One of our favorite websites is www.DailyWorth.com. They send a daily (or less, if it’s your preference) email about how to budget, earn, save, invest and spend. Today’s email features “Free, Must-Try Shopping Smartphone Apps”:

Everyone wants to streamline their holiday gift hunt, but downloading (and decoding) a bunch of mobile shopping apps can seem like more effort than it’s worth. So I took a few to the mall to test-drive them. Here are three free ones that work with the iPhone/Android that actually made shopping easier:

Fast Mall
Concept: Download mall maps to see where stores are located, find the nearest restroom, track where your car is parked, and more.

Reality: Found Sephora. Found a bathroom. Found my car. Found Happiness.

Verdict: How have I shopped without you?

Key Ring
Concept: Scan loyalty cards (for reward points or discounts) into your phone so you’re no longer digging through your purse or missing out on perks because your card is at home.

Reality: At Petco, I saddled up to the cash register with my haul of cat food. With a quick scan by the salesclerk, my card (which helps earn discounts) immediately registered.

Verdict: Buh-bye clunky stack of plastic!

RedLaser
Concept: Before purchasing, use your phone to scan the bar code to see if a better deal can be found nearby or online.

Reality: At Target, a scan of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever showed I could borrow it for free at a nearby library. (Touché, RedLaser.) Otherwise, Target’s price of $8.99 was hard to beat. Some online prices were slightly better – until shipping was factored in.

Verdict: Squashes pesky inner voice that wonders if the price is right.

Phonetastic: Got any shopping apps that you like to use? Please let us know!

As part of its One Million Safer Kids project, Kidpower, a global leader in personal safety education for children, is reminding parents that the trick to having a fun, safe Halloween is to Stay Aware and to teach your children to do the same. As adults, we need to Stay Aware that:

• Safety does not take a holiday. Don’t let the relaxed atmosphere and distractions of holiday activities fool you into getting trapped by the Illusion of Safety. Stay aware of where your children are, whom they are with, and what they are doing.
• Kids need to be reminded of their safety rules. Last Halloween was a year ago, and that’s a long time in the life of a child. Review the rules about trick or treating with your children – and have them repeat the rules back to you. Remind kids to Stay Aware, Stay Together, Check First before they change their plan, and Think First if you are not available. Give kids a plan for how to get help if they get lost.
• People are safer crossing the street if they can see. Avoid costumes that make it hard to Stay Aware of cars and other hazards.
• Kids need adult supervision to stay safe. Even if your kids really want to, don’t let them go out without adult protection until they have the knowledge and skills they need to take charge of their emotional and physical safety.
• Giving the right answer is not the same as being prepared to make the safest choice. Just knowing what to do is not enough – you also have to be able to do it even if you feel embarrassed, confused, or uncomfortable. Give children and teens opportunities to practice personal safety skills successfully, and show you that they can use them consistently before deciding to let them go anywhere on their own.

For more information, read the full article, Halloween Safety ~ The Kidpower Way: A Grab Bag of Safety Treats and Tricks for Your Family! http://www.kidpower.org/resources/articles/halloween.html

And, learn how you can make a difference by joining Kidpower’s new One Million Safer Kids campaign. http://www.kidpower.org/millionsafer/

Shared courtesy of Irene van der Zande
Executive Director of Kidpower Teenpower Fullpower International
www.kidpower.org

As part of its One Million Safer Kids project, “Illusion of Safety.” Stay aware of where your children are, whom they are with, and what they are doing.

• Kids need to be reminded of their safety rules. Last Halloween was a year ago, and that’s a long time in the life of a child. Review the rules about trick or treating with your children – and have them repeat the rules back to you. Remind kids to Stay Aware, Stay Together, Check First before they change their plan, and Think First if you are not available. Give kids a plan for how to get help if they get lost.

• People are safer crossing the street if they can see. Avoid costumes that make it hard to Stay Aware of cars and other hazards.

• Kids need adult supervision to stay safe. Even if your kids really want to, don’t let them go out without adult protection until they have the knowledge and skills they need to take charge of their emotional and physical safety.

• Giving the right answer is not the same as being prepared to make the safest choice. Just knowing what to do is not enough – you also have to be able to do it even if you feel embarrassed, confused, or uncomfortable. Give children and teens opportunities to practice personal safety skills successfully, and show you that they can use them consistently before deciding to let them go anywhere on their own.

For more information, read the full article, Halloween Safety ~ The Kidpower Way: A Grab Bag of Safety Treats and Tricks for Your Family!

And, learn how you can make a difference by joining Kidpower’s new One Million Safer Kids campaign.

Lately I’ve really been having trouble thinking of blog topics. So I’m going to steal from the comic stylings of Jeff Foxworthy (if you remember his “You Might Be a Redneck” comedy routines from the 90’s…before he started being smarter than a 5th grader).

Here goes.

If you’ve ever caught yourself humming and/or doing the hand motions to “The Wheels on the Bus” in the grocery store, you might have kids.

If you can quote every line from Kung Fu Panda, Megamind, Cars, or Toy Story 1, 2 AND 3, you might have kids.

If you’ve ever made a “balanced” meal out of poptarts and string cheese, you might have kids.

If you never leave the house without a jumbo-sized bottle of “hanitizer” and a bag of goldfish, you might have kids.

If you can sing the entire theme song to iCarly, you might have kids.

If you’ve ever used the phrases, “because I said so,” “your face is going to freeze like that,” or “use your inside voice,” you might have kids.

If ketchup counts as a vegetable in your house, you might have kids.

If you would pay good money just to be able to take a half-hour nap, you might have kids.

If you know what Phineas and Ferb are going to do today, you might have kids.

If you have ever used paper plates because you didn’t want to do dishes, you might have kids.

If you have nightmares about Disney Princesses, you might have kids.

If you’ve ever injured yourself tripping over Bakugan, you might have kids.

If doing laundry seems like it should be an Olympic sport, you might have kids.

If you dream about zombies that eat plants or angry birds, you might have kids.

If you have a whole museum’s worth of “modern art” on your refrigerator door, you might have kids.

If you can correctly identify Thomas, Percy, Gordon, James, Harold, and Emily, you might have kids.

How about it, parents? Do you have any more that you could add?

I recently read an article about why it’s foolish to have kids. The author of this article went on to say that it doesn’t make sense to have kids economically (because elder-care is much less expensive than raising kids who will eventually take care of you) and it doesn’t make sense to have kids psychologically (because people without kids are generally less angry than people with kids). It goes so far as to say that parents are delusional–they delude themselves into thinking they are happier with kids than they would be without them.

While I think the author of the article made some interesting observations which were backed up by studies, I think he missed a very important point. It’s something any good parent would understand without any studies at all. It’s something I was reminded of a few weeks ago when a very dear friend was afraid her baby had a serious illness.

My friend went through two whirlwind weeks of taking her child to different doctors and specialists, trying to figure out what was wrong. When her child got a devastating diagnosis, she got a second opinion. Thankfully, it turned out that her child does not have the illness the first doctor thought, but the baby will require different kinds of therapies for quite some time. My friend is dealing with all of these things, dealing with all the stress, asking questions and doing what she has to do in order to ensure her child’s well-being.

I started thinking about my friend and how much she was going through. I asked myself, would I be willing to go through all of that? The answer I came up with was: Yes. If it was for my child, I would do just about anything.

Love. That’s what the author of that article missed. I don’t have children of my own, but I understand that there are few things stronger than a parent’s love for his/her child. Are children expensive? Yes. Do children sometimes drive their parents crazy? Yes. Are children worth it? Yes.

In my experience, most parents are NOT delusional. They realize their children are sapping away their financial resources and even sometimes their sanity. They know that parenting is, by far, the hardest job in the world. They don’t deny these things. They simply take all the negative things about children and parenting into account and say, “My kids are worth it. They are worth it because we love them.”

I think the author of that article missed one of the most amazing things about children–they allow us to look outside ourselves. The author of that article made several statements about why children are emotionally and financially draining to parents, but I think that leads to one of the more interesting things about parenting. I think it’s an amazing thing to realize that life isn’t all about us, and kids help show us that. Parents are willing to give so much time, energy, and–yes–money, to their children because they love them and want them to have the things they need, even if that means some personal sacrifice. I’m not a parent, but even I understand that there is something remarkable and miraculous about holding children, knowing that their well-being is more important to me than my well-being. It’s not psychobabble or DNA that keeps parents attached to their kids. It’s something far simpler and far more complex. It’s love.

For every battle over bedtime, every struggle over eating vegetables before dessert, every loud argument in the backseat over who’s touching who, there are a million other moments that make parenting something extraordinary. These precious kids’ hugs are not something you can put a price tag on. Even greater than the hugs are the rewards of seeing your children grow up into young people who are kind and thoughtful, generous and respectful. Does that take work? Yes. It takes a LOT of work, stress, tears, and laughter. Parents know that. Their children are worth it.

So maybe it is foolish to have kids, but in my opinion, love is the greatest kind of foolishness out there.

When I was in kindergarten, one of my teachers and I had a very small misunderstanding. She asked me what color I wanted, and I said I wanted pink. Pink was my favorite. All my clothes were pink. My toys were pink. All the things in my room were pink. I remember wishing that my parents would paint our minivan pink.

Well, my teacher had probably anticipated my desire to color with the pink crayon, so she immediately handed it to me. However, I was too smart AND too literal-minded my own good back then, and I rejected the crayon she gave me. “This is pink,” she said. “It’s the color you wanted.”

“No, it’s not,” I said. “The crayon doesn’t say pink. It says ‘car-nah-tee-on’ pink. I want pink.”

I don’t think that teacher ever understood that I was trying to read the label of the Crayola crayon. It wasn’t pink. It was “Carnation Pink.” To this day, the “Carnation Pink” crayon is still my favorite, even though my personal taste in color has expanded beyond the pink spectrum. I think the overwhelming presence of that obscene “shocking pink” color in the early 1990’s did some permanent damage to my retinas. I prefer blue now.

But Crayola Crayons had quite an impact on my childhood. The Roseart and Prang varieties just weren’t the same. Not only did the cheaper crayons break more easily and leave my art projects looking more waxy than colorful, but Roseart and Prang just didn’t seem to understand the importance of a good crayon color name. Looking back, I fondly remember such creative Crayola crayon names as “vivid tangerine,” “robin’s egg blue,” “burnt sienna,” “laser lemon,” “goldenrod,” “cornflower,” and even “purple mountain’s majesty.”

I remember being “jungle green” with envy over those privileged kids who had the coveted 64 color crayon box with built in crayon sharpener. My parents only got me the 24 color box, but at least I wasn’t like those poor children who only had the 8 crayon pack. In elementary school, crayon box sizes were definitely status symbols.

I also remember getting into some serious arguments with other kids over who got to use the “copper” crayon first. I think that my former BFF Tiffany and I ended our epic two year friendship over that “copper” crayon. Was it worth it? Of course! There was just something happy about getting to see that magical metallic color glide across my paper. To be honest, the metallic crayons still intrigue me.

So do you have any stories or fond memories about Crayola crayons? What’s your favorite crayon color name?

I’ve added a lot of new words to my vocabulary since I began working with children. I have often wondered how I ever managed to live without these words before. Back in the dark ages, I probably referred to a bottle of Purell as “hand sanitizer.” Back when the magical device called the Wii first invaded the world, I probably referred to the controller as a “Wii remote.”

In our enlightened times, the terms “hand sanitizer” and “Wii remote” are completely obsolete. They’ve been combined, merged, and force bred into new, more modern terms. All savvy children know that you should clean your hands with “hanitizer.” Every youthful gamer is aware that the Wii controller is called a “Wiimote.” No longer must our society suffer through the inconvenience of having to use two outdated words when one modern word combination (or “wombo”) will suffice.
I’ve noticed that wombos are particularly useful when it comes to food and eating. I can use a “spork” instead of a spoon and fork. I can eat “brunch” or “linner.” Instead of asking for a free refill at my favorite restaurant, I can save a whole 0.3 seconds and ask for a “freefill” instead. A child I know even dribbled root beer down her chin and announced that she had a “root beard.”

I’m one of those annoying grammar nazis, so sometimes I wonder if all of these new wombos are such a good idea. It seems that the English language has undergone several changes over the years, and many of these changes have been for the worse. Wombos don’t save us any time or do anything practical for us. On the other hand, they are kinda fun to use. So this grammar nazi is just going to chillax and let wombos happen. It’s not a big ginormous deal. I even made up my own wombo: rockamole. Guacamole that rocks.

How about you? Are there any wombos that you or your kids use on a regular basis? Have any of you or your kids made up your own wombos?

2011?

Really?

Really.

Somehow, my brain still thinks it’s about 2007 or, I don’t know, some year that begins with the number 19 instead of 20. When did it become 2011? I feel as though I missed something. I mean, according to the artist formerly known as the Artist Formerly Known As Prince, we were supposed to have some kind of party in 1999. According to a lot of paranoid people, all the computers were supposed to go crazy and the world was going to end in 2000. According to Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, in 2001 there was supposed to be some kind of space odyssey with a homicidal super-computer, and this past year, 2010, we were supposed to make contact.

None of those things happened (except for maybe that unbelievable party in 1999–to be honest, I don’t remember much of what happened in 1999, so who knows???). It’s now 2011.

Really?

Really.

So now it’s time to think about New Year’s resolutions. It seems that January 1, 2010 was only yesterday, but I had a whole year in which to complete all the resolutions and goals I had set. Some of them I kept fairly well. Others, well, not so much. I had a lot of expectations for 2010 that weren’t entirely fulfilled, and it’s easy to think about that and get a little depressed.

But then I think about all the things that happened in 2010 that I didn’t really expect or plan. I think about the times when I spent some time with friends when I could have been working on those lofty goals I’d set for myself. There are moments of laughter and togetherness that I might have missed out on if I’d been a control-freak about getting those goals and resolutions accomplished. Discipline and hard work are important, but they shouldn’t be at the expense of missing out on other wonderful aspects of life.

There’s no guarantee that I would have succeeded in completing all of my resolutions if I had spent all my free time working towards them. I could have missed out on a lot of good times and great relationships and still not have made any quantifiable progress on my goals. And life isn’t really a list of goals to set and accomplish anyway, though there’s nothing wrong with making (and trying to keep) resolutions. As long as I keep working towards my goals, there’s nothing wrong with carrying over my 2010 New Year’s resolutions into 2011, 2012, and beyond.

My expectations for 2011 don’t have to be according to anyone besides me, and so I’m going to keep working towards my goals while hopefully keeping an open mind. By the time 2021 comes around (that’s only ten years from now, folks), I don’t think it’s going to matter if I don’t immediately complete all the goals I set for myself in 2010 or 2011. When I look back on 2011, I’m hoping to remember it as one of the best years ever because of the things that aren’t quantifiable. The things that will matter most are the memories I make with the amazing kids and friends and family that surround me.

…but just in case you were wondering, one of my resolutions for 2011 is to try to keep up with the RightTime KiDS blog a little better.

Happy New Year! I hope 2011 is a great year for all our RightTime KiDS families!

I think most people can remember to a time when they’ve taken on too many responsibilities and just completely overcommitted themselves. Many people I know live this way constantly–always dashing off from one activity to the other. Many people I know thrive in states of consisitant chaos. They actually seem to enjoy not having time to breathe.

I’m not one of those people. I like doing things and being around others, but I’m also the kind of person who needs some down time. Yet lately, I’ve found myself in one of those times when I’ve committed to too many things. I have more responsibilities than I would really like to have. I’m not as busy as many people, but my current level of busyness is far beyond my current level of comfort.

I’ve been trying to keep a good attitude. After all, I am a grown up. If I’ve taken on too much, then I just have to put on my “Big Girl Pants” and deal with all of it. The thing is, after weeks and weeks of “dealing with it,” I’ve discovered that the elastic in my “Big Girl Pants” is starting to wear a little thin.

Maybe you can relate.

This is the time of year when we’re all supposed to count our blessings and be thankful for the things that we have. I can honestly say that I’m thankful for having work and other things to keep me busy. But when my positive attitude is getting just as stretched as my “Big Girl Pants,” it’s hard to express my thankfulness.

Sometimes I need reminders, and I’m thankful to have gotten one this week.

After a particularly long day in particularly long week, I reluctantly went into RTK reluctantly wearing my “Big Girl Pants.” I was almost immediately greeted by a four-year-old boy. He pointed at me, laughed, and said, “You have PASGHETTI PANTS!”

It just so happened that I had eaten spaghetti for lunch, so my immediate response was to look down at my pants to see if I had spilled something. Happily, my pants were spaghetti free. This child just thought it was funny to tell me that I had “Pasghetti Pants” for no apparent reason. My next reaction was to laugh and chase “Pasghetti Pants Boy” around for a bit.

A few minutes later, “Pasghetti Pants Boy” decided he wanted to play with another child, and I was left with a moment or two to ponder what had just happened. Being an adult often means that I do have to wear those “Big Girl Pants” and deal with all the stress in my life. But then there are those wonderful moments when I can change into my “Pasghetti Pants” and forget my various responsibilities and just have fun.

So this year I AM thankful for work where it’s part of my job to be silly. I’m thankful for all the friends I have and for all the incredible children in my life that remind me that it’s okay to change into my “Pasghetti Pants” every once in a while. I’m also VERY thankful for Thanksgiving–because it means I will get a much needed day off! Happy Thanksgiving to you all!