Mom's Ultimate Summer Bucket List

It seems everywhere I look - including the handwritten list in my own kitchen - I see a list of awesome things to do with your kids before summer ends, usually given a jaunty title like Ultimate Summer Bucket List.

Favorite must-dos that I see appear over and over again on these lists include:

• Catch lightening bugs
• Make s'mores
• Go out for ice cream
• Have a sleepover under the stars

I will note that these activities involve late nights and disrupted bedtimes, sugar overloads, and me needing to light a real-live actual fire.

In short, while these may be great, memorable activities for my kids there's not so much in it for me.

Which is why I've decided to spend less time making sure we check everything off a kid-centric Ultimate Summer Bucket List and spend more time getting to the items on my newly created Mom's Ultimate Summer Bucket List.

In no particular order, here are 20 things I plan to do before summer 2013 kicks the bucket.

1. Sleep-in to 9:00 am. Just once.

2. Pee alone. This includes not talking to me through the closed door.

3. Shower alone. Again, I'm not alone if someone is talking to me.

4. Drink one full cup of coffee, while still hot, completely uninterrupted.

5. Read a novel in the backyard hammock.

6. Eat a grown-up dinner at a nice restaurant with my husband. After 8:00 pm.

7. Mother-daughter trip to the mall. (Note: the mother referred to here is my mom, and I'm the daughter.)

8. Eat hard-shelled crabs on the deck. With beer. Lots of beer.

9. Take a family hike. Bonus request: no whining.

10. See the sunrise - by choice, not as an unfortunate result of getting-up with early risers.

11. Have power of selection over the TV for an entire night.

12. Ladies lunch in Manhattan with my mom and daughters. I choose the restaurant.

13. Mother-son outing to the dog park. Admire the canines, but none of them have to be taken care of by me.

14. Watch a Rated R movie.

15. One entire day when no one - including me - requests to use the computer or the iPad or to check "just one quick thing" on the phone.

16.  Enjoy the sweet sounds of my children playing for more than 10 minutes before fighting ensues.

17. Visit our old neighborhood in Manhattan while the kids listen with rapt attention to stories about when they were babies.

18. One good celebrity sighting.

19. Spend a day at the beach and no one gets sunburned.

20. Go to sleep at 9:00 pm. Just once.

What about you? What's on your Summer Bucket List?

The Top Ten Reasons We ALL Need A Mom

Mother's Day is just around the corner, and it got me thinking... moms are just another thing that are totally wasted on the young.

Kids don't appreciate at all how great it is to have someone working around the clock to make sure you have nutritional food to eat and weather-appropriate clothing to wear.

Kids don't appreciate even a little bit a mom's 24/7 attention to detail, whether it's inspecting small lacerations to the skin, detecting possible sadness in a tone of voice, or discovering hidden candy stashes before every rodent in the neighborhood takes up residence in the family home.

 

From nurse-duty, chauffeuring and a range of personal assistant duties, moms have an amazing skill-set. I say quit wasting moms on kids who don't appreciate all the services they provide, and let's start getting a mom for every grown-up. Especially all us moms, we need a mom the most.
 

Here are my Top Ten Reasons We ALL Need A Mom:
 

10. Moms tell you when you've watched enough TV, surfed the Internet long enough, and played enough video games and that it's TIME TO GO TO BED. This is especially important when you have a big day tomorrow!

 

9. Moms prepare three (semi) healthy meals a day, and are willing to cut-up fruit at a moment's notice. Moms will remember your favorites, and make them as often as possible. And moms will cook food to your specifications, plate it according to your whims, and even clean-up afterwards. All you have to do is sit still and eat your vegetables once in awhile.

 

8. Moms keep track of your nutrition and make sure you take your vitamins, eat enough vegetables, and drink plenty of water. They also make sure doctors are seen annually, and that any health problems that arise are taken care of without delay.

 

7. Moms manage your social calendar and schedule playdates at regular intervals to make sure you get to see all of our friends at least a few times a month. Moms also plan and throw the best birthday parties, and get you that just-what-you-wanted present.

 

6. Moms schedule your days to make sure there is time allotted for outdoor time, free play, exercise, as well as the all important quiet time -- and if desired, alone time. Moms also allow more than enough time to arrive at important appointments on time, and moms will usually even factor in traffic, a delayed start, or an unexpected bathroom or food break into the trip.

 

5. Moms help make important wardrobe decisions. Whether it's too much, too little, too seasonally inappropriate, or just not right for you, dear - mom always makes sure you look your best. Also? Mom will sometimes even pay for that new outfit.

 

4. Moms always make sure there is time to read everyday, as well as regular trips to the library and book stores for new reading material. If there's an author you really like, she'll often surprise you and come home with the latest book.

 

3. Moms make hot drinks when you come in on cold days, and cold drinks when you go out on hot days. Often with fun straws and pretty cups. They will also make these same drinks for all your friends, if you just say please.

 

2. Moms encourage you to say you're sorry when you really should, even if you really, really don't want to.
 

... and last but not least, the #1 reason we all need a mom is to:
 

1. Tell you when to knock it off and stop fighting with the people you love the most.

Happy Mother's Day!

What other reasons do you have for why we ALL need a mom?

Kids are funny.

My kids are funny. Just like all kids are funny -- because they're kids. And kids don't worry about taxes, or educational reform. They don't think for even a second about mortgage rates, or toxic dumping in the ocean. Kids have probably never even heard of black mold, so they don't know they should be thinking and worrying about that, too.

Which is all good. I guess. This way kids can keep busy at their full-time job of being kids. And being funny.

And which also means they can save all their worries for things like if their older sister is going to be left behind at the park. (By her mother of all people, but that part's not important.)

Why am I thinking about all this? Because this happened:

We were at the local playground. It was an afternoon just like every other afternoon, except for the part when I thought it was OK to tell my six-year-old if she didn't come right now, "we're leaving without you!"

Now, I would never tell my toddler (or any toddler) that I was leaving him behind, that just seems too mean. But my daughter is six, surely she knows better that mommy would never leave her behind?

And I was right, she did, she does, she is now and was then, fine.

But what I failed to put together is that telling a six-year-old you're leaving her behind is just as troubling to a toddler as telling him you're leaving him behind.

Next thing I know, I'm explaining to the six-year-old that the two-year-old has insisted on leaving the comfy confines of the car seat I've just gotten him into so he can return to the playground and "save" his big sister.

And the point of this whole story?

That kids are funny.

And that this kind of "I'm coming to save you!" devotion is why having a little brother is awesome even when it's hard to remember this because he talks all through American Idol and steals your clothes and takes the last piece of candy. And also, if you forget to hide it, your gum.

 

 

Huggies Pull-Ups Training Pants: The Only Thing My Son Likes About Potty Training

My son Ziggy is a little over three, and his interest in using the toilet is pretty scant.

However, my interest in him using the toilet is pretty big.

Right before he was born, for reasons too convoluted to get into here, I made a deal with my husband that I would change all of our soon-to-be-born son's diapers, and as we are both contractual in nature, we've kept to this arrangement these 3+ years.

My husband even sent Ziggy over to me holding a little plastic bag filled with a wipes container and a clean diaper. And yes, I realized if Ziggy could follow that direction, he could use the potty, too.

One of the few things in the world of potty training and diapers my son actually does have an interest in is the diapers he'll wear - and that is he'll wear only Huggies Pull-Ups Training Pants with "the cars with faces," and he always specifies if he wants to wear "just the one car" or "both the two cars."

Sometimes he wears the Pull-Ups and just skips pants all-together, not sure I'm totally OK with that.

Big Sister Kay and Ziggy

Lately, Ziggy has even been able to put his Pull-Ups on by himself, carefully making sure the zipper design goes in front.

And yes, again, I realize that if Ziggy can pay this much attention to a pair of training pants, he can also learn to use the potty.

I'm always looking for a good deal on Pull-Ups, so when I found out from Collective Bias that they had a campaign to share that Walmart had a roll-back price on Huggies Pull-Ups, I knew I wanted to help spread the word about the savings.

At Walmart stores and online at Walmart.com a pack of 19 to 26 (depends on the size) Huggies Pull-Ups are a rollback price $8.97 - reduced from $9.47.

I ordered two packs, and chose to have them shipped directly to my house -- it's free to ship to your local store on orders of any size, and to your home on orders of $45 or more.

To make a trip to the potty even more enticing for my son, I also got a 9-pack of Hot Wheels cars and a starter kit of wall tracks, which I'll put on the bathroom wall in hopes it will soon be his favorite room in the house.

And while I look forward to a day in the not-so-distant future when Huggies Pull-Ups aren't on my weekly shopping list, until then I'm glad to get a good deal on training pants with "just the one car" and "both the two cars."

 

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Huggies. #HuggiesWalmart #CBias #SocialFabric. All opinions are my own, and my son really does like Huggies Pull-Ups that much.