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Working Mom's 411 is your one-stop resource guide for navigating through the often choppy waters of managing kids, career and home. With extensive experience as a credentialed nanny, household manager and as a working mom herself, Michelle is sure to make you laugh out loud as she shares her expert take on the common dilemmas that working mothers face.
At your fingertips, you will find expert advice, up to date information and tried-and-true tips on everything from choosing childcare to streamlining housework, homework and more. You'll discover super solutions to problems big and small from learning how to let go of that all-too-familiar working moms guilt to dealing with family and friends who have different ideas about home moms and careers should mix. Buy Now!
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America's nanny offers a large dose of healthy parenting advice with secrets for raising happy, secure, and well-balanced babies and toddlers.
Babies don't come with instructions. And since today's parents are so overwhelmed with schedules and demands, they have little time to bone up on their parenting skills. Often removed from grandparents and relatives who in times past lived next door or just down the street, they have no one to guide them through the disorienting world of raising children. Enter Nanny to the Rescue! Michelle LaRowe, 2004 International Nanny Association "Nanny of the Year," gives her tried and true solutions to childcare. Her expertise with chapters titled "Who's the boss?" and "Discipline is not a four letter word" gives confidence to parents who need specific ideas for real day-to-day problems. A proud member of Christian Nannies, Michelle offers foundational truths sure to help encourage moms and dads.
Nanny To the Rescue Again
Faced with multiple choices regarding school, friends, and activities coupled with the ever-widening influence of the outside world, parents of 6-12 year olds need help. America's nanny is back to offer a large dose of healthy parenting advice with secrets for raising happy, secure, and well-balanced children.
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THE MINI MONEY PIT
 It's no surprise that raising a child is costly, but some well to do parents are taking this cost to a whole new level, easily dropping $1 million to raise their child from birth to age eighteen.
With the trend of designer nurseries, custom made bedding, night nurses, day nannies, pimped up prams and boutique baby wear, it's easy to drop a few hundred thousand in the first year alone.
And with competitive nursery school slots costing more than a public college education and private lessons for everything from French to horseback riding lessons, the cost of raising an upper crust child through the preschool years can be more than many average working parents earn in a lifetime. With a specialist on hand to cover everything from etiquette education to behavior coaching, todays wealthy parents are finding more and more ways to spend money on their kids.
But if they have it, should they flaunt it? It is their money, after all.
If the well isn't in jeopardy of drying up, why not? Because the problem is that the growing trend of spending elaborately on their children isn't limited to the rich and famous.
What starts out with having the must have $800 Bugaboo stroller quickly turns into a habit of parents spending way beyond their budget. And parents are having a hard time differentiating between must haves and want to haves.
And when their seven year old has an interest in playing hockey, parents are hard pressed to turn the request down, even know they can not afford the thousands of dollars in equipment, ice time and team traveling expenses.
But it's private education that is driving the inflating cost of childrearing. Although on paper a family can't afford the $12,000 annual preschool tuition, families are determined that they will find a way to make it work.
Cleary parents want their children to have the very best, but is remortgaging the house in the name of furnishing the kids room with designer décor really worth the cost?
And with recent estimates citing that dual income families earning $38,000 - $64,000 a year will spend nearly $270,000 to raise a child from birth to age 17, even this seems more than many families could ever afford.
So when it comes to spending on the kids, sometimes less can be more. Stick within your budget and although it's okay to splurge once in a while, avoid splurging as a way of life. Get what you need, and do what you can, when you can.
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Michelle LaRowe is the 2004 International Nanny Association Nanny of the Year. A career nanny specializing in caring for twins, Michelle has over a decade of nanny experience. Although she holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry, she has found her true calling, working as a professional nanny.
Michelle is an active member of the nanny community. She is the founder and president of Boston Area Nannies, Inc., a local non profit educational organization and has served on the International Nanny Association Board of Directors for the past five years. During that time she has also served as the associations 1st Vice President. Michelle is also a proud member of Christian Nannies.
She is called on by the media as a nanny and parenting expert, and has been affectionately dubbed America's Nanny. Michelle has appeared on television and has been featured in print. She is the author of the new parenting series, Nanny to the Rescue!, a contributing writer in the Experts' Guide to the Baby Years and a regular columnist in several parenting publications, including Twins Magazine.
To learn more about Michelle and to get your parenting tip of the day, please visit www.michellelarowe.com.
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