Welcome to My iPhone World

It is quite amazing how quickly one can be sucked up into the iPhone and wonder how on Earth she ever survived without it. Honestly, I don’t know how I managed to wake up in the morning without my handy custom alarms. And I can’t tell you how much food has not been burned thanks to the timer. And now there are apps! Oh the joy of apps!

I wrote about how I decided to get the iPhone, and more ways I use it (so far!) on HubPages. (PS – HubPages has gotten a cute face lift, check it out!) I’ve also started using some of the apps and I put together a list of some good iPhone apps for parents here.

Finally, I found this little gem of iPhone tips on Twitter (follow me!). It’s got me thinking of more ways to use the iPhone.

Have fun, fellow (and future) Apple addicts!

What’s Up For New Years?

I’m just wondering today if every other parent in the world is as lame as I am, or do any of you have cool plans for New Years?

Creative ways to party as a parent?

Tips for scoring the ‘good’ babysitter?

Let’s share, shall we? (Come on, I know you’re not actually working today…)

Does Your Child Need an Attitude Adjustment?

Does your child ever whine, talk back, throw tantrums at the store? Would you like to change attitude problems quickly and easily? Of course you would! That’s why James Lehman has created his transformational behavior program! Yay!

When I heard Mr. Lehman selling his goods on late night cable, I was tempted by the free gift with purchase: 10 Ways to Turn Around Your Child’s Attitude in One Minute or Less. Who wouldn’t want that? Then I remembered falling for a similar promise. Maybe you’ve heard of the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Key word: easy. Yeah right. I practically lost my mind trying to force my kid through those easy lessons. I suspect the same to be true of the one minute or less promise. Come on – parenting is a process. Are there really any magic beans?

One look at Mr. Lehman and you can tell he’s spent his life dealing with attitude challenged teenagers! But hey, if you want to give it a go, the program can be yours for ’3 convenient monthly payments of $109.00 billed to the credit card.’ Just don’t blame me if your own attitude suffers for it.

If you’re a parent, you’re just as expert as anyone else, so tell us all – what works for you?

Also – check out my advice on parenting. Totally free!

How Many Parents Does it Take to Make the 5th Grade Homecoming Float?

In a moment of weakness I volunteered for the 5th grade homecoming float committee. I know – the 5th grade has a homecoming float? There’s a long tradition in our town that the 5th graders participate in the high school homecoming parade. And when I say the ’5th graders participate’, it’s code for the ‘parents of the 5th graders compete’.

I attended two homecoming float committee meetings where I tried to keep quiet while no less than 8 women talked at the same time. In case you can’t tell by the tone of this blog, I’m not exactly a wallflower. I tend to speak up. However, I remind you – this is PTA stuff and I am afraid. Despite the chaos, the mob actually came up with a pretty good design and we planned to get the kids together on Sunday to work on it.

Okay, so by work on it, apparently we meant let the hormonal little beasts run around like wild dogs and eat the hostess out of Fritos and Gatorade. (They also spent a meager amount of time taping out football field lines and making posters with tempera paint.) Again, during the workday I tried to keep quiet. Because really – what do I know about floats? Nada. School spirit? I got nothin‘.

I listened to serious and necessary discussions about tissue paper vs. napkins, glitter vs. paint, and the many uses of hay bales. Pretty soon my confidence grew and I suggested to the parent designing the support frame that we use PVC pipe. However, he was a man and promptly shrugged off my idea. At one point I asked a friend to please shoot me in the head if I ever volunteered to head up the float committee, or any other PTA committee. Give me a cause, a board, a fundraiser, and I’ll make things happen. But when it comes to school, just pass me the glue and glitter and tell me what to do.

At the end of the workday, while our children ran through the street, we dedicated PTA parents met under a tree to review what we’d accomplished and what still needed to be done. The candy bags had been stuffed and the costumes arranged. The banner was located and the cardboard cut. All that was left to do was assemble the frame – out of PVC pipe.