
What is considered successful parenting? The fact that I didn't yell and rip my hair out today? Or I was able to act like a 5 year old and not even care about the mess made in the house today? Maybe none of it? Maybe all of it?
Friday, October 16, 2009
Naturally Induce Labor

Thursday, October 15, 2009
Successful Parenting Tips: How To Increase Your Chances Of Raising Successful Children

Every parent's goal is to raise successful children. In fact, most of us hope to raise children that are more successful than we are, no matter how successful we may be in our lives. By following these simply parenting tips, you are likely to raise very happy and successful children that will get the most out of life.
Parenting Tips #1: Encourage Independence
As a parent, your first instinct is to intervene and save your child from all of the ills of the world. In order to raise a successful child, however, you need to allow your child to become independent. This requires teaching your child as much as possible and then standing back to allow him or her to make decisions and to live with the consequences. For example, if your child has a demanding assignment to complete at school,allow him or her to work through the project rather than completing it for him or her.
Even video games can help teach your child independence. If your child becomes frustrated because he or she can't get through a certain level, don't ask an older brother or sister to do it for your child. Rather, encourage your child to keep trying until he or she can get it without help. This way, your child learns that he or she can achieve anything with a little hard work and practice.

Parenting Tips #2: Teach Responsibility
There are a number of different ways that you can teach responsibility to your child. One way is to teach your child to follow through with the decisions that he or she makes. For example, if your child decides to sign up for a sports team and then later decides that he or she isn't interested in the sport, you can teach responsibility by insisting that your child complete the season. If your child doesn't want to join the team next year, that is fine. But, he or she needs to learn the importance of keeping true to a commitment by staying on the team for the current season.
Responsibility can also be taught by giving your child regular household chores to complete. The types of chores will vary according to your child's age. But, even a two year old can learn to clean up his or her toys.
In order to raise a successful child, you also need to be a positive role model that demonstrates compassion. In addition, encourage your child to help you as you help others. For example, if your child has a toy that he or she know longer plays with or clothes that no longer fit, go together to donate them to the poor. When the school has food drives for the local food pantry, be sure to send some cans of food to school with your child. The more your child sees you helping others and the more opportunities you give your child to be compassionate, the more likely your child will be to continue this behavior has an adult.
By educating your child about the world, teaching responsibility, encouraging independence, and demonstrating compassion, you will certainly raise a very successful child that will have a strong, positive influence on the rest of the world.
GET SUCCESSFUL PARENTING TIPS NOW
Ways to Be a Work From Home Mom

Getting paid to fill out surveys is one very quick and easy way that thousands are using to make money on line. The great thing is that anyone can get paid to fill out surveys, which makes them ideal for stay at home moms, retirees, students, really anyone at all with a computer and an internet connection can get paid for surveys.
Online market research companies are looking for people from every demographic to take surveys, so it doesn't matter about your gender, education, your race or your income. If you have an opinion the research companies will be happy to pay you for it.
The only possible restriction you'll find is one on age. A good number of the market research companies won't accept people under the age of 18, but some do take people as young as 13 to fill out surveys and get paid. What a great part time job for a teen! At 13 you can't get a regular part time job, but you can get paid to fill out surveys. And since most teens are online a good amount of time this is a perfect fit. Add to that the fact that market research companies desperately need teen survey takers and this is a great opportunity.
This rest of this article will share 5 tips that will help you to get paid to fill out surveys.
1. Sign up with as many paid survey companies (see below for recommended sites) as possible. This is by far the most important tip when it comes to getting paid to fill out surveys. By joining so many survey companies you also make sure that you get plenty of paid surveys. This gives you the chance to choose which surveys are best for you and get paid more or at least maximize your time usage.
2. Use a form filler program like Roboform. This will save you hours of time since you won't
have to manually fill out all of the registration and profile forms for each survey company. The forms usually aren't that long, but if you are going to sign up with over a hundred paid survey companies you'll really appreciate the time you save by using an automated form filler. These programs can fill out a form for you up to 95% faster than by hand and that is a serious time savings. Use that extra time to get paid to fill out a survey or three. I would have given up a long time ago without Roboform.
3. After registering go back to the companies site, sign in and complete your profile with them. Until you complete your profile the survey company doesn't know which surveys you are eligible for. This could mean that they don't send you any surveys at all or it could mean that they send you irrelevant surveys that you won't qualify for. Either way it's bad news for you and until you fix it you won't get paid for any surveys. Take 5-10 minutes to make sure the survey companies have the information they need to send you the correct surveys.
4. When you're starting out make sure you complete all of the surveys sent to you. I know some of them won't pay you at all and you'll want to skip them in favor of the surveys that pay, but there is a good reason for doing the surveys this way. In the beginning the market research companies are just getting to know you and they send these beginning surveys as a way to tell if you will be a good respondent for them. Do a good job now and they will start to send you better paying surveys in the future. Most people drop out at this point, but now that y
ou know this make sure you stick with it. It should only take a month or maybe two for some survey companies to prove to them you're reliable. That's when you'll really start to get paid to fill out surveys.
5. Now that you've gotten this far make sure that you're checking you're email regularly. You don't have to live in your inbox (although some people do), but you should be checking your email several times a day. You'll be getting your paid survey invitations in your email and some of them fill up fast, especially the ones that pay well. If you don't check your email regularly there's a good chance that you'll miss the best surveys because they will already have filled up and closed.
Be persistent and be patient. Sometimes it takes a month or two for things to really get rolling with paid surveys online, but once they do you'll be glad that you stuck it out. Follow these 5 paid survey tips and you'll already be ahead of 95% of people who are trying to get paid to fill out surveys.
Check out these three survey companies and get started making money.
SURVEYS4CHECKS!
MAXIMUMPAIDSURVEYS!
INTERNATIONAL INCOME SURVEYS!
The author is a paid survey expert and has been taking paid surveys and instructing others how to get paid for surveys for over a year.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Baby Sleep Issues - Successful Parenting

Baby sleep basics: Birth to 3 months
Reviewed by the BabyCenter Medical Advisory BoardTypical sleep patterns at this age
Newborns sleep a lot — typically 14 to 18 hours a day during the first week and 12 to 16 hours a day by the time they're a month old. But most babies don't stay asleep for more than two to four hours at a time, day or night, during the first few weeks of life.
The result? Lots of sleep for your baby and a very irregular — and tiring — schedule for you. Your job is to respond to your newborn's cues, so you'll probably be up several times during the night to change, feed, and comfort him.
What's going on
Baby sleep cycles are far shorter than those of adults, and babies spend more time in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is thought to be necessary for the extraordinary development happening in their brain. REM sleep is lighter than non-REM sleep, and more easily disrupted.
All this unpredictability is a necessary phase for your baby and it doesn't last long — though it may seem like an eternity when you're sleep-deprived.
What's next
At 6 to 8 weeks of age, most babies begin to sleep for shorter periods during the day and longer periods at night, though most continue to wake up to feed during the night. They also have shorter periods of REM sleep, and longer periods of deep, non-REM sleep.
Somewhere between 3 and 6 months, experts say, most babies are capable of sleeping through the night. They're not talking about eight hours, though — they generally mean a stretch of five or six hours.
Some infants sleep for a long stretch at night as early as 6 weeks, but many babies don't reach that milestone until they're 5 or 6 months old and some continue to wake up at night into toddlerhood. You can help your baby get there sooner, if that's your goal, by teaching him good sleep habits from the start.
How you can establish good sleep habits
Here are some tips for helping your baby settle down to sleep:
Learn the signs that mean he's tired.
For the first six to eight weeks, most babies aren't able to stay up much longer than two hours at a time. If you wait longer than that to put your baby down, he may be overtired and have trouble falling asleep.
Watch your baby for signs that he's tired. Is he rubbing his eyes, pulling on his ear, or developing faint dark circles under his eyes? If you spot these or any other signs of sleepiness, try putting him down to sleep. You'll soon develop a sixth sense about your baby's daily rhythms and patterns, and you'll know instinctively when he's ready for a nap.
Begin to
teach him the difference between day and night.
Some infants are night owls (something you may have gotten a hint of during pregnancy) and will be wide awake just when you want to hit the hay. For the first few days you won't be able to do much about this. But once your baby is about 2 weeks old, you can start teaching him to distinguish night from day.
When he's alert and awake during the day, interact with him as much as you can, keep the house and his room light and bright, and don't worry about minimizing regular daytime noises like the phone, TV, or dishwasher. If he tends to sleep through feedings, wake him up.
At night, don't play with him when he wakes up. Keep the lights and noise level low, and don't spend too much time talking to him. Before long he should begin to figure out that nighttime is for sleeping.
Consider starting a bedtime routine.
It's never too early to start trying to follow a bedtime routine. It can be something as simple as getting your baby changed for bed, singing a lullaby, and giving him a kiss goodnight.
Give him a chance to fall asleep on his own.
By the time he's 6 to 8 weeks old, you can start giving your baby a chance to fall asleep on his own. How? Put him down when he's sleepy but still awake, suggests Jodi Mindell, associate director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and author of Sleeping T
hrough the Night.
Mindell advises against rocking or nursing your baby to sleep, even at this young age. "Parents think that what they do this early doesn't have an effect," she says, "but it does. Babies are learning their sleep habits. If you rock your child to sleep every night for the first eight weeks, why would he expect anything different later on?"
Not everyone agrees with this strategy, however. Some parents choose to rock or nurse their babies to sleep because they believe it's normal and natural, because they enjoy it and their baby is thriving and sleeping well, or simply because nothing else seems to work.

THE BABY SLEEP SOLUTION
Get Baby To Sleep Through The Night
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Successful Parenting Tips - Child Anger Management

Guidelines for Successful Parents
From a number of research studies plus Tavris, the following guidelines are suggested for building child self-control and self-esteem.
1. Learn to deal with your own and others' anger.
When parents discipline out of anger or with expectations that are inappropriate for the age of their child, they often make mistakes in the way they react. The place to begin is with ourselves. When we feel calm, we can model effective anger and conflict management. Example: "I'm so angry at you right now for dumping your cereal all over the clean floor, I feel like hitting you. But I don't hit, so I'm going to leave and come back when I've calmed down."
2. Distract or redirect the child.
When a child is misbehaving, a calm parent can sometimes re-direct the child's behavior. Example: "Here's a bowl of warm water. Let's put it outside where you can splash all you want."
3. Be prompt and brief with discipline.
One technique you can use is to pick up and remove your small child from the room immediately and isolate him or her for two to five minutes. This also gives you time to get in control of your emotions. Two to five minutes are enough; lecturing is unnecessary. In rare circumstances, it may be helpful to physically hold the child. Be consistent in enforcing rules, especially with older, school-age children. Example: "I'm putting you in your room for 'time out' until you calm down and are ready to talk again." "I want you to go to your room now and stay there until you are ready to come out and use words to ask for what you want rather than spitting on people."
4. Try to discover the reason for your child's anger or temper tantrum.
What does he or she want and is not getting? The reasons children have temper tantrums vary: to get attention, get someone to listen, protest not getting their way, get out of doing something they do not want to do, punish a parent for going away, for power, for revenge, from fear of abandonment, etc. Let the child know the behavior is unacceptable. Talk calmly. Example: "Now that we're out of the store and we've both had a chance to calm down, let's talk. I think you were mad at me that I said no to buying the candy you wanted. Is that right?" ... "It is OK for you to be angry at me, but kicking, screaming and yelling that you want candy won’t work. It won’t get me to buy you the candy.”
5. Avoid shaming your child about being angry.
Children in healthy families are allowed to express all their feelings, whether they are pleasant or unpleasant.They are not criticized or punished for having and expressing feelings appropriately, including anger. Some research studies have found that parents' shaming their child's anger can negatively affect their child's willingness to relieve distress in others (10). Example: "You look and sound angry right now. I'd feel angry too if someone messed up my coloring like she messed up yours." 
6. Teach children about intensity levels of anger.
By using different words to describe the intensity of angry feelings (e.g., annoyed, aggravated, irritated, frustrated, angry, furious, enraged), children as young as 2 1/2 can learn to understand that anger is a complex emotion with different levels of energy (10). Example: "I was annoyed when I had a hot meal ready and all of you were late for dinner." "That man was so angry -- I think he was enraged after someone spray painted his business with graffiti."
7. Set clear limits and high expectations for anger management, appropriate for your child's age, abilities, and temperament.
As parents, we will be angry all the time if we expect our 1-year-old to be toilet trained, our 2-year-old to use 5-year-old words rather than have a temper tantrum, our shy 8-year-old to be a life-of-the-party magician, and our low self-esteem 15-year-old to snap out of her depressed "funk" and run for Student Council President. Example: "While I want you to know it's OK to feel angry, it's not OK to hit others!" "I expect you to help with chores, control your anger without hitting, biting or spitting. I expect you to be honest and thoughtful of others, do your best in school, ask for what you want, and treat others as you would like to be treated."
8. Notice, compliment and reward appropriate behavior.
Teaching your child to do the right things is better (and easier) than constantly punishing bad behavior. Children who get a steady diet of attention only for bad behavior tend to repeat those behaviors because they learn that is the best way to get our attention, especially if we tend to be overly authoritarian. Example: "I really liked the way you asked Uncle Charlie to play ball with you." "Thanks, Ebony, for calling me beforehand and asking if you could change your plans and go over to your friend's house after school."
9. Maintain open communication with your child.
Consistently and firmly enforce rules and explain the reasons for the rules in words your child can understand. Still, you can listen well to your child's protests about having to take a national test or measles shot. Example: "Sounds like you are angry at the school rule that says you can't wear shorts, sandals and tank tops to school."
10. Teach understanding and empathy by calling your child's attention to the effects of his or her actions on others.
Invite the child to see the situation from the other person's point of view. Healthy children feel remorse when they do something that hurts another. Authoritative discipline helps them develop an internal sense of right and wrong. Remember, a little guilt goes a long way, especially with a child. Example: "Let's see if we can figure out what happened. First she did her 'nah, nah, nah routine.' Next, I saw you take her doll. Then she came and hit you, and you hit her back."
Monday, September 28, 2009
New Baby in the House

So now I need to focus on my Successful Parenting website and give some updates and useful articles.
Click Here For Helping Baby Sleep Through The Night!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Parenting - Daily Struggle

I struggle daily on whether or not I am being a good parent and whether or not I am raising my children to be strong individuals. It is so hard to stay in control when your children are challenging your sanity. I am listening to an audio series called Scream Free Parenting by Hal Runkel, LMFT. It teaches you to begin with your self and get yourself in the right place. If you have issues handle them first before handling the behavior issues you wish to address with your child. I have trouble with this because I feel like I am being selfish if I take time to be by myself or do things for myself. I believe a lot of moms feel this way. We feel like if we are not always there for our families then we are not doing our job.

