The Working Mom by Kay Luna

So, I was the one who ended up sick at our house over Halloween. Go figure.

We didn’t go anywhere the entire weekend, period. We even missed trick-or-treating.

Luckily, Babycakes is 2 and didn’t know the difference. She felt quite satisfied with the Halloween parties and trick-or-treating she did Friday at daycare and the Quad-City Times.

And you know what? She was actually happy that we “got to stay home,” instead of going somewhere every day (I felt guilt over that one). Plus, she had fun by dressing up as Cinderella almost non-stop all weekend, which was adorable. 

We still ended up with just enough candy to make her CRAZY (Haha!), asking all the time when she could have a treat. We let her choose one piece after each meal, which made her happy.

But I was just talking to a co-worker who says she has always told her daughter that the “Candy Witch” comes to some kids’ houses, and collects half of your candy loot, much like the “Tooth Fairy.” In exchange for taking the candy, the “Candy Witch” leaves a special gift.

I’ve never heard of that one. She said her own Mom did the same thing when she was a little girl, and she always looked forward to it.

Some dentists and doctors across the country also collect kids’ Halloween candy, in exchange for healthy alternatives or money, according to stories I’ve read online.

How do you deal with the constant begging for candy after Halloween? Do you restrict how much your kids eat somehow? I know when my son was young, my husband was always more than happy to “help” by eating some of his chocolate (with the boy’s permission!). Ha! What do you do?

So, I’m sitting here at work, wearing a blondish wig, heels and other high-fashion accessories, with eight babies on my hip, randomly yelling out, “JON!!! A little help over here!!! Gaaaaahhhh!!!”

Can you guess who I’m dressed up as for Halloween????

If you watch (or read about) TLC’s reality show, “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” then I bet you have a good idea. Yep! I’m supposed to be Kate Gosselin.

Guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I ended up finding 16 doll-babies at my house last night (Babycakes is SUCH a girl, right?!), which will help another co-worker with her Halloween costume for our contest at work: “Octo-Mom.” LOL!

I surprised Ron and Amy at Mix 96 (96.1 FM) studio when I walked in as “Kate” for my Friday bit on the morning show.  It was hilarious! If you missed the show, here’s the link to the audio: http://www.qctimes.com/promo/homepage/audio_46314c6e-c569-11de-aefa-001cc4c03286.html

My friend, Melissa Coulter, sits right beside me here at work, and she’s dressed up as Cleopatra. Very impressive costume that she made herself! Check out our TwitPic together here: http://twitpic.com/ninf9

Did you dress up for Halloween at work today?

Has the H1N1 scare impacted your Halloween plans?

It has for our family.

We typically go trick-or-treating before Halloween at a special event held at my 91-year-old grandma’s elderly housing complex, but it was cancelled this year. Why? Mostly to protect the old people, who might be susceptible to the virus, if it was brought into the building for that large gathering.

I also see it as protecting children like my daughter, who could catch it from a school-aged kid or adult. She hasn’t had the vaccine yet (and we’re still trying to determine if we’ll get it for her or not — but that’s fodder for a whole other blog post).

Now, we’re thinking twice about where we might take Babycakes trick-or-treating, if we do it at all. She’s still young enough that she would be happy dressing up at home, and “finding” candy hidden around the house to put in her Halloween bucket.

We figure, why potentially expose her to H1N1 when we don’t need to? I keep thinking about all of those strangers and their unknown germs. Am I becoming germaphobic??? My hands are drying out from all the hand sanitizer I’ve been using at work, and I keep hearing about kids and adults getting sick all around me.

On the other hand, this is such a cute age at Halloween. We were really looking forward to seeing her finally enjoy going door-to-door (last year, we made it around two blocks, I’m guessing, and I carried her most of the time).

Here’s a link to a Parenting magazine article that offers a few quick tips for meshing the two (H1N1 scare and trick-or-treat).

So, what do you think? Is this a dilemma at your house, too?

Are you sick of hearing the kids fight in the back seat on long road trips? And at the dinner table … and just about everywhere else???

For those of you who wish Calgon really would take you away when the kids start in, parenting expert Michelle Borba — author of “The Big Book of Parenting Solutions: 101 Answers to your Everyday Challenges and Wildest Worries” – offers these house rules to ease the problem.

* No yelling. When tempers flare and feelings are hurt, the volume decibel tends to rise, causing arguments to quickly escalate and get out of hand. Just remember: the “no yelling” rule isn’t only for the kids. Set a good example and cut out the yelling, too (as hard as that might sound).

* No taking without asking. Property ownership can be a BIG deal. Insist that siblings get permission from the owner before borrowing, using or taking any property.

* No hurtful behaviors. Set a strict policy: name-calling and hitting will not be tolerated, under any circumstances and they will result in a consequence.

* No involvement without evidence. If you are the parent of siblings, you’ve probably spent a good deal of time playing referee. Kids are quick to run to a parent’s aid to help settle their disagreements and if you weren’t a witness to the incident itself, then it can be hard to know exactly what to do. Borba says you should get involved in the conflict only if you actually saw or heard it occur. This will help to keep you neutral and will encourage your kids to adopt strategies to help them work things out for themselves.

* No tattling. Not only is tattling an unattractive quality in kids, it can also breed resentment amongst siblings and can be the central to continuing conflict in a household.

Since my kids are 15 years apart in age, I don’t deal with sibling bickering at home. But I think these are excellent house rules, anyway, even in a daycare setting.

Do you have rules like this in place? What do you do to get the kids to stop bickering with each other?

Thanks to learning the hard way, I know how important it is to teach children how to wait: Not to  just think of the “now,” but think of the big picture and how their choices might impact their future.

So, I got tickled when a friend sent me this link about “the marshmallow project.”

A researcher in the video tells children of various young ages to sit in a chair at a table, with a marshmallow in front of them. She tells them she’s going to leave the room. The child can eat the marshmallow right away, or they can wait … and if they wait, they can get a second marshmallow to eat when she returns.

Oh, you ought to watch the video and see how funny a few of the kids look, as they wrinkle their noses and roll those treats around in their hands, trying to remember not to eat them right away.

They say the children who choose to wait for the reward tend to be more successful later in life.

I think I might try this at home. Thanks to bags and bags of leftovers from a recent bonfire party, we surely have enough marshmallows at home to play this game all day long, for weeks … HAHA!

What do you think?

I’m thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas already.

I know, Halloween hasn’t even come yet. But I’m trying to plan ahead about where we’re going to spend the holidays.

It’s always interesting, trying to figure out how we’re going to incorporate everyone (or as many people as possible) into the festivities, without leaving anyone out, hurting anyone’s feelings, causing emotional discomfort or making our lives miserable with hours and hours of driving, etc.

So, we’ve got the mine, his and ours of the family. Then, there are sub-groups of those categories: We’ve got my mom and Grandma, my sister and her fiance, my niece and cousins … then we’ve got my dad and step-mom and siblings and their children, and other extended family … then we’ve got my husband’s parents and sister and family … then we’ve got close friends who feel like family … The lists go on and on.

Oh, and please don’t forget to throw my daughter’s birthday into the Christmas-time mix, too. Nice work by Mom and Dad, huh?! (Sorry, Babycakes).

So, I’m juggling all of this in my mind right now, and wondering how YOU sort out the holidays with your family.

Do you drive all over the countryside to make it to several places in one day? Do you take turns going places every other year? Or do you just host the event and invite everyone, and expect them to mesh together cordially for just ONE day of the year??? Suggestions will be taken with joy and thanks.

Someone named Pat Murphy commented on one of my old blog posts over the weekend, encouraging me to listen to his band’s new single, called “Working Mom.”

No, it wasn’t spam. Murphy is a real person, and he lives in Ireland. His family’s band plays there. So, I went to their Web site and checked out the song. If you like country music (which I do), you might like this one — especially if you’re a working parent.

Yay for international blog reading!

With all this talk about homemade Halloween costumes, I decided to go digging around in my basement for some old photos to share with you.

Now, please note that these pics were taken before digital cameras, so they aren’t as bright and focused as I would like — but, oh, my gosh, they bring back great memories.

The first photo is of my son, when he was about 3 years old, in the now-famous laundry machine costume I made for him in 1994. This is by far my favorite Halloween costume ever. I mean, just look at him — adorable.

Of course, this little bumblebee was pretty adorable, too. This is from Babycakes’ first Halloween two years ago. No, I didn’t make the costume, but the cuteness factor is way up there, anyway.

And the last photo is of — can you guess? — me (on the left). Of course, I was dressed up as a princess, which is what my Babycakes (soon to turn 3) wants to dress up as for Halloween this year. My costume was homemade in this picture from about 1982, I’m guessing, as I stand with Angie Robbins at the Viola, Ill., Sesquicentennial Parade. I’m actually patting myself on the back right now that I remember Angie’s name! Angie, where are you nowadays??? She sure was a cute Laura Ingalls Wilder in that photo. I remember painstakingly drawing and coloring that crown that I’m wearing in the picture. And I was wearing my Mom’s high heels, too. I walked through that entire parade wearing my Mom’s shoes. I think the judges must have felt sorry for me, because I won a ribbon and a prize — I think it was a whole $3 or something. I was thrilled.

I lingered a little while longer than I planned looking at those old photo albums. It’s funny how old photos can take you back to another time in just an instant. I laughed a lot as I turned those pages last night. It was a fun blast from the past.

But when my time was up, when the oven timer started tweeting, I was still smiling as I ran back upstairs — back into my present. The old days were great, but today is pretty awesome, too.

What are you up to this weekend?

What would you think of a four-day, 10-hours-per-day work week? Or do you already work this kind of schedule?

The State of Utah went to this in August 2008, closing all government offices on Friday, initially to save on energy costs. Apparently, the state didn’t see the kind of savings it expected on energy costs, but it is seeing other benefits — like a big savings on overtime pay.

And my personal favorite: A lot of working parents are saying they really like the freedom of having that Friday off.

Here’s an excerpt from the story (linked above) by the Associated Press:

“Working mothers like Carolyn Dennis — she has two young sons — found a way to adjust.

“It’s actually a lot easier than the five-hour day, because I have all day Friday to clean and run errands and still have the whole weekend to spend with my kids,” said Dennis, customer service manager for the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing.

“I actually found it’s freed up my time. We never did anything in the evening anyway, but having that extra day has made it easier to be a working mom.”

Dennis leaves the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan at 5:45 a.m. with her youngest, a 2-year-old, in tow. She drops him at a day care center near work in downtown Salt Lake City. Her husband, a business owner, drops the couple’s 7-year-old son, a first-grader, at school.

Dennis works from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., skipping lunch hour and leaving a half-hour earlier than normal. That allows her to cut down a long day for her youngest.

All things considered, Dennis would never switch back.

“I do love the 4/10 and told my boss if they take it away, I’ll probably cry,” she said.”

What do you think? Would you/do you like working this type of schedule?

Note to self: Maybe I should wear skirts and nylons to work more often.

This morning, as I pulled on my nylons to wear under a business skirt today, my soon-to-be-3-year-old daughter said, “Mommy! Those are Grandma Kathy’s! Why are you wearing those?”

It made me laugh because my Mom comes out to our house about once a week after work, and as my daughter points out, she’s usually wearing nylons.

So, apparently, Babycakes thinks only grandmas wears those — and any pair of nylons in our house MUST be her Grandma’s, right?! LOL! What a hoot.

One of my friends just told me that her daughter thinks some crazy things, too. She said when her Nana went into the hospital, daughter Natalie automatically asked when the baby was coming home. I guess in her mind, every time someone goes to the hospital, it’s because they’re having a baby! Not a bad scenario, right?! Ha! Maybe Nana wouldn’t think so …

I never get tired of hearing some of the hilarious things kids say. So, tell me: What funny stuff have you heard lately?