Archive for the ‘Stuff I think about’ Category

  • Things I’m thinking about today – 5/07/10

    Friday, May 7th, 2010

    1. I downloaded “The Lorax” on iTunes for Chris’ iPhone. I had no idea it would be so awesome. The narrator has the perfect voice for the story, it has great sound effects, and when you tap images on the screen, the word pops up and the narrator reads it (“boy”, “ladder”, etc.). I’ve read Kaitlyn that book about eleventy billion times, so I don’t feel at all guilty about letting an iPhone app read it to her now :)

    2. Aaron getting voted off of American Idol – I did NOT see that coming. When Ryan separated the two groups, I was sure that Crystal and Casey were the bottom two and Big Mike and Aaron were the top two.  As much as I love Crystal, she’s been criticized by the judges for two weeks in a row.  And Casey is great when he’s playing the guitar and singing, but not so great when it’s just him and a microphone trying to work the stage.  So now I’m thinking it will come down to Crystal versus Lee – who do you think will win?

    3. Jennifer Aniston’s trainer put her on a BABY FOOD DIET to help her lose weight for “Just Go With It”, the movie Aniston is shooting in Hawaii. According to this article on Huffington Post, Tracy Anderson developed a cleanse diet that keeps digestion going with baby food purees as opposed to a liquid diet, which tends to stop working once the user switches to solid food. Aniston ate 14 servings a DAY of baby food plus one solid meal.  I guess if it meant making 14 Million Dollars or whatever Aniston makes per movie, I’d eat baby food too.

    4. What is it with conservative anti-gay activists actually being gay and getting caught with male “escorts”? I mean, come ON, George Rekers, do you actually expect us to believe that you thought Rentboy.com meant you could rent someone to help you carry your LUGGAGE through an airport? And you expect us to buy your statement on Facebook that “you deliberately spend time with sinners with the loving goal to try to help them”??

    5. I added a Google Friend Connect button to the left sidebar, I’d love to have all of you sign it!

    6. And finally, a cartoon to put a smile on your face on this gloomy, cold, rainy Friday (at least if you live in Michigan).  Have a great weekend everybody!

    edited to add: I have a guest post published on Time To Play Magazine! Pop over if you’d like to read my article on how to have inexpensive outdoor fun with your kids!

    1 Comment » Filed under: Just For Fun, Stuff I think about

  • How young is too young to babysit?

    Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

    One of my sponsors, JuiceBoxJungle, wants to know what we think is the right age for a child to babysit. Does it depend on the age of the child? State law? The child’s level of responsibility? It’s certainly an interesting question!

    Before I answer the question myself, I thought I would check to see what, if any, laws there are here in Michigan about babysitters. I found a blog written by Jeanne M. Hannah, a Family Lawyer in Traverse City that addresses this issue. Ms. Hannah says that while there is no specific law related to babysitting, “Michigan child support orders provide for child care reimbursements up the a child’s 12th birthday. While I could not find any law on point, this seems to be the age at which the courts deem a child old enough to stay home alone.”

    Whether or not a child is really ready to be left alone at age 12 is totally dependent on the maturity level of the child. My oldest son was responsible enough that I could have left him home alone for short periods of time when he was about nine.  To be honest, when Chris was traveling on business for a year and a half, there were times when I just wanted to run up to the store for milk BY MYSELF, and I would leave the boys watching TV, with instructions to not answer the door or the phone, make sure all the deadbolts were locked, and run up to the store.  At age 10, Ryan was an extremely responsible kid, although I wouldn’t call what he was doing “babysitting”, really.

    We didn’t start asking Ryan to officially babysit his siblings during the day until he was 12, and he only started babysitting at night after he turned 13.   What I consider babysitting is when Chris and I want to be gone for a couple of hours, like when we went shopping for Easter stuff, and Ryan is in charge of Nathan and Kaitlyn. Heck, if he was asked to babysit a younger kid in the neighborhood and wanted to do it, I would totally let him.

    Ultimately, I think it’s up to the individual parent to decide when their kids are old enough to babysit younger siblings. The child left in charge needs to know how to call 911, what do do if they smell smoke, what to do if someone gets cut and is bleeding, what to do if someone knocks on the door that they don’t know. Sometimes Fire Departments have laminated cards that show basic first aid and a place to write in emergency phone numbers that you can post by the phone, or you can make your own.   And, it’s important to ASK the older child if they feel ready to be left in charge. We can’t just assume that our oldest children are our built-in babysitters! Although it certainly is convenient :)

    So what about you, dear reader?  Do you have a child that babysits either younger siblings or for other families? How old were they when they started?  Any thoughts you want to share?  Leave a comment!

    Related articles by Zemanta
    Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
    8 Comments » Filed under: Stuff I think about

  • Helpful Sites

    Real Online Degrees Blog

    Free Giveaways and Contests

    Webzone Marketing

  • Affiliations

    Bumble Bee Bee Squad

    • Web Statistics