Guest Post: 10 Tips for Living with Infertility

Infertility is unfortunately the reality of 1 in 8 couples. It’s hard, lonely and painful. After being on our road to our baby for two years, I’ve learned a few things. Honestly, I’m still a rookie in the infertility department, but after learning these things, I’ve found so much more peace and happiness in our journey than before I started applying these things to my daily life.

Does Birth Order Impact Parenting and Child Development?

If you grew up with siblings or have multiple children, you probably understand the major effect that birth order has on family dynamics. We all know the stereotypes about how oldest, middle, and youngest children likely behave and what their place in the family means about their future achievement and success. Everyone probably has a story about how they were impacted by older or younger siblings and how they were treated differently by their parents. I could probably write a book on my opinion and experiences with birth order and family dynamics (middle child here!), but I really wondered how much birth order impacts a child’s development and the way parents interact with their children.

Speaking to Your Young Children About the LGBTQ Community

As parents, we are always concerned about our children and we tend to ask ourselves an abundance of questions. For instance: “Is my child doing well in school?” “Why is my child so picky?” “How can I tell if my child’s speech is normal?” These are questions parents can usually answer or seek out resources to obtain answers for.  But what answers do parents have when the question is “how do I explain the LGBTQ community to my child?” It can be a challenging process to educate children about LGBTQ individuals , no matter what your beliefs or values may be. The acceptance of the LGBT community can be seen through entertainment, education, marketplace, as well as social media. It shows the tremendous change in our culture and has become extremely effective to educate and highlight LGBTQ awareness.

Guest Post: Alexa, Cortana, Siri and Google Assistant: AI in your home

We are excited to have Carrie Rogers-Whitehead from Digital Respons-Ability back for today's guest blog post.

Have you recently bought a virtual assistant for your home? Another word for a virtual assistant is an artificial intelligence, or AI. These tools are convenient for remembering numbers, sending reminders, purchasing items and more. More and more of these devices are coming into homes. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners reports a growth of 200% in these devices from 2016 to 2017. Amazon is currently dominating the market and "won" the 2017 holiday buying season.

Guest Post: Preparing Your Home for Parenthood When You Live with a Disability

Nesting is the act of preparing one’s home for the arrival of a new baby or child. Typically, nesting involves things such as painting a nursery, buying a crib, baby-proofing the house, and making sure everything is as clean as possible as the due date approaches. However, when you are a parent living with a disability, your nesting process is generally more intense.

How to Teach Children Honesty

It can be surprising, frustrating, and worrisome when your child first lies to you. It can also be really hard to know how to respond! Lying is actually a normal and necessary part of a child’s development. Though parents should teach their children to be honest from a young age, they shouldn’t be too concerned when their child begins to tell lies, because it’s a normal part of childhood that every child goes through.

Encouraging Kids to Play Outside

It can be hard to get kids excited to play outside, especially with all the fun toys and screens we have indoors for them to play with. Previous generations spent their playtime almost exclusively outdoors, but that has changed dramatically in recent years. Today, only 1 in 4 kids plays outside on a daily basis, compared to 3 in 4 children one generation ago1. There are significant benefits to playing outside, so encouraging your kids to get outdoors can be a great way to support their development!

Teaching Children Emotional Intelligence

 Emotional intelligence is so important for your children to learn while they are young. Most of us use the same 3 to 4 words about how we feel when we are asked “How are you?” However, encouraging children to use words other than “good” or “fine” and to use words like “excited” or “worried” or “curious” will help them recognize feelings and to use their emotions effectively.

The Fundamentals of 'fun' in Parenting

Parenting is not easy – but it can be fun! Amidst the sleepless nights, the tears and tantrums, and so many other demands, we can still infuse humor, joy, and playfulness. In fact, play and silliness can make those challenging moments lighter!

Celebrating Grandparents

I have a lot of memories of spending time at Grandma and Grandpa’s house when I was growing up.  At that time, I was blessed to have grandparents that lived less than 2 miles from our house and the other grandparents within a couple hours.  I have many good memories of time spent with my grandparents.  We spent time together camping, telling stories, riding their 3-wheeler, etc.  It was never anything big, but it all came down to one thing they gave me, my siblings and cousins: Time.  They spent time with us.

Stay Hydrated!!!

Parents are always reminding their children to drink water, especially in the hot summer months. But what about you busy parents? Are you getting enough to drink?

Fostering Healthy Sibling Relationships

In the United States, 80% of children grow up with at least one sibling. For many people, sibling relationships are the relationships in life that last the longest. Conflict can make up a big portion of a sibling relationship, but they can also be the closest relationship within a family. What causes some to be positive and others negative? How can we foster good relationships between siblings? Alison Pike, Tina Kretschmer, and Judith F. Dunn wrote an article, based on their research in The Brother - Sister Study, about how parents can help achieve harmony within the home.

Team Member Spotlight: Kammy

I was born in Kanab Utah. After my twin brother was born, at some point they realized I was also coming to be the 3^rd of 7 children to this wonderful family.  No one knew I was coming. Not my mother, father or even the doctor.  Looking back, my parents tell me that my grandfather gave my mother a blessing before the 26 mile trip to the Kanab Hospital. While giving the blessing he said. “Bless him”, then he paused and said, “Bless her”, then went on the finish the blessing. They thought, “…that’s funny”, but off to the hospital they went. To everyone’s surprise grandpa was right. My twin brother was born, and then the doctor thought he was finished, but my mom said, “I think there is another one.” He checked, and sure enough, I did not want to be left out. 

Guest Post: 10 Tips for Having Difficult Conversations, Part 2

We're excited to bring you part two of Amy Lund's 10 tips for having difficult conversations with your children!

Use their words
Of all the things you do, this is probably the one that will make the biggest difference. Using our child’s words shows them that we are listening and that makes them feel validated. A great way to do this is to say, “What I understood you to say was ____” and then use as many of their words as you can remember. Take this one step further by then asking if what you understood was what they meant. When we use their words to clarify, we are sending a powerful message that we not only care what they are talking about, but we want to understand their view and concerns, and that speaks volume to them.

Guest Post: 10 Tips for Having Difficult Conversations, Part 1

Help Me Grow is excited to have Amy Lund of SmarterParenting.com lend us her advice on having difficult conversations with your children. Part two will be posted soon, so stay tuned!

My mom was always waiting up for me, book in hand, when I came home at night. Often we’d spend the next hour or two talking about life and the problems I was facing. During those late night talks we discussed everything, nothing was off limits. Topics ranged from heartbreak over a boy, my latest crush, how to have a healthy self-image, what to do when I felt uncomfortable in a situation, sex and drugs, and how to deal with peer pressure.

Happy Mother's Day

As Mothers is often hard to think

When toys are on the ground and dishes in the sink

That all you do from day to day

Is making a difference in any way.

Your day starts much earlier than before

There is no sleeping in for you anymore!

The baby is hungry and starting to fuss

The others are sleeping so you tend to him in a rush.

As soon as he is fed, his siblings begin to stir

The rest of the morning goes by in a blur!

Before you know it, it’s a quarter to noon

You’ll need to start making dinner soon!

By 2 o’clock a miracle is happening

All three of your little ones are napping!

You can finally shower and get dressed, too!

Then you realize you are out of shampoo.

You know that no matter how hard you try

When you get a minute alone, the baby will cry

You feel so happy you’ve organized the toys

Then realized you are raising messy boys!

You go to the park to enjoy the nice weather

You smile as the kids play so nicely together.

But before another blink of your eye

They start to fight and you sit there and sigh.

You shout for joy when daddy pulls in

You can’t wait to tell him what a day it’s been!

Dinner, then baths and bedtime routine

You give kisses and wish them “sweet dreams.”

Just as you start to walk out of the room

One of them whispers, “I love you, mom!”

You smile and give them one more hug

And leave the room feeling so much love.

As you look around from the mess of the day

You think, “I did make a difference today!”

The kids went to bed feeling love and affection

And that is my idea of perfection.

Effective Communication to Help Your Child's Development and Well-being

   Let’s be honest, having a relationship isn’t the easiest thing in the world. Learning to mesh all of your strengths, weaknesses, schedules, finances, life goals, parenting styles, communication pattern, and favorite Mexican restaurants can be a huge transition. Relationships are challenging enough between partners, but when you add children, the difficulties in communication become more complex.

Parenting Crucibles: Childhood Grief

My children were 4, 7, and 11 when their brother passed away.  That day, seemingly ordinary in every other way, Atticus slipped away from us peacefully in his sleep.  As I look back on his little life now, three years later, it seems impossible that a baby has ever been more loved. Our days revolved around him and we doted on his every move, fighting over who got to hold him next.  When love is so strong, it’s only normal for loss to be devastating.  Atticus’ death plunged our family into an indescribable darkness.  We found ourselves crushed under the weight of our grief. 

Quiz: Children and Screen Time

Recently I had the opportunity to give a presentation to a group of moms about screen time with their children.  A quiz was given to see what they already know.  Take the quiz below to check what you know!

Healthy Resolutions for You and Your Family

With New Year's well in our rear view mirror, so are a lot of our healthy new resolutions. Resolutions can be difficult for us to keep. Setting one big goal with the deadline a year away allows us to push off any urgency in making healthy changes. Some of us launched so hard and heavy into the goal that we're already suffering from burn out. While setting out for the larger goal of being healthier is a good thing, we often forget the importance of breaking our goals into smaller steps. Here are some suggestions on smaller goals to help improve the overall nutrition and health of you and your family.