UncoolMom.com

Craving "Constants"

pallbee@sbcglobal.net (Uncool Mom) — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 22:11:30 GMT

As the oldest child approaches senior year of high school and the youngest breezes through junior high not far behind, a mom can get pretty sentimental, y’ know? It used to be that even when the older child went through big changes, I still felt connected to the “younger child years”, because my kids are four years apart in age. For example, when Allison became “too mature” to enjoy going to the neighborhood pool every day in the summer, I’d still get to sit at that pool on summer mornings, with other moms of young kids, as Emmie took yearly swim lessons. When Allison and her friends were old enough to go to the mall by themselves, I’d still accompany Emmie on shopping trips. I had one foot in kid-land and one foot in teen-land. But this summer I am acutely aware that I have both feet pretty well planted in teen-land ...

How To Help Your Teen Be A Successful Babysitter

pallbee@sbcglobal.net (Uncool Mom) — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 15:44:58 GMT

Now that my 13-year-old, Emmie, is a bona fide, certified, babysitter (she took a course at a local rec center in May), she’s been trying to build her business and get jobs (saving for an iPhone can be a powerful incentive…). After she created a flier, gathered email addresses and sent out the flier, she has started to get calls. So I thought it was time to pass on to her what my childhood friend, Trisha, passed on to me and what I’d already passed on to Allison: the secret to successful babysitting. Trisha was a very successful babysitter; I took her advice and was booked solid almost every weekend evening (at least a Friday or Saturday night) during my junior high and early high school years , and in summer, some weekdays and evenings as well.

So what’s the secret? Bring your own “stuff”. Yes, that’s it in ...

Wake Me Up Before You YOLO: What parents should know about the latest teen trend in risky behavior

pallbee@sbcglobal.net (Uncool Mom) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 02:53:43 GMT

Ever heard of YOLO? If you haven’t and you’re a parent of a teen, you need to wise up. It’s an acronym that means You Only Live Once and it was popularized in a song by Canadian rapper Drake last fall, tattooed on actor Zac Efron’s hand, hashtagged by millions of teens on Twitter and immortalized in their Facebook posts as well. When I first heard Allison’s friends tease her that she was all about YOLO, I actually thought that was a good thing, like the “Carpe Diem” motto that Robin Willliams implores his students to follow in the movie Dead Poet’s Society, a movie that Andy and I showed to our daughters not too long ago...it also seemed related to my personal favorite movie line, “A life lived in fear is a life half-lived” from the movie, Strictly Ballroom... But I guess another motto I should memorize (because I keep forgetting it) is “parents ...

Are Teen Hang-outs An Endangered Species?

pallbee@sbcglobal.net (Uncool Mom) — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:45:27 GMT

The title of this post is a question that has been on my mind since before I had kids, when I first moved to this suburb almost 19 years ago and was surprised at how early the “sidewalks rolled up” around here. Whenever Andy and I were out for the evening and wanted a late night dinner or snack, we were hard-pressed to find any eating establishments open past 9 p.m. And sometimes when we’d head to a little mom and pop restaurant in the neighborhood for an 8 o’clock dinner, by 8:15 we’d be the only patrons there, and even though their closing time was posted as 9, mom and pop would literally sit at a table near the kitchen, turn their chairs in our direction and stare at us until we finished, as if they were saying, ‘hurry up, we want to go home.’ It was weird, not to mention a little creepy ...

Outsmarted and Outfoxed: When Kids Call Your Bluff

pallbee@sbcglobal.net (Uncool Mom) — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:03:47 GMT

Dana Macario at the mom blog “18 Years to Life” recently wrote an account of how, to teach her kids to pick up their toys, she and her husband gathered up all the toys strewn about, stuffed them into large trash bags, put them in a closet and told their kids that for each night they picked up the rest of their toys, they could earn back one of the "hostage" toys. Logic would dictate that the kids would want their toys back badly, and it would take so long to earn them back, that once earned back, the kids would think twice in the future about leaving them lying everywhere. Logic would say this was a great way to teach kids a lesson in being neat without having to nag, “Pick up your toys!!” Only Dana’s kids chose ...

New Uncool Mother's Day Gifts!

pallbee@sbcglobal.net (Uncool Mom) — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:51:46 GMT

Just in time for Mother's Day-- new women's tees at The Uncool Shop! I designed 'em and I think they're much more chic than the previous ones-- new fonts, several new V-necks in gray, black and white (or you can change them to make them whatever color you need) plus a new regular tee that has hearts instead of the "O's" in the word, "Uncool Mom" (see below for snippets of a couple of the new designs). The new regular tee is less than $12 and the new V-necks range from $16-19. And, until May 8th, you can get free shipping on any order over $30 with the code, MOTHERSDAY12. Click "The Uncool Shop" on the right-hand sidebar to order and to see more-- there are still laptop cases, umbrellas and aprons in the shop, too! Paypal accepted!
...

Time for a Coffee Brake

pallbee@sbcglobal.net (Uncool Mom) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:12:13 GMT

When I first noticed the twitching, it didn’t alarm me much. I was sitting in church and glanced down at my left hand, resting on my leg. My left thumb was moving side to side slightly, without me telling it to do so. Weird, I thought, but we all sometimes get unexplainable twitches, twinges or pains that end up never happening again and not amounting to anything, right? I moved my hand and the twitching stopped. But when the twitching happened again the next day, I took more notice. I remembered Michael J. Fox talking about his early signs of Parkinson’s disease—didn’t he say it began with hand twitching? I consulted the Internet, which is where we all go to get a good scare whenever we need more medical information, and it confirmed my suspicions. Though Fox's first twitches were in his pinkie finger, when I Googled “thumb twitching” and ...

"One Day On Earth" Premieres Today

pallbee@sbcglobal.net (Uncool Mom) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:56:53 GMT

Remember the 10-10-10 global film project in which my family and I participated? It was the first-ever simultaneous filming event occurring in every country of the world. Well, today is the worldwide debut of the finished film, entitled “One Day on Earth”. All over the world, the film is being shown at free screening events in theatres, cafes, churches, high school and college auditoriums—click here (or go to onedayonearth.org) for a list of cities/venues/times (make sure to scroll down to see the list). Unfortunately, none are close to the Dallas area so I’m going to have to wait until it comes out on DVD. I have no idea if any of our family’s footage made it in the final cut— from all the videographers, over 3,000 hours of video was submitted.

If anyone recalls, we spent 10-10-10 ...

Many Happy Returns: Some Post Tax Day Humor and Ways to Teach Your Kids About Money

pallbee@sbcglobal.net (Uncool Mom) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:47:02 GMT

Whew- so glad to be done with the taxes! Yep, that’s where I’ve been over the past few days—glued to Turbo Tax and barely coming up for air. I HATE DOING TAXES because I always wait until the last minute. I used to do them all by myself, but I think Andy was tired of driving to the post office at 11 p.m. on April 15 in a panic (but hey, the postal employees always made it so festive and welcoming and would be standing out there waving signs and holding baskets and you could just drive up and throw in your envelope…) and so a couple years ago we started splitting the tax prep responsibility, so he does half and then hands the file over to me, usually in February or March. But I’ve always got a million other pressing things to do that keep me from opening that file, and so there I sat on Tax Day, finishing up “under ...

Pinterest & Teens: A "Good Thing"?

pallbee@sbcglobal.net (Uncool Mom) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:40:49 GMT

I heard a sweet sound in the house over the past weekend I haven’t heard in a long time: the whirr of the sewing machine. A sewing machine, I might add, that I bought on a Black Friday years ago, getting up at four in the morning for a “Door Buster Special”. Allison was 10 at the time, determined to become a fashion designer and learn how to sew, and I was determined to help foster that creativity…

Ah, my daughters and I were once such a crafty bunch. I’m reminded of that a lot—in the garden, where stepping stones the kids and I made (out of cement mix and pizza boxes) still mark a ...