Saving Money on Your Kids

Raising kids today is certainly not cheap. Parents today face many of the same child-related expenses that parents from previous generations have faced. These include the costs of clothing, food, toys and games, and even college education. Yet the costs of these expenses have greatly increased over time. You may be considering options to reduce your expenses and save money today. Some parents will compare house insurance and auto insurance through an online price comparison website to find extra cash, and others are cutting back on extra purchases and making an effort to live beneath their means. Here are some ways you can save money on kids today:

Buy Necessities and Save for Wanted Items:
When kids are younger, they often ask for everything from the latest toys to candy bars while in the checkout line at the grocery store. These little items can certainly add up over time. Yet they are small in comparison to the more expensive items that preteens and teens will ask for. Older kids want the latest electronics, the hottest styles, and more. Parents can save money by purchasing only necessities like only clothing that is needed, items needed for school, and so forth. For larger items or wanted items, kids can learn about delayed gratification by saving for them.

Teach Your Kids About Budgeting:
You can save your own pretty pennies to help kids get the items they want, like an expensive new pair of sneakers or the latest video game. However, you can also allow kids to earn their own money and save for those items they really want. They can be assigned chores and a set allowance, or they can earn money on their own through mowing yards, babysitting, and more. By allowing kids to purchase these extra items with their own money, the cost is no longer yours. Further, you will find that kids often will start spending money more wisely. It is common for kids to try to use parents as a living credit card, asking for everything their hearts desire. Yet when they have control over the budget, they often will make better decisions about what money is spent on.

Growing out of Baby Memories

At eight months old and 18 lbs my son is growing out of memories.  I'll explain.

Since Clark is almost nine months, I've been rummaging through his collection of clothes that he doesn't fit into yet, taking out the long sleeves (it's winter here) and 12 mos and 9-12 mos clothes.  Then I packed away the 6 mos and 3-6 mos that don't fit or he hasn't worn in a while.  The last part was the sad one for me.  The majority of Clark's 3-6 mos clothes are onesies with cute cute animals or saying on them, like "Mommy's Alarm Clock," "Daddy's Fishing Buddy," and "My Dad is King of the Grill."  He's worn them most of his life, they are emblematic of his childhood so far (at least to me).

Most children's clothing manufacturers have seasonal runs.  They print designs or patterns for one season  or shorter.  So I probably couldn't find those same onesies in his size now if i tried.  So memories in those clothes are set and done. On to his next stage of life.

Recently, Clark learned to stand up and hold on to his crib, which is fine.  However, he extended that to the ability to stand in his crib, reach up and pull down his mobile.  That being a hazard means I had to take down the mobile. That mobile was hanging from his crib before he was even born.  He's loved those turtles that hang from his mobile since he came home from the hospital.  It's always been how we put him to sleep.  Those days are officially a wrap.  So little time, so many memories.

Reverse Infant Separation Anxiety

The baby books say that parents should expect their children to begin showing signs of separation anxiety between 6 and 9 months old. When a child is left in the care of someone who is not their parent, even for a short amount of time, she may cry intensely fearing her parents may never return.  It's irrational to you as an adult, for the baby it's completely natural and rational.  The child is still developing an understanding of object permanence (think peekaboo and hide-and-seek) and parental attachment.

When leaving your child at daycare or with the sitter is the most likely time to notice this behavior.  This time of year, no one has more experience with it than mall Santas.   My son Clark is eight months old and a little different.  Fortunately or unfortunately, he hasn't really told me yet how he feels about it, I'm with my son nearly all his waking hours.  In the car, at home, play group, doctor's office, etc., daddy is rarely out of site while he's awake.  Perhaps he is starting to think, "hey, dad maybe you and I should try this separation thing out."

He loves strangers, perhaps a little too much.  The little ladies man, especially loves the ladies.  On the inconsistent days when I make it to the gym for MMA classes, I leave him with the ladies at the childcare facility there.  He loves it. (Bye, dad, I'm good!). No tears (yet) when I drop him off. In fact he seems to relish the attention.  He only cries when I come to pick him up and go home (Oh no, not him again!) He loves lunch at mommy's job, when he gets stolen away from us by the ladies there.  No complaints or anxiety (yet) from him, just blushing and cooing.   This month he has even been a good boy when it came to sitting on the Fat Man with the White Beard and Red Suit's lap. No tears, not even a funny look like, "Who's this guy, dad?!" 

Perhaps, I should just enjoy it while it lasts, knowing separation anxiety is on its way.  Or should I be concerned at how comfortable my son is with strangers (Reverse Separation Anxiety?).  No sense of stranger danger instinct.  Maybe he's sure that daddy will protect him from harm.  I'll let you know if and when separation anxiety kicks in.

    - Clark's Dad

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Getting the Toughest Baby to Take His Medicine

Unfortunately, my little boy, Clark, has had a reoccurring anal abscess (or butt bump) over the past three months. Each occurrence meant another 10 day round of antibiotics. With each round my son has become less of a good sport about taking his medicine. He's also becoming stronger and smarter as time goes on. He literally fights taking his medicine. Getting him to take his medicine is mission-critical turned mission: impossible.

So I've run the gambit of techniques and tricks to get an infant to take his medicine. Admittedly, Clark is a worst case scenario, so many of the techniques that did not work for him may work for other infants. Here's a run-down of the various techniques and tools I have come across and what worked on my little worst case scenario (if you have a code red medicine refuser too, feel free to skip to #6).

Techniques:

1. Put it in Milk:  I've had people recommend that I put Clark's medicine in 2 oz. of milk. The assumption is he won't notice the taste of the medicine in that much liquid. Perhaps, my lil guy is a future chef and has a highly developed palette (for an infant). I added his dose (1 tsp) of medicine to a bottle of milk (4 oz.).  He noticed it on the first sip. You could see the look of disgust on his face. He then refused to drink the rest of the milk. So we lost a dose of medicine and a bottle of breast milk. This works for most babies though.

2. Mix it in Food: If your child has already moved on to solid foods, you could mix his medicine in with his food. The pharmacist recommended mixing the antibiotic with rice cereal. The pink color (of the medicine, not cereal) would make it easy to see if your child had finished all the medicine. Unfortunately, making the rice cereal with (breast) milk, meant that mixing in the medicine, meant a waste of all three when Clark refused to eat it. My son had the same response as he did with medicine mixed in with his milk. He was displeased.

Product Review: Best App to Track Your Baby

So I recently joined the 21st century, and got a "smarty" phone when I re-upped my cell phone contract.  An HTC Sensation, since you asked.  I don't know how I went so long without one.  My phone is probably more powerful than my grad school laptop I'm using to write this post.  Part of what makes smarty phones so smart is the apps or applications.

My wife and I had previously tried in vain to keep track of all of our son Clark's "achievements." By achievement I mean poops, pees, feedings, naps, weight, etc.  I'd say about half of his"achievements" were never logged.  Anything that happened in the dead of night was immediately forgotten to time.  Once I finally got a smarty phone, I figured there must be an "(Android) App for that."  I started with an app to track his sleeping, then moved on to trying out more comprehensive baby tracking apps.  Here is my assessment/review of the apps available.

Baby Care:

Baby Care is a perfectly fine free program.  It beats paper and pen by a mile. "This software is freeware (ad supported), and developed by a newborn parent and his team(LuckyXmobile)."

Do Not Wait Too Long to Dress Up Your Newborns and Infants

 

Admitted, I'm a sucker for cute baby clothes.  It's not unheard of for me to buy clothes for my baby or friends' babies because they were just too cute to pass by.  Damn you, Garanimals! I can't be the only one. Walmart uses this fact against me (and my ilk) by placing the cutest baby items along the main aisle.  I call it the "parent trap."

Besides what I was "trapped" into buying, my wife and I also received baby clothes as gifts.  By the time my son Clark was born, there were plenty of outfits we couldn't wait to take pictures of him wearing.  We imagined the places we would take those pictures, and how wonderful they would be.

Well, the problem is once your baby is born the clock on fitting into NB/0 or Newborn size starts ticking.  The size of your baby at birth is the biggest factors, but those newborns sure do grow quickly.  Before you know it, those super cute outfits are getting rather snug on your "little" one. 

There are going to be many sleep deprived nights once you bring home your new bundle of joy.  You are not going to want to go out anywhere.  Plus, many parents consciously choose to not leave the house with their new babies for quite a while.  There may be the occasional visitors that inspire you to dress up junior before he or she spits up or poops their way out of the outfit.   Therefore, there may not be very many occasions for you to dress up your little bundle in all those cute clothes you bought (or received).  There will definitely be fewer than you expect.

Clark wore mostly his short sleeve white onesies (it's hot in Vegas) around the house with a few cuter onesies in rotation.  He weighed over 8 lbs at birth.  He started outgrowing size NB at three weeks and 0-3 mo at around 2 months. 

So don't wait for special occasions to dress up your newborn.  If you do, you may find yourself with a closet or drawers full of the cutest baby clothes that your infant never got to where and are now too small.  Maybe, you can give them to an expectant friend or someone less fortunate.



     - Clark's Dad

The Downside of My Baby Sleeping Through the Night

Every sleep deprived parent dreams of the day their child will sleep through the night. However, so far it's not exactly how I imagined it would be. Until recently, my wife was waking up every two hours during the night to feed our big, hungry, growing baby boy.  She hasn't slept through the night since labor pains first began.  Wondering when our son Clark would finally sleep through the night has been the subject of many conversations and internet searches.

A few days ago, I came across a copy of American Baby magazine from a couple of months ago (May) in the growing magazine pile on my coffee table.  I found gold on page 55, an article by Cara Birnbaum, titled Goodnight Nobody.  Unfortunately, the article isn't available on the magazine's website (or I'd share it with you).  What I learned from the article is that there is something called the "Drowsiness Window."  The article suggested that babies are programmed to fall asleep for the night within this window.  However, this window starts early, like before you get home from work early (5-7 PM) .  According to the article, if you miss the "Drowsiness Window" your baby will start to produce "stimulating chemicals" which will make it much more difficult for him to fall asleep later.

It was suggested that a 7 PM to 7 AM night of sleep was quite feasible for a 12 week old.  Well, it worked.  Mostly.  Clark isn't sleeping through the entire night. We put him to sleep at 7 PM. My wife tops him off before she goes to sleep (10:30).  He wakes up to eat at 2 AM and then my wife feeds him again at 6 AM before going to work.

We, and by we I mean my wife, now only have to wake up once during the night instead of 3-4 times.  This will probably be down to zero by the time he turns 4 months.  So, what's the problem?