“Mom, mom, I really want a cell phone!”

 ”But you don’t even talk on the regular phone, why do you need a cell phone?”

 ”I just do . . . everyone has a cell phone.”

 ”Well, we’re not everyone.”

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve had this conversation with my 11 year-old son, well, you know how rich I would be.

It’s not that I don’t understand his want to have a beloved cell phone, one he can hang from his backpack and download the coolest games onto. A phone he can text his friends with on his way to school, one he can customize with his very own ring tone.

But are these reasons to give a kid a cell phone?

Until now, we have been strictly anti-cell phone for kids in our family.  I, myself, really try to only use my cell phone when it is absolutely necessary.  Although I occasionally break that rule, my friends can attest to the fact that I hardly even answer the thing.  But this isn’t about me.

With the recent additions of middle school and more responsibility for our children, my husband and I have decided that the time has come to get the kids a cell phone.

Gasp!

A cell phone. For our kids? Are we crazy? Now, hear me out. We call this cell phone the “family phone.” And it is just that. it does not belong to either of the boys and it certainly does not belong to our 4 year-old daughter (she does just fine with her sparkly Cinderella phone, the one that she can call her fairy godmother on). We added a third line to our existing 2-phone plan and picked out it’s color together (blue). Don’t ask me what the number is for it, because I have no idea.

The plan for this phone is not for our children to rack up hundreds of dollars in text messaging each month or to chit chat with their friends. They are more than welcome to send their friends an email or use the antiquated land line if they so wish. The plan is not for them to bring the phone to school, I think phones are way to distracting in an educational environment and unnecessary - as there are plenty of phones on school grounds and responsible adults to help in an event warranting a call home. The plan is for this phone to be available to them when they need it. Keyword: need.

When our oldest wants to meet his friends at the park, I feel more comfortable sending him if he has a phone. If the boys want to ride their bikes to the store, they take the family phone. If, for any reason, I would need to leave them at soccer practice or taekwondo, or they want to go somewhere with a friend whose parents don’t have a cell phone, they could take the blue family phone.

I know that a cell phone is not a replacement for a parent, believe me, I know. But our older children are old enough to be able to handle the responsibility, along with the freedom, that the phone provides. When I was their age, I was allowed to explore our neighborhood with my friends, answering only to the call of my mother’s whistle when it was time to come home. I want the same for my kids, and I think in this day and age letting them bring a cell phone along is the only way I will feel comfortable sending them out into the big bad world.

Setting guidelines and knowing your child are important in determining if they are ready for a cell phone. Making sure they follow the rules and appropriately use the phone are also important and we’ve only just begun on our journey.

I’m curious, what have others done when it comes to kids and cell phones? At what ages did you allow your children to have one, or share one, or have you decided to not allow them at all? Do the news reports regarding the safety of cell phones on developing minds have any bearing on your decision?

Tell me, what do you think?

Carrie can be found hanging out at her personal blog Stop Screaming I’m Driving!  where she is kept busy wrangling three kids, one goofy Aussie, and her very own firefighter.  She can be bribed with lattes and offers to do her laundry.  Please send column suggestions to carrieb at seattle mom blogs dot com.

Way back when my kids started doing regular chores (let’s say, around the ages of 5 and 6 for the boys), I figured it was high time to offer them up some kind of incentive for their help around the house.  Even though their “help,” more times than not, involved me re-doing the tasks they were asked to complete when they weren’t looking (wouldn’t want to damage their fragile egos, you know).

I remember thinking about what would be the perfect amount to compensate and finally, my husband and I agreed that $1.00 a week was enough, considering their ages and all. 

Here’s the thing about allowances, they only work if you actually remember to give the incentive you have promised.  I must’ve missed that in my “Allowances for Kids” seminar.  A’hem.

Anyway, a few years passed and the allowance subject came up again, this time during a paticularly difficult period of non-chore doing and downright messiness with the boys.  I had made chore charts.  I had reminders plastered all over the house.  I was driving myself crazy trying to find ways to get them to make their beds and put their dirty clothes in the hamper each morning, let alone brush their own teeth.

Come on.  Brushing one’s teeth should be as natural as breathing . . . not a chore.  Oh, the joys of boys!

So I was willing to give this whole allowance thing a run, yet again, in the hopes of getting a little more chore action from them.  Again, after a few weeks, we all forgot.  But I still made them brush their teeth.

Fast forward to last month.  My boys are now 9 and 11 years old and I decided that since they’ve been fairly successful in completing at least a few basic tasks every day (like making beds, picking up clothes, feeding the dog and yes! occasionally brushing their teeth and breathing all on their own) it was again time to discuss (cough, cough) allowances.

But how much to offer them?  True, when I asked them to unload and load the dishwasher the other day they both looked at me and said, “How do we do that?”

I am cowering in shame here people, how is it that they don’t know how to do this?  How have I managed in eleven years of parenting to overlook providing them with this most important life skill, that of being able to unload and load a dishwasher properly?

No worries, they’ve got it down pat now.  But still, the conundrum remains.  How much to you pay out in allowances each week?  Or should it be a monthly payment?  Payment plan?  PayPal?  What?

Carrie Blankenship is the mother of three (four, if you count her goofy puppy). She writes her way through motherhood at Stop Screaming I’m Driving! She accepts bribes of lattes (especially Starbucks) and offers of free babysitting. If you’re really lucky, she may even do your laundry. She can be contacted at carrieb-at-seattlemomblogs-dot-com.

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As I’m sure you’ve often found, planning travel (ensuring the kids have their favorite toys, your hubby has the proper summer wear, exchanging dollars for Euros, and making sure you haven’t forgotten the important little details) can be incredibly stressful.

With travel maps in hand and excitement at its peak, the last thing you want during vacation is to contract norovirus or something equally contagious vacation wrecker. With help from Dr. Kelly Reynolds, microbiologist and mom of 3, and The Clorox Company I bring you these healthy summer travel tips:

• Pack disinfecting wipes (such as the new thicker, textured Clorox Disinfecting Wipes with Lavender scent- ahh!)
• If you’re flying, make sure the whole family keeps drinking water (no ice ), and take a stroll down the aisle to keep your circulation going
• Choose the right seat to keep the airsick bag where it belongs.
• Pick the seat that’s most stable (especially for those prone to motion sickness) – the front seat of the car, the first car of the train, a seat over the wings of the airplane, or in the midsection of the bus or boat
• Watch out for potential germ hot spots such as airplane tray tables (as Dr. Reynolds noted we’ve all seen people change their child on a tray table…yeah remember that? Exactly, and ewww!), hotel TV remotes and phones, ATM buttons and vending machine buttons. (There are actually more germs on vending machine buttons than on surfaces in public restrooms.)
• Exercise sun smarts
• Know your sunscreen. Some sunscreens are less effective when used with insect repellents, thus you may need to reapply even more often
• Stay hydrated, and keep moving.

And the # 1 “germ-busting” technique – Yes you guessed it:

• Wash your hands for 20 seconds using warm, soapy water (sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice as kids wash their hands). An alcohol-based hand sanitizer is a great substitute for when you can’t get to a sink

Now that you are well prepared for a healthy journey go forth and enjoy, but when you arrive at your destination be careful before jumping into the pool. Dr. Reynolds shared this little tidbit which bears repeating: properly chlorinated pools do not have an intense chlorine smell. If you’ve encountered a pool that has an intense chlorine smell and upon entering the pool the chlorine burns your eyes…run! That olfactory assault does not mean the pool is incredibly clean, that is actually the chloramine (the chemical compound in chlorine) reacting with urine, sweat and feces. Nice , right ? That said, please stick to pools and hot tubs with only a mild scent of chlorine – you’ll be happy you did.

Happy Summer!

Stacey can usually be found blogging at Because I Must Blog.

Besides being surrounded by gorgeous mountains and evergreens year-round, we are also surrounded by tons of bodies of water and these places are sure to fill up fast on this, the first hot weekend of summer ’08.  Yes, it is a blast to hang out at Alki, Golden Gardens, and on the shores of Lake Washington, but these beaches often become over-crowded on weekends. Frankly, I’d rather spend time organizing my sock drawer than try to fight for a patch of sand (gravel) at one of our local beaches.

Instead of flocking with the masses, we’re staying home.  Yup, you heard it.  H-O-M-E.

There are so many things you can do with your kids to stay cool in your own backyard that I just can’t justify the stress of packing, hauling, driving (have you seen prices at the pump lately?), unpacking, hydrating, etc. that is involved with heading to the beach.  Instead, we are setting up our umbrellas and pretending that the beach came to us this weekend.

Here’s how you can too:

• Turn on your hose.  This may seem simple, but the mere sight of cool, running water is known to reduce my internal body temperature by at least 10 degrees.
• Find your sprinklers.  They don’t need to be fancy, simple garden-type will do. If you do want to get fancy, head to your local store (if you haven’t already) and pick up one of those sprinkler balls (ALL of my kids are in love w/this), a slip-n-slide, or one of the other hundred types of sprinklers before they run out (go fast, you only have until tomorrow before the rest of the Puget Sound figures out that the beaches will be crowded and rush to buy their own sprinklers!).  Kudos if you managed not to break the one from last year!
• Don’t underestimate the power of the kiddie pool.  A well-placed kiddie pool, a beach umbrella and a good book will keep you happy and cool while the kids get soaked in the sprinkler.  Optional items include a)  a strawberry daiquiri  b)  an icy cold lemonade  and c)  a stylish hat (think Samantha in the Sex and the City movie).
• Sunscreen!  Remember this important item or you will spend the rest of the weekend applying aloe vera to crabby children instead of frolicking on your backyard beach.
• Have a picnic.  Make it fun.  Cut the crusts off the bread, live a little!  Set up a blanket, towels, or a portable table if you don’t want the ants joining you and have at it.  Serve all the food with toothpicks (I find that my kids will eat anything attached to a toothpick), or make them eat with their hands tied behind their backs.  Don’t forget the popsicles.  Whatever you do, make it fun!
• Water games, squirt guns, water balloon tosses, running from one side of the oscillating sprinkler to the other trying not to let it get them, are some of my kids’ favorite keep it cool activities.
• Bring the inside out.  Grab your portable radio (er, iPod docking station, I guess this is 2008) and crank the tunes.  Find an extension cord and set up a TV on the picnic table for a little late night, mock drive-in movie (pop the popcorn).   Use you imagination.
• In the evening, drag out an old tent and set it up for storytime (or ghost stories if they are a little older) under the stars.  Although it doesn’t get completely dark until nearly 10 o’clock, staying up late to stargaze with your children in the summer is an experience you both will benefit from.
• Relax.  Remain calm and keep your eye on the prize.  Creating fun summer memories doesn’t have to be hard.  Keep it simple and just enjoy being together.

Hopefully there will be many more beautiful weekends ahead.  I’m not suggesting that we all stay home for each and every one of them -  but if beating the crowds, reducing your vehicle use and stress are important to you, remember that you can have just as much fun in your own backyard!

Oh, and if you have a neighbor with one of those elaborate water slide contraptions, might I suggest whipping up a batch of cookies STAT and becoming her new best friend?  Just a little nugget of helpful advice, from me to you.

Carrie Blankenship is the mother of three (four, if you count her goofy puppy). She writes her way through motherhood at Stop Screaming I’m Driving! She accepts bribes of lattes (especially Starbucks) and offers of free babysitting. If you’re really lucky, she may even do your laundry. She can be contacted at carrieb-at-seattlemomblogs-dot-com.

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Congrats to Shannon!  YOU are our lucky winner, and it sounds like you’ll be getting these in just the nick of time!

Here is Shannon’s winning comment:

“With my tribe of pirates (three wild and crazy boys) we need all the labels we can get, and Mabel’s look fantastic! Now if only they came with a magic pill to help out with my debilitating “mommy brain syndrome” I’d be so much the better!”

I will be emailing you (Shannon) at the email you provided, OR you can contact me via carrieb at seattlemomblogs dot com! 

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Carrie Blankenship is the mother of three (four, if you count her goofy puppy). She writes her way through motherhood at Stop Screaming I’m Driving! She accepts bribes of lattes (especially Starbucks) and offers of free babysitting. If you’re really lucky, she may even do your laundry. She can be contacted at carrieb-at-seattlemomblogs-dot-com.

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Come on, am I the only one who has ever found a Polly Pocket bikini top in my wine glass?

My friends and I fondly refer to the litter of children’s things which seem to take over our homes as shrapnel. As in, kid shrapnel, and it’s everywhere! Be it the offending Lego that you so often step on with a bare foot in the middle of the night, or the whoopee cushion that just so happened to find itself on the seat of your favorite reading chair, this kid shrapnel can be a dangerous thing.

So the question remains, for all of us parents out there fed up with the kid shrapnel, what to do with all this stuff and how the heck do I organize it? 

Ta-da!  Mabel’s Labels!  I have found, in all my years of trying to organize three kids, no better solution to keeping track of what belongs to what child.  Plus, the labels are adorable, durable and available in a rainbow of colors - each with your child’s name and icon of choice on them (my kids have a skull, a turtle and a princess).  Sure, no label can completely eliminate the kid chaos and shrapnel, but they make organization a breeze, which, in turn, keeps the house a little more shrapnel-free!

Mabel’s Labels are the perfect solution for labeling everything from a skateboard (the first place my 11-year-old put his) to a sippy cup.  No need to worry about them falling off, because they are dishwasher, microwave and kid-proof!

I was so excited when we got our labels in the mail, that I went around labeling everything.  I put labels on books, cups, lunchboxes and even their Gameboys!  The clothing labels are especially handy, since my oldest will be going away (can I hear a hallelujah?) next week for summer camp and now I don’t have to worry about him losing any clothes.  He is just happy to have his skateboard labeled because, you know - skateboard theft is a huge concern of his.

Best part ever?  I am not going to keep all this labely goodness to myself (I know, shocking).  Mabel’s Labels wants to give YOU the chance to win some labels of your own!  All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post.  We will be giving away a Mabel’s Labels Camp Pack, which consists of 15 Sticky Labels, 40 Iron-Ons or 50 Tag-Mates (your choice), 8 Shoe Labels and 2 Bag Tags, to one lucky reader on Tuesday, June 24th!  Deadline to enter is 7:00pm (Pacific time) on Monday the 23rd, so don’t forget to leave a comment. 

TIME’S UP!  WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED TOMORROW, 6/24 AT 12:00PM.  THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED!

Carrie Blankenship is the mother of three (four, if you count her goofy puppy).  She writes her way through motherhood at Stop Screaming I’m Driving! She accepts bribes of lattes (especially Starbucks) and offers of free babysitting.  If you’re really lucky, she may even do your laundry.  She can be contacted at carrieb-at-seattlemomblogs-dot-com.

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This is a great deal if you’re looking to upgrade your bottles to something that’s absolutely safe and free of yucky toxic stuff.  Kudos to Babies R Us for doing this (the bottles haven’t actually been recalled; so they’re eating the cost).

Here are the details:

• Bring your polycarbonate bottles (Avent, Dr. Brown’s) to the service desk at Babies R Us and they will exchange them with BPA-free bottles (Medela, Born Free, the new BPA-free Dr. Brown’s, etc.)
• This is not a one-for-one exchange. Basically they will calculate the value of the bottles that you bring in, and give you an equal value exchange. Since the BPA-free bottles are typically more expensive than the toxic ones, you will get less bottles in exchange (or you can pay the difference).
• You do not need original packaging or receipt.  Bottles that you’re exchanging should be complete with all the parts and be products that Babies R Us currently sells (i.e. no bottles from 1970).
• Bottles only; no nipples, sippy cups, or accessories.

Currently there is no official end-date to this offer; it is something that Babies R Us is doing in the name of customer service but they may stop at any time. You can call before you go to confirm if they’re still doing it; (425)672-3220.

BABIES ‘R’ US - LYNNWOOD
19500 ALDERWOOD MALL PW
LYNNWOOD, WA 98036

Hours: Mon-Sat 9:30AM-9:30PM
Sun 10:00AM-7:00PM

That was many years ago and life has changed drastically, sometimes when I actually can take a moment to reflect on where life has taken me, I don’t recognize who I have become. But what hasn’t changed is my heartfelt desire to make sure that I tread on this earth as lightly and respectfully as I can and to teach my son why these things are needed and important.

So I focus on the small things that I can manage and feel that during the early motherhood phase of my life this is the most sane and realistic option, who knows what will happen when the kids are older !?!!

Small things:

Eating local and organic foods whenever possible.
It’s good for the earth, good for your family’s health and good for local farmers. Can’t get any better than that!! There are many options besides Whole Foods & PCC in the spring & summer months you can visit the myriad of local farmers markets, take a drive to a local farms (some have Farm tots programs, like South 47 Farm) or buy a CSA share from a local organic farmer, it ranges from 16-30 dollars per week. It is something fun to do with the kids, gets you out of your house get some delicious healthful foods.

Using resusable bags instead of paper & plastic.
The key to this is to actually find a system that works for you to put the bags back into the car after you use them otherwise they will just sit in a heap by the front door collecting dog hair & mud and you will have to wash them again(not eco friendly). I lived in Europe for 5 years where everyone uses reusable bags, and it took me about two weeks of being back in the US to be lazy about it. Now I just hang the bags on the front door so when I leave in the morning, the bags come with and this is a good system for me.

Picking up trash when you go for a walk or visit the beach.
I bring a large plastic bag with me and fill it with whatever I find, especially on the beach it is so important to pick up all plastic trash, each year thousands of marine creatures and birds die from ingesting plastic or becoming entangled in it. This is a great way to show your children an easy way to be green.

Planting something and watching it grow.
Anyone can do this. Even if you only have space for a few potted plants or herbs or flowers you will enjoy watching them grow. For years now we have had a vegetable garden and it makes me feel good to feed my family healthy organic vegetable & herbs and to watch my son learn about all the types of bugs and insects that come with a garden. Now he is old enough not to pull out, stomp on or pick all the beautiful veggies & flowers so we are all really excited to see what will happen this year!!

Small things count too and they add up so have fun figuring out what you and your family can do to respect and honor the earth and yourselves-Happy Earth Day!!!

For Easter she helped me plant my own wheat grass to use as an Easter basket for my little bunnies this year. The project was super easy and looking gorgeous and I think you should all try it today so it will grow in time for Easter.

First you soak a couple of handfuls of wheat in water for 24 hours. Soft white wheat berries are best and you need to get some that haven’t been stored with oxygen absorber packets. My neighbor purchased ours at Whole Foods for very little money.

Next you fill a pie plate or other dish with dirt about an inch deep. Then you sprinkle the soaked wheat berries over the top of the dirt. You only need about half of the amount of wheat that we used. We went a little overboard.

Water well and cover with plastic wrap until tiny sprouts appear.

After the sprouts start popping up (24-48 hours), remove the plastic wrap.

When the grass is a couple of inches tall, move the container to a sunny location so it will turn green in color. In the picture below, the grass is almost tall enought to move to the window. Soon it should be thick, lush and green.

On Easter Eve, dress like a bunny and place eggs and treats amidst the blades of grass.

How sweet is that?

I’ll post more pictures as the grass grows.

Update: Check out the progress.

1. When your 2 year old is having a screaming fit on the floor of Target walk away. Really. The minute they notice you are gone (you’re not really gone, you’re just hiding behind a rack of cheap clothing) they will stop screaming bloody murder and will ask for you. By all means, go back and save them. If they haven’t forgotten the candy bar they were having the fit about, run like the wind out of Target. I am totally serious, run with the kid in arms and leave. If you give in to tantrums at 2 you are gonna get reamed when they are 14. I have left all the food in a cart and walked out of a store because of a son’s tantrum numerous times.

2. Tantrums at home should be confined to their bedrooms. I would cart them upstairs, put them in their rooms and tell them not to come out until they could talk to me in a nice calm friendly voice. They might try to keep leaving their room but if they weren’t calm they’d go right back. (They had very few things in their rooms they could destroy that I cared about. One son put a hole in his wall and there it stayed until we moved. He did not like that.)3. Follow through on your threats. I told a four year old BPB to stop slamming his door(in our brand new, just built house) and yet he kept slamming it every 5 seconds. I got out the drill and took the door off. He was like: wha da? Mommy, what are you doing?” “Taking off the door you keep slamming. You cannot stop yourself from slamming the door so I am going to help you by removing your door.” “But Mommy, I don’t want my door off…………” “Hmmm, sorry but I warned you. No more door until you can learn to close doors softly and without anger.”
(Hubby came home and said, “WTF?” Dude! I made a threat and I follow through, and no the door isn’t going back on until I say so.)