweetly from above their cribs.

More often than not, however, reality kicks in the minute that the new parents drive out of the hospital parking lot.  New babies aren’t equipped to sleep long stretches like adults.  Therefore, it can be quite a surprise for the parents when they realize they are going to be cross-eyed tired for the next six months to a year of their lives.

Although there is no way to ensure your baby will sleep longer, there are a few tricks that can certainly help.  Here are some of the best tips for getting your baby to sleep longer so that you can get a better rest as well.

Co-Sleeping

Many babies have a lot of difficulty being able to sleep when they are on their own in their cribs.  The lack of warmth of their parent’s chests makes them feel fussy and out of sorts. Some parents find that by bringing the baby into their bed, they sleep sometimes double the amount of time that they would have in their own bed.

If you are breastfeeding it can be even easy to do night feedings since you can just roll over and offer your baby the breast rather than having to get up and fiddle around in the dark half asleep.

Swaddling

Wrapping babies tightly recreate the sensation of being in the womb and can get them to stay calm and sleep long stretches.

Swaddling can be done with a blanket or with a special velcro swaddle which doesn’t require having to learn how to do the specific fold required to swaddle.

White Noise

One of the biggest misconceptions about babies is that people think they like to be in silence.  However, what they don’t realize is that babies experience a lot of noise inside the womb.  From the rushing of blood to the muffled sounds of outside voices.

Therefore, putting on a gentle white noise in a baby’s room while they sleep can increase the deepness of their slumber and prevent waking up from small noises from the outside world.

Often babies can wake up from the slights creak of a door or a car horn in the distance.  White noise can drown out these noises and keep your baby asleep.

In order to make sure that you are avoiding problems and keeping up with what it takes to have a healthy pregnancy consider the following tips along your journey.

Plan Ahead To Avoid Stress

When you first find out that you are pregnant there is an initial wave of excitement as you plan for your new delivery.  This can quickly evolve into stressing over what you will need and all of the details that go along with that.

Some people stress so much about it that they end up putting it off entirely.  Putting off what needs to be done only leads to feeling more stressed and pressed for time at the last minute.

Try to plan ahead as much as possible.  This means making a list of everything that you will need and start purchasing it used or new as soon as you can.  Consider buying maternity wear, toys, and other things you will need as soon as you find out you’re pregnant. This way you won’t be pressed to meet the deadline for your projected birth expectancy date.

Practice Healthy Habits

One of the biggest frustrations of pregnancy can be excess weight gain.  While it’s normal and healthy to gain between 35 and 40 pounds during a pregnancy, some women gain more than this and have a hard time getting it off again.

Rather than putting yourself through extra stress and worrying about having to work it off again, try to avoid the excess gain altogether.  This means trying to eat as healthy as possible.  Not holding yourself back when you’re hungry but rather eating things which are derived from a natural source.  

Additionally, you should make sure to get in moderate exercise like walking or swimming.  These low impact exercises will make a big difference in your overall physique during your pregnancy.

Get Plenty Of Sleep

As your pregnancy progresses you may find that it becomes more and more difficult to sleep.  It’s important to get as much rest as possible during pregnancy since this will ensure that you have all of the energy that you need in order to host your baby inside of your womb.

Try to go to bed early and buy whatever items will help you get better nights sleep like a pregnancy pillow or white noise machine.

By Admitting When You’re Wrong

No one wants to lose face by having to admit that they’re wrong about something. However, there will come a time in your life where you’re just going to be wrong. When you choose to fight over these points, especially with family members, your relationships can take a real hit. So rather than putting your ego first, Cheryl Butler, a contributor to Quick and Dirty Tips, recommends showing support for your family by admitting when you’re wrong and supporting them when they’re right. This simple act can go a long way toward building up trust and respect in your relationships.

Avoid Passing Judgement

Different families are going to experience different difficulties. But for many families, difficulties can spring from a lot of the same problems. For example, many modern families are struggling with their finances. If this sounds like your family, Katie Adams, a contributor to Investopedia.com, recommends showing your support by offering any assistance you can without passing judgement on their situation. Financial issues can arise from any number of circumstances, and asking for help can take a lot of humility. So if you’re aware of problems your family is facing regarding money, show your support for them by lending a hand without judging.

Allow Them To Learn Responsibility

For many families, healthy boundaries are things that are hard to set. Especially for certain personalities, it can be hard to allow others the chance to learn and grow on their own. But in order to support your family members’ advancement, the American Psychological Association shares that you have to allow members to learn responsibility for themselves. This means that rather than providing everything for each other, you support each other by giving them the opportunity to develop on their own sometimes. While this can be a challenge, it will ultimately help everyone come to love and respect each other even more.

If you’re looking for ways that you can better show your family that you love and support them, consider using some of the tips mentioned above.

Some people think that a second baby means double the work.  However, many parents will agree that it’s not just double, it’s exponential.  Beyond the increased financial responsibility there are also many other aspects to consider before getting pregnant again.   Here are some of the most important things to ask yourself before you choose to have another child.

Do You Have Enough Space?

One of the biggest challenges of bringing another little person into the equation is that they will require more space.  You may not see it when they are babies and not yet mobile, but once they are toddlers you will start to see that they are another moving entity around the house and start accumulating more things which also require space.

If both of your children are the same gender it can make sense for them to share a room.  However, if they are a boy and girl, sharing rooms may not be as realistic as they get older.  Ask yourself whether you think that you will be able to accommodate a new family member before putting yourself in a challenging position.

Can You Afford The Time Off Work?

Having a baby means that you’ll have to dedicate some time to make sure the birth goes smoothly as well as being able to spend the first part of their life with them.  Some people are blessed with a hefty maternity leave, while others have to quit their jobs altogether in order to be able to have a baby.

Take a good look at your employment situation and see whether you think that you can currently take the time off of work that you require for a baby, or whether it may rock the boat in your position.  The same goes for your partner.  Would they be able to cover expenses while you take time off work or vice versa?

Are You Ready To Sleep Very Little Again?

Mother nature has a way of playing tricks on us.  When we get baby fever we start thinking about all of the fun parts of having a baby but forget about the stressful and sleepless nights.

Don’t forget that a new baby puts a major strain on your sleeping patterns and may affect the sleep of your first child.  This can lead to two very exhausted parents.  Are you ready to do this again?

A few things that fit in this category include toys that aren’t total garbage, photographs, important documents, and awards. These may be things that you have gotten from your grandparents and plan on passing down to your grandchildren, assuming that they are taken care of properly through time.

Toys

Heirloom-quality toys are things that can be cherished over the years. Every new generation of children can play with them, and then when they outgrow them, they get put away in some storage container where they won’t rot, get wet, get dirty, or otherwise get damaged. It’s interesting to note that a lot of toys that were built a long time ago have withstood the test of time because they were constructed better in the past. However, you can buy wooden toys that are made in modern times that will face this test of generational use.

Photographs

Especially before the onset of digital technology, some of the most precious things in any household were the photographs the people had collected over the years. Not that many generations ago, photography was just being invented, and there are gorgeous pictures of families from those early days that have been passed on over time. These photos do fade, but there are modern photo restoration techniques that are amazing, you can do reprints that look just like the originals, and potentially even better! People often keep photographs in fireproof boxes because it’s the one thing they don’t want to lose in the event of a fire at home.

Important Documents

Relevant documents can get passed along through generations as well. Immigration papers. Birth certificates. Degrees from universities. All of these papers can hold a lot of value as they indicate milestones during the historical timeline of any family. If you want to archive your important documents, be sure to choose a storage medium that will create damage over time, especially with delicate paper.

Awards

And finally, if any member of your family has ever gotten an award, those can get passed down as heirlooms. If a family member was in a war and got any medals or ribbons, these are some of the most common types of awards that are cherished in families. They are often displayed in a shadowbox, or next to a picture of the person who received them. If well taken care of, awards like this can be in families for hundreds of years.