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Contest

Your Child Wets the Bed: Oops! Sheet Review and Giveaway

June 14, 2011

Does your child wet the bed?

You’re not alone. Many kids wet the bed every night. My son has an issue wetting the bed… and he likely inherited that trait from me.

Bedwetting happens when a child urinates during his sleep without knowing it (enuresis).

The most important thing to keep in mind that your child doesn’t wet the bed on purpose. They really can’t help it – they may be deep sleepers who can’t feel that their bladders are full and aren’t able to wake up during the night to use the bathroom.

I’m one of those parents who will often be washing sheets and disinfecting the mattress in the middle of the night. But since trying the Oops! Sheet, my mattress has been saved.

The Oops! Sheet is a wonderful waterproof yet breathable fitted cotton bed sheet designed to keep parents sane and kid’s beds dry. It’s soft and plushy and beats any other mattress protector I’ve tried.

The good news is that almost all kids who wet the bed eventually stop. If your child wets the bed, try not to have them drink anything after dinner and remind them to go to the bathroom before going to bed.

Winner! Congrats to Jessica of Brampton, ON!

Enter to win an Oops! Sheet! Open to Canada and U.S. Contest closes June 24, 2011 midnight.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Motherhood

Our Hottest Mom Contest Winner Is….

June 13, 2011

Melany Boffil of Barceloneta, Puerto Rico! Congratulations Melany!

Your other FAVE HOT MOM is DEE BRUN! Congratulations Dee!

We have fabulous prizes for Melany and Dee from Passion Parties, courtesy of Natalie Hjelsvold, Sensuality Coach and Romance Therapist!

Our amotherworld SUR-Prize pack winner is…Nerina @NicNacManiac!

Thanks for voting and a big thanks to all the contest participants! See you again next year!

Motherhood

Mom Writes She Doesn’t Like Her Child

June 10, 2011

A mom of two girls made a confession that no child should ever hear: “I’ve never liked my child.”

A woman, writing under the assumed name of Jennifer Rabiner, bravely shares her story in the current issue of Redbook magazine and also spoke about it in an interview with Today (clip below).

“I thought that she would be vivacious and smart and loving and make intense eye contact,” she tells the show of her first daughter, called “Sophie” in the magazine. “That was just not what happened.”

Baby Sophie was a difficult baby. She slept and ate very poorly, didn’t make eye contact. “She did not meet the milestones that all the books that I read indicated that she should be making at the various ages,” she said on Today.

“As you can probably imagine, I felt guilty that I was basically repelled by my own child. Who wouldn’t? But honestly, the guilt was overshadowed by a colossal sense of disappointment. This just wasn’t the magic of mother-daughter bond that every book I read, every movie I saw and every family I’d ever met had led me to expect,” she writes.

It’s amazing that Rabiner even decided to get pregnant with a second child, after revealing her feelings about her first. When her daughter “Lilah” was born, she had a much different experience.

“Lilah was exactly the baby I’d envisioned: strong and healthy, with a penetrating gaze,” she wrote. “She nursed vigorously and smiled and laughed easily. She talked early and often and, even as a toddler, befriended everyone she met. When I hugged her, she squeezed back hard, and I felt my own heart beating in two bodies at once.”

Although some may be shocked by this mother’s confession, she finally came to realize what was causing her to have these feelings about her child.

When Sophie was seven, she was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency which had caused her slow development – which explained the developmental delays.

Why did it take so long to diagnose her? Rabiner was prompted by another mother when Sophie was four to finally stand up to being the parent and be Sophie’s “rock”. She finally started seeing a psychologist and it wasn’t until her pediatrician did further tests to confirm the issue.

Only after having a second child and having her first child diagnosed properly, did Rabiner embrace being a mother completely.

“It gave me a new perspective on her challenges,” she said on Today.

“It made me gentler with her struggles and it also gave me more patience. It made me feel like instead of me against her, it was us against this diagnosis and I felt like we were on the same team.”

How is her relationship with Sophie now? Does Sophie show signs of the damage?

“I watch her sometimes, looking for clues of the emotional scarring I fear I’ve inflicted, but I see none,” she writes.

“Instead, she takes running leaps into my arms, her strong legs squeezing my middle in her signature ‘cobra hug.’ Do we see eye to eye? Almost never. But do I try to prop her up every single day anyway? Yes, I do. After all, I’m her mom.”

Food

Father’s Day Breakfast Recipe: Sausage Skillet

June 9, 2011

by Amanda Goetz

Father’s Day is around the corner (Sunday, June 19, 2011). I made out pretty good this past Mother’s Day so I guess I need to put a bit of effort into Father’s Day for my husband. I considered a big ugly reclining chair (ugh) or a new golf club (those things are ridiculously over-priced!)… but I’m poor!

And all the money I DO have is “his” money cause I don’t “work” (I hate that, I work my butt off in actuality, like every other SAHM), so getting him a gift seems kinda silly since he would be paying for it. The only thing he loves more than golf, hockey, the kids and (sometimes) me, is food, which is great cause I can afford that kind of gift! I can put a big‘ol smile on his face with a perfectly grilled steak, a plate of saucy ribs or a hearty lumberjack kind of breakfast.

This breakfast/brunch recipe is one of his new favourites. I really like it cause it’s a one pan meal (less dishes always ranks high in my books!) and there’s some veggies in there which I can sneak past him (What? Vegetables? No honey, that’s just a piece of sausage I swear!).

So this Father’s Day I’ll call my dad and say thank you for giving me life… and paying off my student loan when I defaulted on it, and then I’ll wake the father of my children up with a big plate of this yummy Sausage Skillet and thank him for giving me 3 beautiful children… and if he eats all his veggies I’ll let him go play golf.

Sausage Skillet

4 chorizo sausages, removed from casings
1 med onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/2 yellow pepper, diced
2 small potatoes, cooked, cooled and cut into small pieces
Seasoned salt and pepper to taste
4 eggs
20 tater tots
1/2 c shredded cheddar

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400˚F.
Put the tater tots on a baking sheet and cook for 15 minutes.
In an oven safe frying pan or skillet, fry the chorizo, peppers and onions breaking up the sausage until it is cooked through.
Add the potatoes and the salt and pepper.
Make 4 wells in the sausage mixture and drop in the eggs.
Remove the tater tots from the oven and add to the skillet.
Sprinkle with the cheese and transfer the pan to the oven.
Cook until the eggs have reached your desired level of doneness.
Serve with hot buttered toast and Dad’s favourite coffee.

Happy Father’s Day to all the great dads out there!

Amanda Goetz is a WAHM to 3 kids under the age of 5. Her love of cooking was fostered when she was a preschooler helping her grandma in the kitchen. After a year long stint as a sous chef, she left the industry to continue cooking as a hobby before the stress and politics of a professional kitchen killed her love of cooking. Now she creates delicious dinners and delectable desserts for her family and friends and blogs about it at The Best Mom on the Block.

lifestyle

Choosing the Right Sunscreen: Which Sunscreen Should You Use?

June 8, 2011

by Mariana Morales

The sun is shining and everyone is wearing the clothes that reveal a lot of skin… so it’s time to think about sunscreen.

Sunlight itself accounts a big percentage of the symptoms in skin cancers and aging features such as wrinkles. But from all the brands and different information on all of them, it makes it difficult to find the right one.

On sunscreen, the SPF measures how much UVB gets absorbed. UVB radiation is mainly responsible for sunburns and it affects the outside of your skin. UVA radiation affects deeper in the skin and is responsible for more damage and aging signs. Although the SPF measures the UVB radiation, there is none for the UVA radiation.

When choosing the right sunscreen, it best to view the ingredients and find the chemicals that are UVA-absorbing such as avobenzone or benzophenone. There is a list of ingredients on The Environment Protection Agency’s “The Burning Facts” that you can take a look at.

The SPF number recommended by experts is a minimum of SPF 15, but it depends if you are outdoors for a long time or if your skin burns easily. In that case, it would be best to go higher.

Most people do not apply the right amount of sunscreen. It takes 20-30 minutes for your skin to absorb the sunscreen so it should be applied a good time before you actually head out to the sun. Sunscreen can sometimes be broken down by water or moisturizers so it’s best if it’s the last product used on the skin especially in the face area.

Sunscreen is not the only way to protect yourself though! Make sure to check the weather report for the UV index. UV rays can go through clouds and water. If it says it’s over three, make sure you protect yourself a little more.

Sunglasses can help protect your eyes since UV rays can cause eye problems. Also wear a wide hat to protect all areas of your head, and finally just stay in the shade as much as you can.

So remember to stay safe in the sun!

Mariana Morales is a full-time student at Conestoga College studying Print Journalism. She enjoys photography and is a volunteer at the Snap KW newspaper. What makes her different? She loves video games. In her spare time, she writes articles for a gaming website called Hooked Gamers. She hopes one day to work in the video game industry. Follow her on Twitter.

Food

Product Review: Healthy Choice Gourmet Steamers

June 7, 2011

by Sharlene Henry

I had the opportunity to review some Healthy Choice Gourmet Steamers thanks to amotherworld.

Day 1: I took the coupons sent to me to a local grocery store in Pickering, which happened to have a large variety of Healthy Choice Steamers on sale for $2.99.

I brought them to the checkout and presented the coupons. The young cashier said she wasn’t sure about the coupons because the coupons sayone per purchase. I told her that I could come in 10 times and it would be the same thing. She called her manager and then after reading the fine print, she allowed me to purchase all the flavours at once, with some overriding of the till.

The first flavour I tried was the Mediterranean Grilled Vegetables. It heats up fairly quickly – 3.5-4.5 min. Lift off the plastic, pour it in the little bowl with sauce, stir it around and voila! Instant meal. I’m going to admit, I’m a meat eater, but I loved this flavour! It’s a little bit spicy (not overly hot), garlicky and not mushy at all. I love broccoli and chick peas, so that was a major plus for me. It’s full of lentils, which is great because I’m not a fan of plain rice. It’s colourful with bright red peppers and I could see the grill marks on the zucchini. This was a very tasty dish, it could be a meal on its own or a side dish with meat.

Day 2:

Ok, being on mat leave, I’ve lost the concept of scheduled breaks, breakfast, lunches and dinners. Today, I was looking forward to lunch – why? Healthy Choice Steamers! I didn’t have to worry about piercing the plastic, or pulling it back (sometimes you forget when you’re at work) so this was convenient. It just popped after the steam built up. Today’s Healthy Choice Gourmet Steamer was Basil Chicken. Once it was done, my 3 yo son asked “what’s that smell?” – it has a wonderful aroma once cooked. I love the fact that the sauces are separate from the entree itself, and I just flip the basket and mix. No soggy noodles at all. It had 3 pieces of chicken (but big pieces) that were grilled. It had broccoli, red peppers, yellow zucchini and noodles. My baby even wanted a piece of the noodle action. It was flavourful, but not overly salty – which is great!

Dinner : I had the Beef Merlot for dinner, and it was very good – the potatoes were chunky, the meat was plentiful and the merlot in the gravy was great! I loved the green beans and carrots – the perfect complement to the meat and potatoes.

Day 3:

As a last resort to lunch I gave 2 of the Healthy Choice steamers to my tween daughters – their report will be coming soon. But my 11 yo daughter has been clamouring to try the meals since I brought them home. It usually takes me a good 15 minutes to make their lunch – macaroni and cheese – so this was a welcomed change to heat something in 5 minutes, pop it in their thermos and go. So my 11 year old daughter had the Grilled Chicken Red Pepper Alfredo. She said the flavour was interesting and cheesy, nice texture, lots of veggies, lemony taste. She enjoyed it. My 10 year old daughter had the Beef Teriyaki. She said it was a bit too sweet, but still tasted good. It had lots of rice but the meat was a bit dry. She liked the carrots but the other veggies were too soft (probably from being in a thermos). She said it was very garlicky tasting.

My dinner – Sweet Sesame Chicken – I have mixed feelings about this flavour. I’m not a big fan of plain rice, so the sesame sauce was refreshing to spice it up. It was sweet and slightly peppery taste – but not salty. There were only 3 pieces of chicken, but they were large chunks and it was filling. The vegetables were great too, peas and mushrooms.

Day 4:

Lunch: Thai Curry Chicken has a slight coconut flavour. The spices are well-balanced and the amount of chicken was perfect. My 10 month old baby liked the noodles.

Dinner: Mediterranean Grilled Chicken was filling, the broccoli and peppers were tasty as well as the mushrooms which are my favourite. There were three big pieces of chicken with a lot noodles. It left a bit of a garlicky after taste.

Day 5

Lunch: The most exciting flavour of the bunch was Lemon Garlic Chicken & Shrimp. I love chicken and shrimp together – there was lots of each and the noodles and veggies were delicious, it was filling too.

Dinner: My favourite Healthy Choice Gourmet Steamer was the Pineapple Chicken. I loved the rice and edamame (which I’ve never eaten before!) and sweetness of the pineapple was complimented with a mild peppery taste that was very appetizing.

Thank you amotherworld and Healthy Choice Steamers for the opportunity to try all of these flavours! They make a great lunch and dinner time meal in less than 5 minutes.

Sharlene Henry is a mom of four kids: 11, 10, 3 and 9 months. Follow her on Twitter.

Motherhood

Expectant Memories

June 6, 2011

by Danielle Christopher

I settle my two and four-year-old hungry daughters at the last available Starbucks table. I dish out the treats and pull out their waters from my bag. I sit myself in between them and exhale out loud. It might be more relaxing to be at home playing foxy bingo, but it is always nice to get out with the children as well. Sipping my coffee, I spy a very pregnant lady sitting at the table beside us looking at my girls.

I remember all too well that feeling of wanting to have the baby out. It’s the comments that came from random strangers that hurt the worst.

Some of what I was told was:

You are so huge!

Better get your sleep now.

It’s just a myth you eat for two.

Is what you are eating good for the baby?

Both third trimesters were spent in extreme hot summers, everywhere I went: It must suck in this heat for you. (DUH!)

When all the while I ultimately wished I had said: “Don’t touch my belly unless I can touch yours!”

Since being a mom twice over, I feel a kinship to seeing expectant moms. My oldest knows to go open a door of a struggling mom. Nowadays, when I see a pregnant mom I say things that I wished I heard more of, like:

You look beautiful.

You are glowing.

You don’t look pregnant.

Your baby is lucky to have you as a mom

My girls finish their snacks and declare its play time. I pack us up and see the lady looking sad as she rubs her belly.

I catch her eye and smile, “ Congratulations. You look amazing.” She beams a wary smile. “Really?” she asks hopefully. I nod emphatically.

Smile and pass it on is how we can support moms at all stages of parenthood.

Had I known that the baby stage would pass so quickly I would have hung onto it tighter. Having said that my youngest gives my legs a bear hug. I love this present.

What are some positive and negative comments you received while pregnant?

Danielle Christopher is a stay-at-home mom of two daughters, ages one and three. She blogs for The Momoir Project and writes book reviews for Women’s Post. Her teen story is in the collection “Parent/Teen Stories: Without Judgement”. She lives with her husband of seventeen years and her girls in Langley, B.C.. Follow her on Twitter.

lifestyle

Flying With Kids: Some People Don’t Like Kids!

June 4, 2011

My family and I went on vacation and flew Air Canada to get to our destination. The flight was fabulous by the way but we literally made it just in time due to the long line ups at the check-in and customs (why weren’t there more employees behind the counters, I fail to understand).

On the plane, my husband was sitting in the aisle seat, and me and my two kids were just across from him filling up the row (why does dad get to sit by himself? That’s another post 😉

The Destroyer sat in the aisle seat while my the Boss sat by the window. The Destroyer stretched out his legs, reaching the back of the seat in front of us. As you know, there isn’t much leg room in Economy. I swear if I had the money I’d fly executive/first class just to have a little more room.

Immediately, the man sitting in front of us, who is wearing earphones, reaches behind and taps on my sons legs.

Ok… the man seems to be playful in his gesture. We tell my son to stop kicking his legs and he does.

But he’s a kid after all… maybe 20 minutes later, he stretches out his legs again, tapping the seat.

The man does it again. I tell my son to stop and remind him that there is someone sitting in front of him. The Destroyer is a kid – all of four years old. Too short to really see the person sitting in front of him, he needed to be reminded that there was someone there and that it was bothersome.

Later during the flight, my boys switched seats. Of course the boys saved going to bathroom at the most inopportune times – like when the plane was taking off and landing. The Boss had to go and I took him. As we got back to our seats, he happened to hit the seat yet again – and so did I as I was squeezing to get into the middle seat.

As we settled back down, the man in front of us reached back and pushed my son’s feet with a little more force.

I just about had it.

I tapped on the man’s shoulder. He removes his earphones and looks back at me.

“Don’t touch my son,” I said.

“Tell your son to stop kicking my seat,” he said.

“You can turn around and talk to us but don’t touch my son.”

He turned around and stopped the conversation there… of course I had to mutter a few more things, like “he’s just a kid” and “how rude”.

The annoying stares we received from the man and the other couple sitting in front of us made me realize – some people really don’t like kids!

Not just traveling with them but any time – period.

The hubs didn’t even realize what was going on – he was too busy watching a movie, of course. That’s another post 😉

Have you ever had a bad experience traveling with your kids? If so, how did you handle it?

Motherhood

Motherhood: Secret Sauce

June 2, 2011

by Christine LaRocque

I recently read an article at Six Pixels of Separation about what it takes to really make something happen. While the piece was intended to address moving an agenda forward in a professional setting, it occurred to me that it is completely relevant for motherhood.

In the article Mitch Joel argues that there are two main factors needed for something to gain momentum and ultimately acceptance. I would suggest that the same two factors are critical to surviving motherhood, and in my case, motherhood as a full-time professional: self-discipline and secret sauce.

Here’s the thing. Joel contends that it can be very hard to get motivated, and that “when we’re left to our own devices, human beings are amazingly good at avoiding the act of ‘getting things done’.”

Before I became a mother I was on my A game. I set goals and achieved them; I was remarkably on top of all my responsibilities. Life was forward and fluid moving. In supreme ignorance, I often wondered why my own mother, for example, had trouble completing the simplest of tasks. Since then, my schedule has been all but commandeered by two earnest little boys, and I have had my comeuppance. Motherhood is harder than I ever imagined.

Even so, people often ask me how I do the things I do: raise two small boys, work full-time, spend two hours and sometimes more commuting every day, write a blog, read and review the books that I do, and still find time to meditate and pursue other interests. Here’s my answer:

I decide on my priorities and I make the choices to support them.

That means I choose to climb into bed and read at night instead of watching television, I limit social commitments in favour of weeknights, and most weekends at home, and I structure our family’s life on predictable and manageable routines. It’s not always easy to do, and I often miss things I’d really like to attend, but it keeps me organized and my stress levels manageable.

The second factor for success is secret sauce. A person’s secret sauce is “a skill or trait that is uniquely ours – that when we’re outputting our best efforts, it’s truly reflected in the result of the work.” And the thing is, we all have it, we just have to figure out what it is.

So here is where it gets interesting. I believe we all have it as mothers, a skill or quality that sets us apart. The trick is to realize it, and to forgive ourselves when struggle in other ways. A person’s secret sauce can’t be all the. That’s real life.

Ironically, I think self-discipline is my secret sauce. By staying focused and making choices, I’m learning how to manage a busy life as a full-time working mom.

I agree with Joel when he says that “the interesting part of this exercise is that the secret sauce really starts flowing when you apply the self-discipline in a rigid and consistent manner.” My whole life I’ve thought that being enough meant keeping up and doing everything. Now, I know that being enough means doing what is best for me. What’s more, I truly believe that if I do, if I freely acknowledge my own limitations and celebrate my strengths, that everything else will continue to slip perfectly into place.

Christine LaRocque is a full-time communications professional, wife, and mother to two under 5. While trying to manage a hectic lifestyle filled with long commutes and two unruly boys, she discovered that sometimes when you are trying to do everything, you are really doing nothing at all. She writes about managing life as a full-time working mother at Coffees & Commutes.

parenting

Baby Storm: Taking The World By Storm

June 1, 2011

by Julie M. Green

So a Toronto couple has decided to keep their baby’s gender a secret. Only Storm’s immediate family knows what’s between Storm’s squidgy legs. Is it any wonder this story recently went viral? That the baby’s name is Storm should tell you all you need to know… Well-intentioned parents land a truly crackpot idea and decide to run with it. Their hope is that people will get to know Storm as a person, not a gender. And while the ideology behind the decision is laudable, the reality of a ‘sexless’ baby is laughable.

Unfortunately for Storm and his parents, we don’t live in a genderless society. And I’m not sure we totally want to. As a parent, which would you rather give your child: a limited window of freedom from oppressive stereotypes, or a guaranteed (and much longer) period of bullying and harassment? Frankly, I know which I would choose. After all, you don’t want to raise a sheep who will do whatever it takes to conform to the herd. But by the same token, no one wants to be the black sheep, either.

By the time poor little Storm reaches school age, presumably he/she will be ostracized from his/her peers, as will his cross-dressing older brothers. It’s no secret just how cruel and adept kids are when it comes to seeking out difference. Think of it as a bruise jabbed over and over again.

Case in point: I remember a girl at elementary school who was bullied. Her suffering was daily and relentless. Even though there was nothing obviously ‘wrong’ with her, somewhere along the way somebody or other had decided that this girl (I’ll call her Katie) carried with her those infamous invisible germs known as ‘cooties’. Every recess kids ran around tagging each other, shouting ‘Katie’s cooties’, further spreading her plague.

I have no doubt that there is a Katie in every school. And, having been teased myself, I can only imagine her agony. School is a gory enough battlefield without adding a fresh layer of ritualistic torture to each day. High school must have come as a tremendous relief to Katie, a proper do-over. Talk about chrysalis.

Better to get your child used to dealing with the cruelty of inequality early on, I say, because — like it or not — it is ingrained in every institution from preschool to the funeral parlour. Better still, encourage your child to excel in school, so he/she can push for real (legislative) change.

I fear that cooties may be the least of Storm and Co’s worries. That’s not to say that boys shouldn’t be caught dead wearing pink — or pigtails, for that matter — just that the fallout may not really be worth the short-lived perks of living la vie en rose.

Julie M Green (aka Little Green Mom) is a novelist and freelance writer who rants and raves about all things mommy at Little Green One. She lives in Toronto with her husband and two-year-old son, Jackson. Visit her website or follow her on Twitter.