Retirement Plan

Well, this blog has officially made its first revenue, though I'm not quite ready to quit my day job. I suppose I would have more time for posting, but really the transition back to school for the whole household has been all-consuming and has left me with plenty to post about, but no energy to do so.

But, back to the big, big profits. Earlier this year I experimented with ads on the blog, mainly as part of my own education to see what kinds of advertisers would show up based on my postings. I took them down after a short trial. Then I looked into the Juicebox Jungle widget (can currently be seen on my sidebar). I haven't done a lot of posting about them, but have been keeping my eye on their website to see if it has anything of interest. Really, for parenting videos, I tend to go to momversation.com, which is a site where blog-writing moms have a virtual video discussion of a topic a couple of times a week. But the latest Juicebox Jungle gig is that they've hooked up with Paper Culture eco-friendly service which addresses and mails your cards for you (birth announcements, invites etc.). The link I posted has a 30% discount for you, my many loyal readers. The sidebar links to ecards, which I have yet to check out. Since I tend to be rather lame with the mailing of birthday cards in a timely manner I am a frequent user of the ecard, and am always looking for a new source since many of the freebies are less than impressive.

In case you're worried that I'm selling out and going big-time, I'm keeping any ad-related posting to a minimum. Again, just an experiment. And so far, drum roll please, the big payout? Twenty-five cents.

The Electronic Babysitter

More parenting videos on JuiceBoxJungle

This episode seemed as brainless and wishy-washy as kids watching tv can get. Okay, I get it, people have circumstances which make them exert little or no parental controls over the kids' tv viewing. And their suggestions are fine (select the shows for them, watch with the kids, try to engage them in conversation [good luck with that one], limit the time), but if the point is that you need tv for an emergency babysitter or to get dinner made, you aren't going to be watching alongside the children, now are you?

TV watching is one of the battles I've picked, and frankly, it hasn't been a battle at all. At least not with my kid. Maybe internally, when I've wanted to get a break but haven't. Not to say that there is no TV viewing whatsoever in our house (I have become a far bigger consumer of TV since becoming a parent, aka not having a life), but for the child it is very limited. She absolutely loves it when she gets a chance, and it works perfectly when I really need it, but only because it is so rare. And because I don't rely on it to get dinner made, neither does she. Of course, I only have one kid, and I have many other advantages that have made that choice possible for me.

I guess I just think that our society in general needs to practice more intentionality in the media they expose themselves and their children to. After all, you could end up watching Lost.

Grandparents

I stumbled on this parenting site today and am curious to see if the model they are using works. They are linking with parent bloggers out there on parenting topics, this particular one being how to deal with grandparents.

More parenting videos on JuiceBoxJungle

I've heard some pretty amusing stories of grandparents seeming to have lost touch entirely with their parenting skills by the time their kids have offspring. From indulging them with sugary treats and overloading them with toys and gifts to saying "they wanted to" as a reason for jumping on the furniture, some grandparents seem to have thrown their judgment out the window when it comes to their new little darlings. But I think there is a certain natural flow from parent to grandparent that allows for more indulgences, and it is part of the bonding between grandchild and grandparent.

In our family's case, seeing the grandparents is a big treat for all of us, because they live far away and so it requires a plane trip for us or them to get together. We are lucky, too, that our parents respect the choices we have made as parents and do their best to follow our rules when they are spending time with Adelaide. But I think it goes both ways, because I am able to be more relaxed about what is and isn't okay when the grandparents are in charge because it is really a treat, and Adelaide knows that. I agree with the conclusions this video clip comes to for the most part, but for parents that are relying on a grandma for fairly consistent babysitting I do think that having a conversation and laying some ground rules is important. In the case of parents and grandparents whose styles differ in the extreme, the parents need to choose their battles and come to an agreement with the grandparents on what things simply aren't acceptable. As a mom you have to play the bad cop all the time with the kids, so suck it up and talk to your mom or mother-in-law about the ice cream for breakfast. Kids certainly can learn that there are different rules with grandma than with mom, but for grandma's sake I think it's better if her rules don't clash with your big-picture family choices.

I was a nanny for a family in Germany who hired me to give Grandma some relief. She basically could no longer handle the 3 1/2 year-old son for more than a half day, because she was unable to set any boundaries with him. Of course, in this case her choices were similar to the parents (his mom once came home and gleefully announced that the boy had eaten 3 ice cream cones, wasn't he so amazing), but as an outsider to the family I could see that they were creating a little monster by indulging this kid's every whim. The video talks about the benefits of the child getting in touch with the family heritage by spending time with grandma, but shouldn't they also be given the opportunity to respect grandma?