So I was at ShopRite last night. When I left the store my cart was full to the top, as soon as I passed the entrees to the store my cart’s wheels locked. I was so frustrated; 8pm at night, I’m by myself with a cart full of stuff and my car is 40 steps away. I was about to loose it when a very nice (and I have to stress out the very nice part) customer service clerk appeared. He said “Mrs., unfortunately you are not allowed to take out the car to the parking lot and the wheels lock as soon as the cart is out of the store. However, as I see you need help, I am here to take your purchases to your car”. My jaw dropped! I asked “since when does ShopRite offers this great service”. The clerk said that they always had it and if the shopper can’t find one of the assistant clerks by the entrants he/she should stop by the customer service desk and an assistant will be provided. Never in my life have I experience such a great customer service. I was so impressed that I’ve told the clerk that I will tell everybody I know about this.
And so I kept my promises and from now on I am a true ShopRite shopper!
I have to commend those brave soles who decided to have more than 2 children. I currently have two of my own, ages 5 and almost 3, and even though they are not far apart in age they could not have been more different in their character and tastes. No matter how hard I try to please both of them, someone always ends up being upset with me.
For example, the other night my 5 year old wanted to read “Harry Potter” and me 3 year old still likes “Good Bye Moon”.
In the beginning of the school year my 5 year old was very unhappy so I directed my energy towards him and signed us up for several activities because everybody told me he needed my attention. Now I look at my 3 year old and see that he would like to get some attention too. It is so hard to find a balance, especially since they don’t want to share my time; they both want to do activities with mommy, no brothers involved.
How do those families of 3+ kids give their kids individual attention? Not to mention the fighting that goes on between them, whether it’s play fight or a real one, I end up taking them apart … and I only have two hands.
My younger son was never a clingy baby. He didn’t really have a favorite toy or TV character. But around the time he turned two, he developed a relationship with his blanket, which he calls “ya-ya”. It started slowly, with my son asking for “ya-ya” when he was upset, scared and always at bedtime. Then he would take “ya-ya” as soon as he would come home from day care and drag it around for the rest of the day. So far, we’ve been able to keep one rule regarding “ya-ya”: it does not leave the house unless we’re going on an overnight trip. However I did catch “ya-ya” trying to sneak in the car with us on several other occasions.
You’re probably wondering why I even bother so much with this; just let the boy keep this comfort object. Well, first, my son almost outgrew the darn thing. Second, with all the mileage that “ya-ya” gets, I have to wash it several times a week; with a full time job, it barely makes it out of the dryer in time for bedtime, and if it doesn’t, all hell breaks loose. And I can’t imagine letting him take it to bed without a wash- who knows what is crawling on that thing. Third, ever since BBQ season began, every visit we have to a friends’ house, my son whines that he wants to go home. We end up searching our friends’ houses for something that resembles “ya-ya” because otherwise we end up having to go home. Our friends think we’re insane for tolerating this behavior.
All the materials I was able to find on the web about “lovey” and comfort objects say that you shouldn’t force the separation. But I can’t get the image out of my head of my son moving away to college with his “ya-ya” in tow. So if anyone has any ideas or suggestions I would appreciate the info.
If you ever get a chance to travel without your kids for a long weekend, I recommend you try Amsterdam. My husband and I just came back from our trip; it’s about a 6 hour flight to Amsterdam and 7 hours back (if you’re thinking of driving to Cape Cod or Vermont this flight is a real piece of cake)
When we had our kids, both my husband and I thought it would be a long time before we would get to travel to Europe, because everyone told us you need two weeks for those kinds of trips. But what we’ve learned is that if you pick one city in Europe it makes a perfect destination for a long weekend both cost and value wise.
We were able to see all of what Amsterdam has to offer, including all the museums and a canal tour in just two days, and for our third day, we visited the nearby city of Den Haag (http://www.denhaag.com/default.asp?id=DOORWAYNEWS-uk). Since everybody speaks perfect English, this made it so much easier for us to travel around and ask for directions. Amsterdam also has a great transportation system, which made getting around really simple.
We were there during the white nights, (http://www.europestring.com/white-nights-in-europe/) which means two things: 1 the sun doesn’t go down until about 10pm, which allows for taking full advantage of the weekend and 2 all the young people are completely dressed in white, which gives the whole city a unique look.
There are tons of small private hotels in Amsterdam and we stayed at http://www.fita.nl/ in the museum district, operated by a husband and wife who had ton of great info. For example, they were able to get us advanced tickets to most museums at no additional costs, so we didn’t have to wait in line. And for the museums they didn’t have tickets for, they told us when to visit in order to avoid the long lines. So we wasted no time on our trip.
It is so peaceful and quiet in the city during the weekend, it really feels that the whole city is resting. You do hear the occasional blaring music but mostly in the center and closer to the evening hours. So even though we walked a lot we really felt rested.
I am getting ready to move with my family into a new house. I remember moving into the house where I live right now and at that time I only had one child. We moved from an apartment to a house so we didn’t have a lot of stuff to move. Well, this time around I don’t know where to begin. I don’t even know how so much stuff accumulated over the years in my house. Just one room alone requires multiple boxes and I see no end to it.
I was searching online for some moving tips. I wanted to see if I can find something to lesson all my troubles here. One of the best tips that I found was to let go of things. It was suggested to throw some things out that are of lesser importance and then the load lessens up.
I also found a site that has professional movers that can help you pack your house up and move. I thought it was great service. I thought maybe to post a link on here for those of you who may be interested.
http://www.americanfamilypackers.net/services.php
I always try to find something for my 3 year old that is colorful, exciting and I know will capture his attention. I came across this book and was amazed not only will he be able to listen to old time favorite children’s verses but he also can do the puzzles that come along with the book. On each page where there is a verse there is a pocket with a puzzle pertaining to that verse. The pictures are huge and very pretty. We spend a ton of time discussing all of them and reading it over and over again.
Then I thought to my self to get more of these types of books. It is a rare find. On the back of the book I found the publishers website and was amazed to find more of the books I love. I would like to share this site with all of you.
I hope your toddlers can enjoy these as much as mine does.
I am trying to get my 6 year old son to read more. I read to him different types of books and a lot of them he is able to read on his own. There are certain books he likes and certain ones he would rather not listen to. I still have not figures out what exactly he likes more , which types of stories because if varies from day to day and from book to book. One day he wants to read about superheroes and the other day I see he wants a book with giant dinosaurs or something of that sort.
Yesterday I went to Barnes and Nobles to see what else I can introduce to my son. I would like to start him on a series of books. I think its something very exciting when you read the first book and you want to go on and read the next one and the one after that because it captures your attention. The series that I chose to start with is called Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. There were so many choice and after spending some time in the store I requested some help because I was not sure what would be appropriate for his age. I saw a lot of series books but most were for girl and then a sales person from that section suggestion Flat Stanley to me and said its one of he popular ones and enjoyed by kids.
We started on it last night. I hope he will catch on to it. Its all about a little boy and his adventures. I hope he will make an attempt to read this on his own butt for now even if he just wants to listen to it that’s ok also because it brings out his imagination and gives him the ability to discuss it with me and it promotes the skill of being able to understand and retell the story.
I am sure those of you who have a six year old child will know what I am talking about. They can be the cutest , silliest and the sweetest but when things don’t go their way , they become stubborn and upset. I have been observing my 6 year old son for a while now. I noticed that he makes friends easy, that he enjoys playing with other kids. What I also noticed is that when he plays with others and if there is a chance that he will lose he either backs out of the game or tries to change the rules. I will give you an example just last week I was walking him to school and he met two of his friends outside in the school yard. I didn’t know this but apparently they all compete to be the first in line when they walk up the stairs to their classroom. The three of the them were running in and then I hear my son saying guys stop. They all stop and he continues on his way running and getting there first. I see his face light up and he is so happy but it was not fair. The other two kids got very upset. I pulled him to the side and had to explain to him that what he did was not fair. That if he does not play honest his friends will not play with him. After the talk I admit I had a hard time convincing him that what he did was wrong but eventually he understood and apologized to his friends.
I read an article today online that apparently this is very common behavior for 6 year old kids and its best to catch them at it and explain to them that it is wrong. I want my son to compete for certain things in life cause I think it makes him want to strive and achieve higher results. I also want him to be an honest person cause in life in my opinion if you do something wrong it may work in the beginning but the truth always comes out.
I am sure many have gotten into the situation where a rude sales person came across their path. My first reaction is to just ignore it and walk away but lately I am so tired of it. I expect that when a customer comes to a store they should get the attention that they require. After being a sales girl in a store my self I got my share of pretty ridiculous people but never did yell , or was rude to them because no matter what they asked me and believe me there were some pretty interesting/stupid stuff like “can I dry clean towels?“ I mean who dry cleans their towels I know mine go in the machine for laundry. Anyways my point to this is you should always keep your cool and if you cant deal with people stay out of this field.
I came into super market a not far from my house to get a few things. I came to the cold cuts section and asked for they guy there to help me. I asked him for a certain type of smoked turkey that I know they had a week prior to this and he turns around and tells me am “ It didn’t fly to us yet , it only migrates here a few times a year” I didn’t come to him for jokes if he does not have it just say so why give me some stupid answer. Then I asked him for provolone cheese and I see there is a brand new pack right in front of me behind the glass. He says to me “no we don’t have it” here is where I went crazy. I am a customer and I don’t appreciate being lied to. I went to the manager to complain. I don’t know what good it will do , I felt like all I did was waste my time and my nervous but I for sure hope I was heard. I have not gone there for a while after that cause after you have been treated bad you just don’t want to go.
I can provide a ton of examples about being treated rude in a store. My dad was purchasing some cold cuts in a Russian store in Brooklyn and while he is standing online and waiting patiently the sales woman is chatting up the storm with her friend and not paying a attention to him. So he politely asked if he can get some service and after she had given him the stuff he wanted instead of saying thank you she said “I hope you choke on it”
I would like to post some tips on how to handle these rude people and hopefully it will help someone when they are not being treated the right way.
http://lifestyle.msn.com/relationships/article.aspx?cp-documentid=8319042
http://www.wikihow.com/Deal-With-Immensely-Rude-People
Good luck and don’t let anyone get to you 
I am currently in carrier transition stage. As part of my carrier change I am required to get a certification. When my RE Investment Analysis class started I freaked out, I graduated college six years ago and needed some adjustment. However, I quickly realized that all the formulas professor was going through in class were remotely familiar to me. By the end of the class my faint memory of Algebra was back and functioning to its capacity. I even thought to my self that if my son will ever say “when in the world would I ever use Algebra?”, I would answer “RE Investment Analysis”.
Today I came across an article http://blogs.babycenter.com/momformation/2009/06/07/girls-and-math-dont-blame-biology/comment-page-1/#comment-2437625 where the author was asking the same type of question.
My husband and I always fight over this topic, he is a historian by nature and I’m more about logic and math. He thinks that it is more important to know history and geography, which I agree to be very important topics. But math in my opinion is more then that, Math is a way of thinking. Understanding Math is not about learning facts or remembering dates it’s about understanding how things work and why.
I’m very thankful that my parents spend the time on helping me develop my math skills. I believe that thanks to math I’m a much better analyzer of not only math but life situations and problems in general. Which is why I think math is an important topic to teach your kid and not dismiss it as “a boy’s thing”.
I may not know the capital of Madagascar (Antananarivo thank you Wikipedia) but I am able to manage any size of business venture.
So check out the article and add your response to what you think about Math.