Browsing Tag

self esteem

How I Will Keep My Daughter Beautiful

FAM, health By March 27, 2016 Tags: , , , 3 Comments

I remember that I was carrying my infant daughter, wrapped tightly to me as I wandered through a church bazaar when a voice said, “What a beautiful baby!”

I thought so, of course, but it was nice to hear it from a stranger, so I turned and thanked the person behind the voice. I don’t remember what she looked like, but I want to judge her, in retrospect – in my mind, her perfectly coiffed, single-hue dye job was oversprayed, her skin showed the damage from too many tanning booths and she wore too much expensive, cloying cologne – but I really don’t know. She looked into my baby’s beautiful eyes and returned her bright, cheerful smile – and then looked at me and said “You’re going to keep her thin and pretty, right?”

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Barbie Evolved - Podcast with Erica Ehm

Podcast: Erica Ehm from YummyMummyClub on Barbie

EAVESDROP, Overheard By February 9, 2016 Tags: , , , , , , , , No Comments

We’re thrilled today to be speaking with Erica Ehm from the YummyMummyClub about an exciting new and relatively historic event that has taken place which she has had a hand in developing. Mattel has been making the Barbie Doll, essentially unchanged, for years. Even through the era of men’s magazine and feminism, not much changed for that classic American icon, Barbie. But today, there’s been an announcement. 

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Invisalign Teen

FAM, grow, kids, LIVE By January 5, 2012 Tags: , , , , , No Comments

I went to a swanky Gastown dinner sponsored by Invisalign Teen.  Having never had braces and with toddlers, I had no idea what advances there have been in dentistry.  Wow.  Headgear?  No.  Ugly metal train-track things that get bits of food stuck and leave a teenager date-less?  Nope.  Invisalign are hard see-through cases – trays that you can pop in and out of your mouth that gently maneuver the teeth info proper formation.  The biggest benefit in my view relates to self-esteem for teens and adults requiring braces.  (Not to mention few diet or sports restrictions.)  I won’t go into the amount of therapy I needed after having acne as a teenager, but I was certainly affected by not feeling attractive.  Ridiculous but true – especially during the teenage years.  Anything that can help teens through this stage of life is such a blessing.  A tad more expensive than traditional braces, but they certainly get our vote.  Oh – and Moms can certainly benefit too.

www.invisilign.com

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surprising benefits of video games

Surprising Benefits of Video Games

GEAR, tech By September 15, 2011 Tags: , , , No Comments

I am a cool mom, but I’m not a mom who likes video games. In fact, I really dislike them. I hate seeing my kids (or anyone’s kids) blipping away in front of a game when the sun is shining outside or there’s homework or chores to be done. However, I am married to a gamer and I birthed four of them (the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…), so I’m trying to keep cool about things, as long as it’s in moderation. I did some research, and there are some surprising benefits of playing video games. Here are some of them:

  1. It gives kids a safe place to socially interact. If they play a MMO or MMORPG (if you’re a gamer you’ll know the term…), they must interact with people in their various quests and missions. As long as you take some basic precautions and make sure they’re interacting with safe people, this is not bad. Psychologists say that it’s healthy for them to have a virtual life, one where they feel empowered and aren’t as socially awkward as in “real life.”
  2. It improves hand-eye coordination and reaction time. Although you may disapprove of violence, games that involve shooting, pointing, aiming, etc., can actually improve someone’s hand-eye coordination and their response and reaction times. The US military and others have begun integrating these kinds of programs in their training, but it hails all the way back to flight simulators and wargames.
  3. They can get some exercise. Yes, this is a recent development, but the Nintendo Wii, Xbox Kinect and other physical interaction games promote better health. There are games that make kids dance, play golf and tennis, etc., which is a very healthy development.
  4. It encourages competition in a healthy way. Gamers get to strut their stuff on the screen in a myriad of ways; they get to pit themselves against imaginary and real opponents in a platform that doesn’t discriminate against the non-athletic kid or the one with the physical disability. They get to set goals and achieve them, besting their own scores and breaking their own records.
  5. They get to decompress. School is tough: dealing with academic, social, and other pressures during the day can be stressful. Games provide an outlet to vent frustration, pent-up energy and emotion, and simply “decompress”.
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