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Fun Family Activities for Thanksgiving

The holidays are times of celebration, sharing, and appreciation for what you have. On and around the Thanksgiving holiday, many families like to show their appreciation for each other by participating in fun family activities. While there are traditional events and activities that are done each year, it’s also a great time to try new things and possibly add to your existing traditions.

Cooking and Baking

Children of all ages love to cook and bake, so why not make a few tasty treats together? Thanksgiving dessert recipes can be found online. Consider making an appetizer to leave out while guests arrive, cookies to be eaten before, during, or after the holiday, and a delicious cake or pie to eat after the special holiday dinner.

Younger children will be delighted to help mix, stir and pour in measuring cup contents. Older kids will enjoy doing the measuring, cracking eggs, and even some of the actual cooking. And no one is too young, or too old, to taste test the icing.

Thanksgiving Crafts

To reiterate the theme of giving thanks, create a construction paper tree and tape it onto a wall in a central location. Then cut out a bunch of green leaves. At the end of every day, have each family member write what they are thankful for on one leaf and stick it onto the tree. If this is started on November 1, by Thanksgiving Day you will have a tree full of leaves for your family to enjoy and remember all that they are thankful for.

These are just two examples of fun family activities that can be done on Thanksgiving. Use these to create new traditions in your family, or let them be inspiration to find something else that fits into your family.

Filed Under: Teenage Tagged With: Baking, Holiday, Home

Explaining the Changes Involved in Your Significant Other’s Departure

Single parenting is a real challenge, but it’s often not done by choice. Many mothers are, or were, content in the relationship which spawned a child. But one day, perhaps with zero notice, their partner drops the bomb. Often given a very poor reason for the departure, the man who formerly stood in the picture cuts himself out of it. That leaves a serious burden upon the woman, who now has many problems to both face, and solve.

Formerly simple logistics become challenging. Picking the kids up from school isn’t an option for a lot of parents anymore. Fortunately, there is a school bus network which can often handle that task. By grocery shopping at regular times, such as on the weekends, there will always be food available for hungry kids returning from school. By simply showing a child where the food is and telling them what’s expected – be hungry by dinner time – kids can prove to be pretty self sufficient. That removes a small burden, allowing the single parent to go to work and earn the money necessary to pay the bills.

This is of course, the area where being a single parent hurts the most. Suddenly, the household income has been reduced, often cut nearly in half. But your needs, and the needs of the kids, have remained. Money can become pretty tight, which is why it’s important to explain to the kids immediately upon your significant other’s departure that things will be slightly different around the house. You might have to drop the cable down to a basic package to cut costs, etc. By explaining things to your kids though, they’ll adapt. Probably faster than you do!

Filed Under: Family, Parenting Tagged With: Family, Home, Parent, Single-parent

Motherhood: Chock Full of Surprises

Every mother wants to be the best possible parent to their child. There’s more to parenthood than just loving your children, it is also about caring for them, and providing them with the food and necessities required to raise a healthy, and happy child. Unfortunately, not all parents are in a financial position to provide their children with the best of everything. Sometimes situations arise that put parents in financial difficulties, forcing them to make decisions no parent should ever have to make.

Living paycheck to paycheck and doing the best you can is fine until life throws an obstacle at you. Depending on your car to drive the kids to school and yourself to work is fine, until the car needs serious repair. Feeding your children healthy and well-balanced meals is handled fine until the refrigerator stops working. On already tight budgets, these kinds of hurdles can force a parent to decide between providing food or necessities for their child and costly repairs or bills left unpaid, may lead to worse problems or mounting penalties.

In times like this, many parents are able to turn to relatives or friends for short term loans to help them through. No parent wants to have to decide where to make a sacrifice, choosing between providing for their children or fixing the car. Sometimes, as in the case of an illness, there is no room to choose. In the event, however, that cash loans aren’t so easily secured, what is a parent to do?

Fortunately there are resources like paydayone.com available for just these kinds of situations. Hassle free loans are easily secured, providing much needed temporary financial relief. Prompt repayment of the loan will keep interests payments reasonable, and you can sleep easily at night knowing that you’ve handled the situation in the best possible way.

Filed Under: Family Tagged With: Child, Family, Home, Mother, Parent

The Importance of Single Parents’ Advice and Support

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Parenting in the today’s world is a challenge like nobody expects and for those parents who face the challenge as a single parent, the hill they must climb can seem impossible. One of the most difficult parts of being a single parent is facing the daily challenges alone. Parenting doesn’t have to be a solo climb. There are a growing number of support systems for parents who are facing raising children in daily life on their own.

It may be surprising to find how many parents are single parents in your local circles. A little networking within your community will likely yield a larger number of parents in similar situations to yours. They can be very helpful to you when you are trying to deal with all of the issues of being a parent while caring for your life at home on your own. Some of these resources are things such as help with watching the kids if for some reason you are unable to pick them up from school or daycare on time due to work related issues. This is one of the many little things that suddenly become a very big deal when you are faced with caring for children on your own.

Other resources available by networking with other parents are the ability to bounce ideas off from other parents who may be going through the same difficult times with their children. These difficulties could be behavioral issues related to a change in family life such as a separation, divorce or loss of a parent. This support can be vital to making it through the difficult times with your children and having some help with direction in handling the situation. It can also be beneficial to have someone to share your frustrations with. This can seep out into your relationship with your children if not properly vented elsewhere.

Filed Under: Family, Parenting Tagged With: Home, Parent, Single-parent

Trusting the Support Systems Around You

: Image via Wikipedia

Parents who are suddenly faced with having to raise a family on their own and with the family dynamic taking a completely different shape can be overwhelmed and stunted by the turn of events. Whether it is due to a divorce, separation or the loss of a partner, the prospect of raising children alone is frightening for even the strongest person. Finding support systems and networks that can help with advice and the day to day life of parenting on your own is essential to making it through much of the process of being a single parent.

These support systems are often right in front of you. They are parents, friends and school staff that have been in similar situations or are trained to help in situations like yours. Simply asking for the help can be difficult. You may find that you won’t need to ask very much at all as they will ask and you just need to take them up on the offer. These individuals can help with everything from being a group to vent to when in crisis or a team surrounding your children keeping watch over them through the rough times when you can’t be there.

Parenting is difficult enough without the prospect of doing it on your own. Trusting in those around you that are willing to help your family through the adjustment of getting into a new rhythm is essential to keeping the children on target. As a single parent you can not be everywhere at one time and you need the extra eyes and arms of those surrounding your children to help them through the pressures they are facing. It can be easy to look past what the children are going through while you are trying to put food on the table and pay the bills as well as work through your own emotions about your situation.

Filed Under: Family, Parenting Tagged With: Home, parents, Single-parent

Family Bonding Activities

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Choosing activities for a family can be overwhelming but is extremely necessary particularly for a family with single parents. It may seem like an impossible feet to organize family activities when you are busy trying to get through the busy weekdays, put food on the table and pay all of the bills. Spending time with your children is vital to keeping a relationship that ties you together through all of the tough times. It is important that you all take some time to spend with each other and remember the basics of what is important.

There are a number of excellent activities that are affordable and available to most every family. This includes things such as sledding outings in the winter and swimming weekends in the summer. These are simple and affordable outings that give the family time to spend with each other free of worry and stress. Other great ideas are pizza and a movie night at home. This is cost effective and brings the entire family into one spot for some fun and down time that will be remembered by all of the family as happy times among the difficult times.

When choosing a family activity it’s a great idea to get some input from everyone in the family. Involving the entire family in the process of family activities will strengthen a bond between family members and give everyone a sense of excitement about the events. Feeling a part of something, especially decisions, is important to the children in single parent homes. Often they feel as though they have had no control over the way things have turned out in their lives and to have some control or say in how things turn out for their family is important. Spending time with the family is an important part of creating bonds.

Filed Under: Family, Parenting Tagged With: Family, Home, parents, Single-parent

Coping Financially As a Single Parent.

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Being a single parent is never easy. Staying in control of your finances is even harder, but with a firm resolve to have power over yourself and not to allow your prepaid credit card to overpower you, you can be financially independent.

The first rule is to know what you are spending and have easy access at all times to your money situation and to do this you must get rid of credit cards. Get a pre-paid debit card instead. This way you will still have the financial flexibility and convenience that comes with a credit card but without the late fees and interest fees. You load up the card with cash that you actually have and you can do all your transactions online. This saves in bank charges and unnecessary expenses that eat up your earnings.

The second rule is to live within your means. My dad used to say “everything is expensive if you don’t need it” and this is so true when you are trying to balance a budget. Your accommodation should be no more than a third of your income and if you have to move to a cheaper apartment then this is a good move. Make the effort to save three months of salary in an interest free savings account. Once you have these two measures in place, pay off all your existing debt, however long it takes and eventually you will find that you control your life, not your credit card and not your debt. THAT is financial freedom and it will set you free.

Filed Under: Family Tagged With: Credit card, Debit card, Finance, Home, Money Management, Personal Finance, Savings account, Single-parent