Questionable Choices in Parenting

Laughing at life as a parent so they don't commit me

Easy Games for Kids on Long Car Rides

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It takes me exactly three hours to get from my house to my parents house. Now, add my kids to that trip and we’ve got potty breaks, pulling over to pass back snacks and drinks,  DVD change, and yet another potty break, searches for lost toys, potty breaks again, more snacks, another drink, I lost my crayons, and yet again another potty break. So that three hour ride, just got a whole lot longer. So I need to get super creative and a few games that take little prep from me. I’m sharing our super easy and super fun games on long car rides. Head over to Len Stoler Doge to check out my games! Click right here!

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The Mom’s Quick Guide For Caring For Your Car!

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As moms, we’re super busy and on top of everything our kids need–snacks, that lost shoe they simply can’t find, the toy they MUST have to sleep every night.  But sometimes, we let other things slide, like maintaining our cars. I’m not just talking about getting it washed and vacuumed once in a blue moon. So keep your precious cargo safe and your wallet intact by using my grandfather’s words of wisdom, and I’ll show you how to make your life easier while. Click here to find me over at Thompson Mazda sharing my Guide for Caring for your Car!

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Dexing and Skittling– Do you know what this means?

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I’ve recently realized that I am quite out of touch when it comes to the newest lingo teenagers are using. When I was teaching in a high school I’d see all the latest fashions paraded in my classroom, know all about the musicians my students were obsessed with, and I’d hear their teenage slang in the hallways and see it written in their English essays–that one was painful, I’ll admit. Since I’m no longer teaching in a classroom and my kids are very young, what’s cool,  new, and in-the-now with teens is quite a mystery to me. What about you? Would you know what your teen was talking about if they said kids were “Dexing”? How about “Skittling?”

Naively I would think they are talking about a new dance move, but I would be so very wrong. Because these two phrases are actually terms teens use to talk about abusing over-the-counter medicines that contain dextromethorphan (DXM). Feeling out of touch right now? Me too.

Since October is National Medicine Abuse Awareness Month, now is the time to empower yourself  with the knowledge to help your kids (even if they are really young) to know the dangers and for you as a parent to spot the warning signs of OTC abuse of DXM

Some DXM Facts:

  • Approximately 1 in 30 teens have abused cough medicine to get high, and one in three teens in grades 9-12 knows someone who has abused cough medicine to get high.
  • In 2010, 65 percent of teens agreed that DXM was “very/fairly easy to get.” That number has since gone down to 41 percent.
  • Taken in excessive doses, DXM has intoxicating, dissociative, and psychoactive properties. Teens report taking up to 25 times or more of the recommended dose of cough medicine to get high. Side effects from abuse include nausea and vomiting, distortions of color and sound, hallucinations, and loss of motor control. When combined with other substances (drugs and alcohol), it can be very dangerous and even lethal.

 

But the one fact that stuck out to me the most: Teens who learn a lot about the risks of drugs from their parents are 50 percent less likely to use drugs.  According to StopMedicineAbuse.org when teens want to know more about drugs, it’s not their parents they turn to. Teenagers are almost three times as likely to trust their friends as a source of information than their family (this means sibbling too). They also turn to their most trusted source,  a good old Goolge search. Here’s what parents need to know.

  • Online search for DXM peaks during two times of year, aligning with back-to-school time: September/October and January/February.
  • Teens look to YouTube, social media, and online discussion forums like Erowid.com to get info.
  • Teens are more themselves on their mobile device and on platforms away from their parents.  They use different channels to manage their online reputation and to keep some privacy. Say gooodbye to the days of the journal hidden in their room.
  • 26% of teens agree strongly/somewhat that taking non-prescription cough/cold medicine to get high is something cool kids do, down from 29 percent in 2011. an overwhelming majority of teens have hidden online activities from parents (79 %).

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The kids seeking out this info are referred to as “fence sitters.” They are very curious, want to know more, but they haven’t tried dexing yet. What are they finding online is actually going to surpirse you. Thanks to the amazing efforts of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) and StopMedicineAbuse.org, teens will find the award-winning effort WhatisDXM.com and not the regular websites that talk about how to use the drugs.

Fence sitters will find real-life testimonials, games, apps, and bait-and-switch videos interrupt teens’ searches and change their perceptions of cough medicine abuse. Pretty amazing, right?  Today, teen abuse of OTC cough medicine is at an all-time low and it’s because of CHPA and StopMedicineAbuse.org efforts. Because this generation of teens worries so much about image to peers and social media is like breathing to them, WhatisDXM.com shows the awful side of cough medicine abuse: sloppy teenagers annoying their friends by acting stupid, saying dumb things, and even throwing up on themselves. No teen with a fragile ego wants that sort of embarrassment in front of their friends or posted online.

WhatisDXM.com uses the negative perception of DXM abuse and teens’ fear of social disapproval to make DXM more undesirable and it’s really reaching these teens:

  • Teens have directly engaged with this content online (viewed, shared, clicked, commented) more than 21 million times, visited the website one million times, and the apps have been downloaded almost 300,000 times.

 

Parents, need a way to talk to your kids? Want more info? Here’s a list of amazing resources to help you get those conversations started. 

Resources:

Stop Medicine Abuse on Pinterest

Stop Medicine Abuse on Facebook

Stop Medicine Abuse on Twitter @StopMedAbuse #StopMedAbuse

Main website: http://www.whatisdxm.com/

YouTube channel with all videos – including teen perspective:https://www.youtube.com/user/DXMstrs

Facebook app (2.5 minute experience that scrapes your Facebook page for a simulated real-world experience, must log in via your Facebook page):http://sipitup.me/

Trailer for mobile app DXM Labworks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-boIyNwaV-Q

This post is sponsored by the CHPA educational foundation,KnowYourOTCs.org but all opinions are my own.

Easy Ways Every Mom Can Keep Her Car Clean

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My car is super clean…..bahahahaha. Let me try to say that again with a straight face. My car…. is ….super…. OK, I just can’t tell you such a lie. Come on, I’m a mom with young kids, and try as I might, my car is a mess. Don’t worry, my car doesn’t looks like an episode of hoarders, but we do have random school papers floating around, a few empty water bottles, and a a lot of rouge snacks that my dog hasn’t nibbled on when she comes for a ride. But, I’ve got some easy ways that we can keep our car a little cleaner and I’m sharing them over at Thompson Chrysler’s website. Click here to be magically transported!

Entertaining Kids on Long Car Rides

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With the holidays just around the corner (seriously, it’s not even Halloween and there are already Christmas decorations out in the stores), you might have some long car rides planned for your family. Keeping kids entertained in the car can be tricky, but I’ve got some fun, inexpensive, and EASY ideas to keep everyone in your car happy until you arrive! Click here to be magically transported to my post!

 

Even Superheroes Need a Snack

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This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MARVELSnackBar #CollectiveBias

Need a snack

Sure MARVEL has Iron Man, The Hulk, and Captain America to save the day, but around here, we’ve got Super Aaron. Never heard of him? Let me tell you all about my superhero! He’s pretty amazing and has all kinds of superpowers like making everyone around him laugh all day long, can surf some of the biggest waves on his boogie board, is always willing to share with his sidekick (his sister), and he just started kindergarten!

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Already he is using all those super powers all day long to make friends, listen to his teachers, and ride the big yellow bus for the first time. I mean, even I wasn’t feeling so super about him riding that bus. However, he just got right on and waved and waved until we couldn’t see the bus anymore.

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So just like his bookbag, lunchbox, shoes, shirts, socks, underwear (yes, underwear)and every toy he owns, he wants his favorite superheroes everywhere. His current lunchbox must have is a MARVEL Chewy Granola Chewy Bar. He is loving that all of his favorite MARVEL heroes are featured on the granola bars: Captain America, Hulk, Spider Man, Iron Man, Black Widow, and Thor, and that these bars are 40% bigger to satisfy that superhero sized appetite. So these granola bars are perfect for his lunchbox or a quick snack after school to get him refueled and ready to save the world again.lunchboxI just turned by back for a minute, and I can’t be sure if Spider Man came swinging in and finished packing Super Aaron’s Lunch, or maybe Iron Man used his lasers to move the entire box of MARVEL Chewy Granola Bars into his lunchbox. Either way, I had to use a Hulk Smash and put a few back in the box, but I assured our Superhero that I would defend these yummy granola bars from any planned attacks (or a Daddy that likes to eat his kids’ granola bars.

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When I was doing all my back to school shopping, I found the MARVEL Chewy Granola Bars at Walmart, and grabbed a few boxes to last us through lots of lunch box packing, after school snacks, and the occasional evil villain’s plan of taking over the world (or just eating a few too many granola bars)

IMG_7440Even superheroes need a snack after a long day of fighting crime (or learning all those important kindergarten lessons), and Super Aaron is happy to be reunited with his sidekick and to be refueled and ready to save the day after a quick superhero snack. These two are quite the dynamic duo!

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 Be sure to check out how to make snack time even more SUPER at the MARVEL hub. How do you play superhero during lunch time?

It’s Really Time to Listen To Your Mother–The 2015 Videos are here!

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LTYM

Here’s what I have planned for the next few days: I’m going to stay in my jammies, all curled up in my bed, and I am going to watch hours and hours of Listen To Your Mother videos while I laugh out loud, cry happy tears, cry ugly tears, say over and over “YES! Yes, me too,” feverishly search out the readers online to tell them how much I loved and adored their readings, and thank my lucky stars that Listen To Your Mother is such an integral and life changing part of my own little life as a member of the Washington DC cast and then as part of the trifecta team that brought the show to Pittsburgh this year.

Obviously the whole “take care of your kids” thing will get in the way of these lofty dreams, so while I’d like to do all of this in the next few days, I will gladly take my time as I watch the LTYM 2015 library and I do hope you will do the same!

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Look at my ladies! I could not be more proud of them and eacch and every lady played such an important role in creating such a fantastic story and perfect inaugural cast. Sniff, sniff… can you tell I LOVE these gals and this show? I’m thrilled to share with you, Listen To Your Mother: Pittsburgh 2015:

Natalie Capone Gillespie
My Declaration of Independence: Natalie’s look at the growing independence of her son … and herself.

Tina Tuminella
Now I Get It: Tina Tuminella wasn’t much of a baby person. She waited until her 40s to have kids and NOW understands babies and what a big deal it is to be a mom.

Danielle Sibley-Siegel
Email to Nowhere: In an attempt to help her deal with the raging emotional swings of PPD, Danielle wrote an email to nowhere listing things that were upsetting her. Looking back at it a year later with clearer vision, she’s amused by the kinds of things that pissed her off.

Erika Fricke
Unplanned Parenthood: After planning the birth of her second child to the last detail, Erika found out there is no amount of planning that prepares you for the experience of parenting each of your children—and the often unexpected issues that arise for both baby and mother.

Stephanie Jankowski
Let There Be Bitches: Stephanie shares lessons with her feisty-from-birth daughter about being true to herself—even if that means being labeled a “bitch.” (Blog: When Crazy Meets Exhaustion)

Jennifer Pelling
Mother Hen: Jennifer captures the quintessential mothering instinct experience as told through the life of a chicken. Her story will linger with you, I promise you that. (Blog: You Are Here Stories)

Britt Reints
Snapshots: Britt wonders if her children will remember their childhood in snapshots the way she remembers her own. (Blog: In Pursuit of Happiness)

Gina Jones
I Am a Mother: In a take-you-to-the-Church-of-Mom, Gina looks at her own life in an attempt to find her purpose and sees her greatest achievement reflected in the son she’s raised.

Ilene Marshall
Lunch with Mom: Ilene reminisces about a time her mother nearly ruined her cool status with a surprise visit for lunch at her elementary school—and wishes she had known to cherish it. (Blog:These Marmalade Skies)

Tamara Reese
Mothering in the Mirror: Tamara exposes her vulnerable past as she shares her emotional journey worrying whether she would pass the same troubles to her daughter as an extension of herself.

Jennifer Hicks
’Twas the Night Before College: Jen rewrote the well-known Christmas poem to tell the story of what she imagines will happen in two short years when her son gets ready to head to college. (Blog: Real Life Parenting)

Dawn Patton Mangine
Mother of the Year: Dawn recalls the day her daughter called the police because she was “being a mean mom” as one of the funny examples of times she’s felt like the “mother of the year.” (Blog:Red Pen Mama)

Kristen Stepanczuk
Planned Parenthood: Kristen shares the story of the conception of her daughter in a way that will make you laugh every time you hear the word “spelunking.”  (Blog: You Can Always Make a Little)

ltym 2015

When Avengers Unite at Our House, What Will Happen Next?

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This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #AvengersUnite #CollectiveBias

#Avengers Unite #CollecctiveBiasWhen you’re a superhero in training, your days are exhausting. You spend hours learning about super villains and all their evil ways (or you go to preschool). Your training is extensive while honing your special powers and battle skills (you wrestle with your brother/sister). But most importantly, you must keep up your strength so you can protect the world (eat snacks that ONLY have Avengers on the box). Lucky for these superheros, their super mom knows what they like.

Hulk Want Food

But even Superheros can find shopping a bit tedious. I mean, come on, they spend their days fighting evil and now they have to ride around in Mom’s shopping cart and not some amazing, super fast, super amazing car!  Lame.

So while we were stocking up on Avenger only snacks at Walmart, we used the Super Heroes Assemble app to make our shopping trip more of an adventure. The app has all sorts of fun features that you can unlock while you’re shopping in the store (and entertaining your superheros)and a lot of fun features for when you get home. 

You can download the app, Super Heroes Assemble, in the Google Play store, iTunes, or from the Walmart Avengers website.

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When you first download the app, a lot of the features are locked. Lucky for you, you have superhero powers to magically unlock each feature. Some will ask you to scan specially marked foods like these special Avengers Cheez-its

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Boom–super powers are pretty rad, right?

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To unlock other features of the app, you have to scan images of Avenger signs that can be found at Walmart. My Avenger fans had a blast searching for the signs as we shopped. Some were in the toys section and others were near the food aisle where we found our Avenger snacks. But don’t worry if you’ve left the store! Even if you’re back at your super hero lair, you can unlock the features on the Walmart Avengers website Here’s what you do:

  1. Open the app and choose “Discover.”.
  2. On the Walmart Avengers Website click on “Unlock more epic content.”
  3. Scroll through the pictures on the computer, matching up the images to the images in the app.
  4. Then, scan each picture to get content for each character in the movie.
  5. Pat yourself on the back for being awesome

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Another fun feature of the app are the clips from the movie MARVEL’s The Avengers: Age of Ultron which comes out in theaters May 1. You better believe my tiny superheros will be there! Actually, I think their super dad is even more excited about this movie.

Since my son is really into learning everything and I mean EVERYTHING about each character and villain, he loved the app because it gives a ton of background information on the Avengers and the villains.

However, my favorite part of the app was when we started unlocking the “Suit Up” feature.

IMG_4326As you unlock each character, you can take epic pictures as your favorite Avenger or super villain. Never to be left out, we even have Iron Dog. Tony Stark could use a cute, four-legged, sidekick, right?

Suit Up!

Since my superheros are very specific about what will refuel their super powers, we were lucky to find lots of snacks like Doritos at Walmart with the Avengers on the display.

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Right now Hulk and Captain America are favorites in this house. So tell me, who is your favorite Avenger and will you come eat some of the Doritos because I may eat the entire bag! Now that is a super power for sure!

Our New Favorite Early Reading Apps for Android

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While this is a sponsored post, all opinions are 100% my own #MoreVA #VZWBuzz

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I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I have NO idea how parents entertained their kids before the creation of smartphones. I’m not just talking about mindless games that do nothing for their little brains, but the educational apps that keep their attention, keep them learning, and keep them happy. Both of my kids are very tactile learners, so interactive apps really appeal to them. Since my son is headed off to kindergarten (sob!) in the fall, we’ve moved past basic letter and sound recognition games and now we are on to early reading games. Here are some of our favorite early reader games that the kids have been playing on my Android Turbo!

 

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Endless Reader– Around here, Endless Alphabet is a favorite app, so we were excited to move onto Endless Reader. In this app, kids are introduced to “sight words.” These are the most commonly found words in early reading, and learning these words are key to reading success. In this app, the words are shown in context and the kids have a blast with all of the silly sounds as they see the words, hear the words, and manipulate the words in puzzles.

 

 

kids learn to read

Kids Learn to Read– I really like apps that have a variety of games within the app so my kids are challenged, not easily bored, and willing to come back to the app again and again. Kids Learn to Read does all of this with letter sounds, making their own words, and matching games. Tommy Turtle is the star of this fun app that focuses on hearing and seeing how letter sounds blend together to make early reading words.

 

 

 

Super Why

Super Why Phonics Fair- Based on the hit PBS show Super Why, kids go on a adventure with the Super Why gang as they focus on phonics through interactive games. My kids really love the stickers they earn during each level and I love that the advanced levels for more challenging games.

 

 

 

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I Story Books–  There is nothing I love more than snuggling up next to my kids and reading books. With I Story Books you can read to your child  or they can listen to a narrator read a number of fairy tales and classic stories  full of colorful illustrations. There are different versions of this app so you can find the types of books that appeal to your kids the most. New books are added every two weeks, and both of my kids are really loving the classics and the science themed books.

 

 

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Sight Words Kindergarten– This app is great for early readers and readers struggling to learn and recall sight words. Through six interactive games, kids are shown small groupings of words so through repetition and memory. As they start mastering the words, the word groupings get larger to become more challenging.

 

 

Playing games on your smart phone and tablet isn’t just for kids! Join @theonlinemom @RobynsWorld @geekbabe and @thetechdad on Friday, March 13 at 12 noon PT (3 pm ET) as we chat about Smartphone and Tablet Games!

#VZWBuzz

When: Friday, March 13, 2015
3:00-4:00 pm ET
12:00-1:00 pm PT

‘Smartphone and Tablet Games’

Join @theonlinemom @RobynsWorld @geekbabe and @thetechdad on Friday, March 13 at 12 noon PT (3 pm ET) as we chat about 

Smartphone and Tablet Games!

RSVP and attend the party for a chance to win a MOGA Pro Power Controller or a Droid Turbo smartphone!

Join @TheOnlineMom on the Video Recap right after the chat for another chance to win a prize!

To RSVP:

  1. Email [email protected](subject line: VZWBuzz) and include your Twitter ID.
  2. Spread the word and RT this link on your Twitter feed: http://ow.ly/ImCn5   
  3. Join us on TweetDeck or HootSuite (#VZWBuzz) on Friday, March 13 between 3 – 4 pm ET
  4. Tell your Twitter followers!

PRIZE WINNERS will be announced during the Party!

A  NOTE to my  nTelos Readers: 

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