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Ultimate Gen Z Gift Guide

FAM, kids By Jill Amery December 3, 2019 3 Comments

Gen Z should go down as one of the hardest ever to buy for. Apart from my Dad. He’s really hard too. Generation Z are broadly defined as those born between 1996 and 2010. I have two of them, and wow do they throw me for a loop when doing holiday or birthday shopping! A bunch of realists who work hard to succeed, these kids tend to love dystopian media and respond to images more than text. Yes, like memes. Help us all! Here is the ultimate GenZ gift guide filled with ideas that should please!

Jill Amery

Jill Amery is a mom of 2 small boys and the Publisher of UrbanMommies, a stylish digital lifestyle magazine filled with fitness, style, health, recipes and savvy mom advice to help you through pregnancy, birth, and raising your kids.

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How To Teach Your Baby Sign Language

FAM, kids By Jill Amery November 18, 2019 1 Comment

It has been proven that both parents and infants benefit from using sign language. Benefits include improved communication, trust building, strengthening parent/child bond, promotion of positive emotional development, bolstering babies’ self confidence, helping babies learn to talk and jumpstarting intellectual development.

Jill Amery

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100 Happy Days: A Social Experiment in Positivity

Featured, health, kids, nourish, self, Uncategorized By Guest October 27, 2019 No Comments

There’s a lot of unhappy going on out there. Buzz words that conjure the worst viral stories and make our hearts drop into the pits of our stomachs. Words that lose all authentic meaning in the moment and become emblems of pure emotion, driving parents to despair. A once normal word like ‘gorilla’ triggers conflicting feelings of anger and hopelessness. Add ‘anti-vax’, ‘forward-facing’, and ‘breastfed‘ to the list and you’re sunk; it’s evolving and eternal. And it’s also true—these things do happen and they’re awful, but reading about them on Facebook every day doesn’t empower us, it drowns us. Sure we’re drawn to the heavy, but shouldn’t we also celebrate the light? 100 happy days was my shift in focus, my commitment to happy—and it can be yours too.

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Literary Pumpkins for Halloween

FAM, kids By Jill Amery October 24, 2019 No Comments

One of my boys is not a natural reader, so I go to (extreme) lengths to inspire excitement. Literary pumpkins for Halloween are a great way to do this. These ideas aren’t easy, but they sure are fun!! The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle is a beloved children’s book and the corresponding literary pumpkin makes for a great activity to do with your little ones. The Pigeon who drives the bus has inspired a series of epic books by Mo Willems. Lastly, crayons. The melted crayon pumpkin is a great way to use your broken pieces!

Jill Amery

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Halloween Safety Tips

holidays, kids By Jill Amery October 14, 2019 56 Comments

I remember as a little girl – saving all of the ‘used-almost-to-the-bottom’ candles for the whole year to use for Hallowe’en. Our jack o’ lanterns would house a cornucopia of bright red and gold Christmas candles and a few yellow Easter ones. I would be a bit rattled that my beautiful pumpkin was getting red wax dripped all over, and then completely dejected that whenever I passed my own house (as I was doing the neighborhood candy marathon) the pumpkin would be dark. A gust of wind had just spoiled a child’s excitement at boasting artistic achievements to her friends. I’d quickly apologize and run up to grab a lighter or matches. And I can’t remember being anything other than a princess in chiffon so that + matches was clearly a bad idea…

Jill Amery

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Is My Tween Ready For A Cell Phone?

FAM, kids By Guest October 7, 2019 Tags: cell phone, featured, mobile, questions, school, smartphone, social media, teen, toys, tween, tweens 4 Comments

My tween wants a cell phone. Correction, she wants a cell phone that allows her to text, play games online, send emails and lastly, make phone calls. Yesterday, she told me that more and more of the girls in her class (We’re talking 4^th grade folks!) are getting cell phones for their 10^th birthdays. She doesn’t want to wait a year. She wants one now. The question is, is my tween ready for a cell phone?

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Yoga with Toddlers : Tips for Connecting Mommy Time with Baby Time

fitness, kids By VanessaHeron September 24, 2019 1 Comment

I know every word to the theme song for Paw Patrol. I can recite Goodnight Moon forwards, backwards, upside down, and inebriated. I spend the majority of my days creating with play dough, kicking balls, singing nursery rhymes, and playing make believe games with plastic toys. There are a myriad of reasons behind my participation in all of these activities, the most important being that they interest my children. I repeat. They interest my children. When the sun goes down and the babies are tucked in to bed, you will not find me re-reading Goodnight Moon for the kajillionth time. As it turns out, I have a few interests of my own and none of them involve pups who save the day.

VanessaHeron

Vanessa is a wife and mother to two littles. She is a school counsellor by day, a blogger at Like Mother Like Daughter by night, and occasionally dabbles in freelance during naptime. Her favourites include all things pop culture, strong cups of coffee, and full nights of sleep.

Smells Like Tween Spirit

FAM, kids By Renee Robbins August 26, 2019 6 Comments

Who solves a Rubik’s cube in under a minute, yet can’t figure out how to turn his clothes right-side out before they go in the hamper?

Who takes 3 showers a day but can’t remember to grab a towel before he goes in?

Who smells like feet and used car salesmen?

My son. My son does.

Renee Robbins

Writer. Kamikaze Mom. Participation Trophywife. Trying to achieve a balance of principal and practice without shouting obscenities at too many people.

Six Steps to Teach Your Teen to Negotiate Successfully

FAM, kids By Guest August 22, 2019 Tags: parenting, role model, teenagers 1 Comment

Why should you teach your teen to negotiate? Negotiation is a skill that is useful at home because it helps keep the line of communication open between you and your child, and makes them feel heard and like their opinions matter.

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Welcome to Toddler Hell, Population: You.

baby, FAM, Featured, grow, kids, LIVE By Jorrie Varney August 19, 2019 No Comments

The change in my son’s behaviour was so gradual I almost didn’t realize what was happening. At first, I wrote it off as a bad day. I explained his emotional meltdowns as tiredness or hunger—I know how a guy can get when he needs a taco.

One bad day turned to two, and two turned into a week. Before I knew it we were living a new normal. An emotionally unhinged, can-other-kids-possibly-be-like-this normal.

So here I am today, writing from Toddler Hell, where the red cup is never blue enough and shoes are evil feet-demons.

Jorrie Varney

Jorrie is a registered nurse and mom of two, who aspires to own furniture without stains and shower without an audience. She writes about the joy and hilarity of raising children, on her blog Close to Classy. You can also find her work on Scary Mommy, Mamapedia and Mamalode. Follow her on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram.