Practical Every Day Helps: Getting Organized

We would like to dedicate the next several post to give parents out there some very practical every day helps, some things that you can really use in your parenting and life. As a parent I’m sure you would agree with the statement that any practical advice goes a long way, we’ll gladly accept any good ideas. For today’s post we would like to start at the beginning: Getting Organized

How does your home look?

Have you ever walked into your home after a hard day’s work and feel like you’re walking into a landfill? Maybe it may not be that extreme but right now think, how clean is your home? Getting organized starts with a clean home, you need somewhere to sit down and plan things out. It’s very hard and also distracting when you’re sitting there looking at yesterday’s dinner. If you’re too tired because of work, have the kids clean. What do they have to do, right? Be very specific with them and put them to work, be specific because you know they’ll side step tasks if they feel there’s some wiggly room. Now, think how nice it will be tomorrow to come home to a clean house, you’re already smiling aren’t you?

                        

Do you have a plan for your week?

When’s your son’s soccer game this week? What time does your daughter have her tennis lessons tomorrow? When are your husband and you going to that work function? Do you plan out your week or is it anything goes. Getting organized involves a purposeful plan. There are many tools that can help you with planning: Franklin, Daytimer, Phone Apps, and a regular old calendar and a pencil. Use one of these tools to lay everything out on paper and have a definite plan for your week. Look, were not sitting here telling you that you have to have everything single detail of your life planned, all were saying is that your life shouldn’t be organized chaos. If you don’t have a solid plan it with tickle down to your children, and as we always talk about, your children will learn from your example. If you need some help with organization and want some generic forms, get some at printfree.com.

How do your finances look?

We could write a whole book about finances, right? If we are disorganized here, it has the potential to really screw up our lives. Right, off the bat, we want to say that life is a little bit easier when you don’t have a lot of debt. As a group we all have committed to become debt free. There’s more freedom and a lot less stress when you have less debt. For the purposes of getting organized, do you have any clue of what’s going on with your finances? Do you have enough money but miss paying your bills on time because you don’t know what’s going on with your money? Is your check book balanced or do you have no clue of what’s what? We’re going to assume that anyone reading this has their stuff together, so it’s more about having a plan for where you want to ultimately end up with your money. We want to submit one idea that should help you get your finances organized: do a written budget every month. Just like uses resources to plan your week out, use a budget to plan your month out with your money. Most of us probably hate to sit there and write a budget out but from personal experience, when you do your going to feel like you’ve just gotten a raise. You never realize how much those little expenditures add up unless you see them on paper. Do you know where your money is going every month, just take one of your old bank statements out and you might be shocked! Go to smartaboutmoney.org to get free blank forms to start writing everything out each month.

Just a beginning       

Having everything laid out and planned out is just the start; it will help everything else run smooth. Get organized today, this will help you take control of your life a little better. It will be an example to our children for when they get older. You have enough stress and chaos in your life; don’t complicate things by not being organized!

Watch Out For Strangers!

There was an incident in our local news recently about an older guy trying to lure young kids with his dog. For what purpose, who knows or wants to know! With all the technology we have and with all the advancements in our society, this incident should remind us of a very basic principle: Know exactly where your kids are at all times!

William, one of the members of this parent blog, experienced this very situation yesterday. He went to a baseball game with his son, daughter, and some of their friends. While his son was playing, the girls went to play on a playground that was a little distance off. A little later the girls returned with a sheet of paper. Apparently some guy was going around to all the kids on the playground and said he was filming a movie, he said he liked the girls personality, HOW GROSS! Needless to say, William was a little (ALOT!) freaked out!

It can happen anywhere and at anytime. It doesn't matter what neighborhood you live in, there are creeps everywhere. The point is to always know what's up with your kids.

If they tell you they're going to a friends house, confirm it with that parent. If they want to play anywhere, make sure they're being monitored by you or someone you trust. Keep tabs on who they're taking to on the phone and who they're talking to on the Internet (if you let your kids on the Internet without the proper filters or safe guards, then you're crazy!), they could be talking to some creep and not even know it.

Let's all make a conscious effort this week to keep a closer eye on our children! If you don't, it's possible we could be hearing about them on the news! NO ONE WANTS THAT!

Does she dress like she's 13 or 30?

Modesty is something that is severely lost in our society today. As men it's hard for us to even go to the mall with out having to avert our eyes from seeing something that's completely inappropriate. Nowadays kids want to dress a lot older then they are, and their parents brush it off as a phase or something that's not a big deal. Guess what: IT IS A BIG DEAL! With the way our young girls dress nowadays it's no wonder why we have so many problems with our young boys. PUT SOME CLOTHES ON YOUR KIDS!

Here is some brand new information (it's really not): The way your kids dress is going to determine how they are treated. If your daughter is dressed way too mature, how do you think the boys will treat her? They are going to drop all kinds of shady lines based off of what they see her wearing (and they don't want to hang out with her at the library). Also, she will get approached by older guys, some guys legitimately might not realize her age, some creeps just wont care. Follow this logic: If she's dressed like a librarian would these same bums try to talk to her? The answer is no, they'll turn their attention to that girl that's dressed like she's 30.


We talked about the girls, how about your young boys? Are the cops going to arrest your son because he looks like one of the guys that just robbed the bank? Does he dress like he's in a fake rock band? Let's get serious, Is the way your young boy dressing keeping him from advancing in life? Is he at a job with no possibility of a promotion because of how he looks? Is he not getting any jobs because of how he looks? Does he get lumped in with the wrong crowd because of how he looks? We tend to focus on our young girls, but don't forget about making sure your boys look presentable.


Look we have given you some general things to think about, we'll be coming back with part two and getting specific. Let us just leave you with a question: Do your children dress modestly?

Parental Responsibility

A situation happened in our home town of Milwaukee just recently, you probably have seen it on the news and know exactly what were talking about. A bunch of out of control youths tore apart a gas station and hurt some innocent people. Here's the link: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.todaystmj4.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2F124986519.html%3Fsort%3Dmost%2Bthumbs%2Bup%26action%3Dquotecomment%26cid%3D70308227%26page%3D9&ei=h24XTva9DaTu0gG9n4nDBQ&usg=AFQjCNHjiJHyQP2YZiYH_M5oUR8-bc2D0A&sig2=vmvRvJzUF2LjHBotKFZXZg

A surprising thing happened with this situation, one of the mothers of the group turned in her 2 children, imagine that! She explained to her kids that she loved them, and why she had to turn them in, could you do the same thing? As a group we have talked it over with mixed reactions, the truth is that it would be really difficult.

After talking about this incident, we learned a little lesson about parental responsibility, as a parent it's your job to raise your children the best way you know possible (which sometimes means some very tough choices). If your kids aren't behaving, it might mean you have to give them a little tough love.
Here's our question to you:What would you do in the same situation? 

Summertime- 3 Months of Growth or 1 Year of Failure

We want to start off by asking you a simple question: What are your kids doing this summer? We have all talked about our summer's growing up, and the prevalent thought was how we would spend most of that time when we were younger outside. What happened to kids going outside anymore? Nowadays kids spend most of their time indoors, with the explosion of technology it's rare for kids (especially older kids) to run and sweat it out outside playing. There are a few points we want to hit on that hopefully will help you and your children to have the best summer possible:

  1. Do everything in your power to make sure this is a time of growth for your children!
Your kids have off for the summer, that means at least 14 hour's of possible free time: What will they do with it? Get your kids involved in activities. Remember little league? What about soccer or swimming? There's so much to do, and these activities will burn some of that energy (way too much energy!) they have as well as keep them lean and fit. Think about what the alternative will do: playing video games and watching TV all day. These two things will bring that potbelly on pretty fast, as well as warp their mind and make them lazy. Get them involved in sports or a rec league or just let them go outside and go nuts. The weather is too beautiful right now for anyone to spend an extended amount of time indoors.  


  2. Watch what they do like a hawk!
Are your kids doing what they told you they are going to do? Who are they hanging out with? Is there any inappropriate boy/girl interactions going on? As their parent, you have to know what they are up to, do you remember what it's like to be their age? There are too many pitfalls that your children can fall through, especially the older kids. You have to know what they are doing, who they are doing it with, and where they are going to be at all times. It only takes one bad summer to ruin the rest of your child's life. Is that what you want for them? 

The reason we titled this post "Summertime- 3 Months of Growth or 1 Year of Failure" is because if they have a bad summer, it will follow them the rest of that year. If your kids are involved in activities, reading, writing, those things will sharpen their mind and tone them up physically. This can only help them at school. If they spend their whole summer with video games and TV, hanging out at the mall with deadbeats, this will hold them back once school starts again. Their minds won't be sharp or focused, they'll spend the whole first half of the school year trying to adjust. That can only lead to a downward spiral for the rest of the year. I guess if they get held back, that will give them a whole other year to focus on those video games!


Set your kids up for the best year they have ever had by keeping them active this summer. What other idea's do you have for a productive summer? You can leave your comments below:

A Little Extra Time

Since this is the 4th of July, we'll keep this brief. First, thank you to all the soldier's out there serving America, we really appreciate you! Next, use this extra day off to do something with your kids. Don't just use this time to catch up on sleep.

Go out to a park, go out to a cookout with some family, just get out! Work and the hustle of life will come back tomorrow, so enough today with your kids. An extra time you give them will go a long way!

The Beauty Of The Right Choice

As a parent there are so many choices we have to make each day, each week, and each year of your children's life. Here's some information that you probably already know:  sometimes as a parent, you're going to make the wrong choices (ground breaking, right?)!

The point we want to get across with this post is this: every choice has the potential to change your child's life, so take each one very seriously, give them the proper time and consideration. So many choices come up in any given day, with the hustle and business of our lives, we don't take the time to think through a lot of our choices and how they will affect our kids. Can you think of some rash choices you've even made today?

For us parents it can be as simple as what TV shows you let your kids watch, or if they're getting on your nerves, you telling them to go watch TV and not knowing what they put on. As long as they're out of your face, right? How about choosing what friends they hang out with, do you even know who their friends are? If you make the choice to not really know, those friends could teach your kids things that you don't endorse or believe in. Can you name every one of their friends? You should be able to!

What about the choice of what music you let them listen to? With as bad as the music is nowadays, you can't even turn on the radio without vomiting. If you choose to let them listen to whatever they want, then you'll reap the benefits of angry and depressed kids. What kind of video games do you choose to let your children play? If you let them play what they want, then by the time they're 14, they'll know how to kill someone 10 different ways. Do you think were exaggerating? When was the last time you looked at the typical video game?

Look even to the things we mentioned, there are good choices to be made: There are good shows your kids can watch, there are good friends for them to hang out with. There is good music for them to listen to, and yes there are good video games for them to play. Do you see the point were trying to make? It's all about the choices you make, don't make them half-heartily!

These are some pretty big choices but remember the small one's can scar your kids the most. Is your child trying to show you the picture they made for you, but you have to catch up on your emails? Do they want you to read them a bed time story but you can't miss your favorite show? Every choice counts, so take them very seriously. If you don't, you make the choice to deal with the consequences!

Are you making smart choices? Let us know by commenting!