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My kids can spot a Dollar Store from a mile away. Even my little 2 year has caught on. Her brothers have fully briefed her on the miracle of the Dollar Store – one coin equals one toy, lots of coins equals lots of toys. I used to also love the Dollar Store – a quick fix to any child’s woes. Needle at the doctor – Dollar Store pick-me-up; fall down and scrape your knee – fast track to the Dollar Store; let Mommy sleep in until 6:30am – Dollar Store reward. But, after a few bad Dollar Store experiences, I’m a bit wary of my children’s best retail friend. I am now a true believer in “you get what you pay for”. Almost every toy I have ever bought at a Dollar store has never remained intact for a full 24 hours proceeding the purchase. The only thing worse than a kid not getting their toy, is a kid that gets their toy, proceeds to break their toy, and now wants a replacement toy. And what exactly goes into these toys anyway? This issue is particularly relevant for me because at my house, whatever is inside the toy, soon ends up outside the toy, as they inevitably get broken. We (”we” as in my 4 year old) once broke one of those glow sticks and had sticky, radio-active looking goo all over my son’s bed for weeks. Weird looking fluff has come out of the stuffed animals and some of the plastic toys have had some pretty toxic scents when they came out of the packaging. Unfortunately these days, with all the scary toy safety warnings and recalls in the news, you can’t be too careful when it comes to what you buy for your kids. That said, I have tried to kick my Dollar Store habit and wean my kids from the heady rush of perusing the Dollar Store toy aisles. Every once in a while we’ll still indulge a little, but we choose carefully and with the understanding that Mommy reserves the right to confiscate anything that looks a little fishy once we get home. Afterall, some things, like your children’s safety, are priceless.

Child safety has always been one of the key underlying values of TickleTickle and the TickleTickle online store offers a variety of toys, bpa-free baby products and gift sets that are tested for health and safety issues.

The other day I found myself, yet again, on the losing end of a battle of the wits with my 4 year old son.  It all started off innocently enough, as I tried to get him to eat his broccoli.  The conversation went something like this:

Me, trying to sound definitive:  “You have to eat your broccoli.”

Precocious 4 year old, very good at sounding definitive: “No, you’re not the boss of me.”

Me, unable to resist the urge to ask: “So who is the boss of you?”

Precocious 4 year old: “G-d is the boss of me.”

Me, anxious now to end supper and move onto to bath time: “Well G-d told me to tell you to eat your broccoli so you’ll grow up strong and healthy.”

Precocious 4 year old, giving me the disapproving, skeptical ‘Sure-the-dog-ate-your-homework’ look: ” Mommy, did G-d really talk special to you just to tell me to eat my broccoli?”

Me, miserably cornered, by a precocious 4 year old, and forced to fess-up: “Ok, no he didn’t, but how about you eat it anyway?”

Precocious 4 year old, sensing some sort of victory over his mother: “Ok, fine “(gobbles down the offending vegetable)… “but I’m not touching my cantalope….”

I can only hope that my little boy will put his skills to good use and grow up one day to be a lawyer.  The amazing thing is how early on kids start developing their traits and showing their potential.  Our role as parents is to nurture this potential and help them start shaping their futures.  November 20^th is Canada’s national “Child Day” which honours the human rights of children and youths worldwide.  It is to remind us that all children are entitled to grow up in a safe and healthy environment, and it is our responsibility to support those basic rights, even if it means making them eat their broccoli for supper.

TickleTickle recognizes the importance of National Child Day and offers parents responsible choices such as BPA-free products and breastfeeding accessories, to help promote safe and healthy environments for our children.

I remember learning at school in Physics class about the “Chaos Theory”.  It explained how one small random occurrence can produce unpredictable and sometimes drastic results… I never fully appreciated this theory until I became a mother.   I often liken running a house full of children to running a small country – if there is no order, then there will be anarchy and you will have to call in the army (i.e “just wait ‘til your father gets home.”).  The big question is – how do you maintain order and peace in the land, especially in such hectic times?  On many days, I have no idea, but I can share a few insights on how I keep a lid on full scale mayhem:

• List it. No matter how sure you are that you can remember all the details – guess what, you can’t.
• Write everything down in one place – play-dates, birthdays, doctor appointments, “dress your child like a tree” day…(love those school theme days…) My biggest mistake is taking notes in various places, not cross-referencing and then eventually losing all my little notes. There are some great Mommy organizers out there. Choose what works for you, as long as you are diligent about documenting. (If you want to try one out – check out http://www.momagenda.com/printable/index.html )
• Have a strategy and plan ahead. Sure, it’s a pain after a long day to prepare lunch boxes, or to think about what you need to do this week with respect to next week, but I find this kind of advance planning helpful in keeping one step ahead of the craziness. Take 15 minutes every evening to assess the current state of affairs and plan tomorrow.
• Delegate. There’s a reason every president has a vice-president; no man or mother is an island. The basic idea here is – give everyone just one little thing to be responsible for, so that you, alone, are not responsible for a million little things.
• Pick your battles. Ok, so it’s just killing you that little Jimmy wants to wear his pants tucked into his socks to school today, but save your energy for the next day when he wants to wear no pants at all.
• All rules, and schedules, are meant to be broken (but only by you of course!). Everyone needs a break and I think its ok to be flexible and let things slide just a little sometimes… Some nights a bowl of cereal for supper covers all major food groups just fine for me.

One other thing I remember learning about the Chaos Theory – it’s really about finding the underlying order in apparent randomness.  That pretty much sums up motherhood for me – finding a system to keep your troops moving in the right overall direction, even when you spend most of your days chaotically running around all over the place…