Tag Archive for babies

Charity on a Budget

Yes, you’d love to give more, but what can you do on such a tight budget?  The answer: always keep others in mind.  Use coupons and set aside the savings until you have, say, $20 to donate to a charity.  Recycle often, keeping the money in a baggie in your purse—and give what you have to the next homeless person you meet.  Watch for good 2-for-1 sales and donate that second box of cereal or sack of flour to a food bank, the food collection at your place of worship, or a family you know who needs it.

If you go to garage sales, pick up clothing and household items in good condition to give to a shelter for battered women or an organization helping disaster victims.  Cashing in on a great sale on yarn?  Get extra and make items for layette programs sponsored by many churches. We don’t need to be rich to make a difference; we just need to watch for opportunities to help make life better for others.

Spare the Rod/Spoil the Child–or Save Them?

Not according to the latest American Academy of Pediatrics policy-change. The Academy now urges parents NOT to spank, hit, slap, threaten, verbally abuse, shame, or humiliate their kids when they misbehave. New evidence shows that such actions lead to aggression and depression in kids and shrinks the grey matter in their brains.

Corporal punishment, says the Academy, can cause injury to under-18-month-olds, make preschoolers behave more aggressively, increase the chances of kids’ being defiant as they get older, and lead to mental health and cognitive disorders. Moreover, “spanking alone is associated with adverse outcomes, and these outcomes are similar to those in children who experience physical abuse.”

They suggest using other methods of correction: quiet talk at their eye level; restricting their Internet and video games; reinforcing their positive actions. They offer age-specific methods of discipline, as well. Babies should be distracted or moved away from the site of the problem. Preschoolers should be given time-outs. And older kids should have natural consequences.

Read the report. In today’s violent society, it makes sense–for our kids and for our future–to think about discipline for children.

Laundry and Unhealthy Families

Love your babies? The keep them away from fabric softener.

 

Note VOCs are Volatile Organic Compounds. They pollute our indoor air and cause health problems.

(This Sensible Saturday hint thanks to Tina Silva Blease.)

 

 

[For more easy, money-saving, Earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000 or your favorite e-book seller and download to your computer or e-book device. Totally free, with no strings attached.]

Puzzle Ribbon

What is that funny ribbon people are wearing–the one with puzzle pieces on it?  It’s the puzzle ribbon, symbol for autism, and April is Autism Awareness Month.

3.5+ million Americans live with ASD (autism spectrum disorder).  It makes it hard for them to communicate or interact with other people.  For every 68 babies born, 1 will have some variation of this developmental disorder.  So you probably know someone with it.

ASD is a spectrum, meaning that the symptoms range from very obvious to hardly noticeable.  My grandson is on the autism spectrum and is learning how to handle his limitations.  He starts college in the fall.

If you learn more about this condition you’ll rethink people’s “odd” or uncommunicative behavior.  Can’t hurt.  Go to https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism.