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A Mom's Ultimate Book of Lists: 100+ Lists to Save You Time, Money and Sanity
Grocery lists. Checklists. To-do lists. Lots of people love--and live by--lists. And parents are no exception. Today's families are busier than ever, and moms don't have the time or energy to search and scramble for the parenting information they are desperately seeking. This handy, practical reference guide will save time, money, and sanity for today's busy women.
A Mom's Ultimate Book of Lists is your one-stop resource for more than 100 lists to live by, including: When to Call the Doctor Questions to Ask before Choosing a Pediatrician Sleep Training Your Baby Top Toys for the First Year Terrific Activities Toddlers Love Easy Steps for Taming Tantrums Feeding a Picky Eater Signs of a Family-Friendly Restaurant Common Childhood Allergies and Illnesses Instant Pick-Me-Ups and so much more Start saving your time, money, and sanity today!
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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!
Nanny to the Rescue 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, former 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 encourge 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.
Doing It All
 Long gone are the days of Susie Homemaker, where the ultimate task and treasure of her day was preparing the family meal for 5 o'clock prompt - presented on a perfectly set table, sat at by perfectly groomed children, while herself apron painstakingly pressed ready to proudly serve her family their evening meal.
Greeted with a kiss on the cheek by her husband as he walked through the door, the entire family sat at the dinner table and enjoyed gracious food and conversation. Ah, how practically perfect in most everyway.
Today's reality is that with mom at the workplace, dad at the office, and the kids at school, at childcare or with the nanny, mom is still expected to come home and voila bring everyone back to the gathering place of the family home - the kitchen table - with a home cooked meal set in place and ready to go.
Regardless of where they've come from or where they've been, and after herself having to regroup and switch gears from work to home in nearly the blink of an eye, it becomes her concern to figure out how to get everyone home, to plan and prepare meals, and to work around the grueling soccer schedules, dinner meetings and tutoring sessions that occupy the busy and rarely coordinated schedules of her family - just so they can enjoy a few minutes of family time in their otherwise disjointed days.
As a professional nanny with over a decade of experience in dual income homes, I've often seen the struggle working mothers face trying to do it all. The stress that comes with having to choose between family dinners and business meetings, coordinating childcare coverage and the daily struggle of not being able to be in multiple places at the same time often constitutes a full time job in itself.
So how can today's working mother enjoy the family dinners of times past, while balancing a loving home life with a productive work life?
Here are a few of my tried and true tips that have helped many moms' do it all.
- Limit your family members' extracurricular activities to a manageable minimum. More than two activities per person push the families' scheduling limit.
- Use the carpool lane. Team up with others who share in the same activities and take turns with transportation.
- Have a set dinner time. Even if the dinner bell rings later than the days of times past, the wait will be worth it.
- Plan your meals in advance by having theme nights. Have Monday as meat night, Tuesday as Tex-Mex night, etc.
- Grocery shop online. Many grocers offer the convenience of meal planning and delivery that can save you time by doing it all with the click of a mouse.
- Give everyone a job to do. Work as a team, having each family member take turns in the set up, preparation, serving and clean up tasks required for the nightly meal.
- Go disposable. The time saved in clean up effort, allows for more family time and lets even the youngest child have a meaningful part in the dinner process.
- Invest in a crock pot. Old fashioned meets new age. Put it in in the morning and come home to a house that smells like you've been cooking all day.
- Pass off tasks to others. If you can afford to have a weekly housekeeper handle the heavy duty cleaning- invest in it. If you can afford to have your dry cleaning and laundry picked up and delivered instead of having to do it yourself - go ahead - but use the time saved to spend with your family.
- Have meaningful conversation at the dinner table. Go around the table and ask each person to tell the best and worst thing of their day.
Looking back we realize that although we may have said goodbye to Susie homemaker and hello to working mother, the goal of both remains the same. To enjoy a bit of family time at the end of each day at the family gathering place - the kitchen table. Hopefully now, you know how to get there.
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More Parenting Advice:
http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Parents-Young.shtml
http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Parents-Teens.shtml
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/parenting.html
About America's Nanny:
Michelle LaRowe has been the 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 .
Parenting Advice Article Archive
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Separation Anxiety
Toddler Temper Tantrums
How to Hire a Babysitter
More Parenting Advice Resources:
Learn about the nanny industry visit the websites of the International Nanny Association, www.nanny.org .
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Contact America's Nanny:
Michelle LaRowe
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Products reviewed by Michelle have been provided to her at no cost by the manufacturer or distributor.