I mentioned this problem at my book club and one woman – the mother of two grown boys – said the bedwetting at her house got so bad when her kids were young that she would literally let the bed air dry during the day and then stick her son right back in those putrid-smelling sheets the next night. I haven’t gotten to that point yet. I am, however, now tossing a towel over the wet spot and then stuffing him back in bed in lieu of changing the sheets in the wee hours. The next day I continue my never-ending laundry dance.

My husband decided he would get my son up at 3 a.m. to go pee. (Taking a cue from you, Feefifoto.) The first night he tried the bed was already wet but my son hadn’t woken up yet. The second night – last night – I was awakened at 12:30 a.m. by my son sobbing about his wet PJs. What’s worse is that he woke up again at 7 a.m. with a second round of pee-soaked jammies! I’m telling you, he didn’t drink a drop after dinnertime. So what gives?

Oh hey, did you know the official, medical term for bedwetting is Enuresis. What a gross-sounding word.

I’ve tried luring Truman back to pull-ups with those weird paper boxer-style ones, but he says they’re uncomfortable. Plus, even looking at pull-ups makes my break out in tears. I did find this strange potty training gadget from Potty Training Concepts. It’s a Bed Wetting Alarm. The thing is, we don’t need an alarm. Most of the time he wakes up right after he pees. I know this because the sheets are still warm. (TMI) Just read the details though…do you want your son to go to bed with a 9-volt battery attached to his groin? Yeah, me either.

The company also offers other bedwetting solutions, like homeopathic meds. Um…no. Don’t think so. Maybe some of those overnight undies? Ruber pants? What do you think? Has anyone tried any of these things? Or any other bedwetting solutions? I’m desperate, folks. I’m not sure my washer can take much more of this constant, daily use.

Post from: Blisstree

Bedwetting Part III: The soggy saga continues…

I often found myself cleaning my floor on my hands and knees – those were the only times I was ever grateful to have a smaller kitchen than I’d like. But really, enough was enough. Also, our parquet floors in the rest of the apartment had seen better days.

I decided to try the steam mop. I am a total dork. I swept my floor this morning and tried it while my husband and kids were out. Then tonight, I vacuumed the living room carpet and after the kids went to bed, I tried it with the little carpet attachment. And for the heck of it, I mopped the kitchen again, and the bathroom too.

There’s no solution, it just uses water, so there’s no powerful smell (something I am more sensitive to now than I was before my first pregnancy), and it left my floors nice and clean. I wish they were a bit shinier but they’re definitely not dirty. They even feel nicer under my feet since there’s no residue.

I feel like such a dork for being so excited over a household product, but I can’t help it. I love my little steam mop. If I keep loving it, my floors may be cleaner than they’ve ever been before.

Please make me feel better and tell me about a dorky moment of excitement you’ve had over something you bought for the home. Please?

(photo: sxc.hu)

Post from: Blisstree

Dorky moments – loving household purchases

Now I have to decide whether to use them or not. (I also have to consider getting some for myself, ahem, hi there untamed mountain of laundry.)

We’ve always sort of kept it loose. There are certain things the kids can do – the oldest can clear plates, the youngest can set cutlery (except knives) and condiments on the table, that sort of thing – and we just sort of ask them to do it. But I’ve noticed that despite asking them regularly, it doesn’t occur to them to do any of their chores without being asked.

I’m thinking a chore chart might help, especially for my oldest who can read. I’ll have to design one for my youngest using pictures instead since she’s pretty far away from learning to read at her age.

(Photo – sxc.hu)
Do you use organized chore charts or just wing it? Have you tried both ways? I’d love to hear your pros and cons!

Post from: Blisstree

Teaching chores

I love this series of videos! We’ll be moving within the next two months and I’d like to get a jump start on the kids’ toys before we even move in to make sure we get a handle on it without having to resort to just shoving stuff into closets and into drawers.

Though my kids are getting a little older and don’t have as many toys anymore, what they do have still takes up a lot of space and can really junk up a room if not taken care of! The other videos in the series include:

~ Choosing a location for the toys
~ Creating zones for toys
~ Storing toys
~ Labeling toys

What tips and tricks do you use for keeping the toy clutter under control?

Post from: Blisstree

Children’s Toy Storage

One of my favorite websites, The Consumerist, has a section of the site dedicated solely to what they call the Grocery Shrink Ray. Basically manufacturers are shrinking product amounts while keeping the packaging and pricing the same.

I first ran into this several months ago when I needed to get some yogurt for a recipe and realized I’d need two containers whereas I used to only need one. A little while before that I noticed when putting away packages of bulk-store bought toilet paper that the newer packages I’d just bought were a good half inch shorter than the older packages still in the back of the cupboard. Not that that’s a huge deal – it’s only 1/4″ shaved off each roll, but not only was there less in the package the cost had also jumped up. I wonder how many extra rolls that ends up being? I just wish now I’d thought to get a picture!

When questioned, some manufacturers have had the nerve to say they’re making things smaller because their consumers want it that way! This is some fascinating logic considering it now forces the consumers to buy more to get the same amount they used to get. On the flip side, at least others have a sense of humor about it.

Have any of your brands been hit with the shrink ray?

[image: flickr]

Post from: Blisstree

The Grocery Shrink Ray

She’s already expected to do certain things to help out, though it’s not usually been anything set in stone. We more or less expect her to help us out with things when we ask her to, like setting the table, picking up the living room, that sort of thing.

Now we’re going to work out a routine of daily chores for her, especially since she’s home all summer. I’d like it to include making her bed, and I’m probably going to throw in clearing the table after supper (partly because I hate it). Her 2.5-year-old sister is pretty good for setting out placemats and utensils, but our oldest can handle removing dishes from the table at the end of the meal.

I don’t want to overwhelm her with a huge list of chores, so I want to keep it simple.

Do you do allowances? If so, is it just something that you do anyway, or is it tied to doing chores? I’d love to hear what your kids do around the house for an allowance (as well as their ages) if you do.

(Happy 4th of July to all the American readers from this little Canadian blogger!)

Image: sxc.hu

Post from: Blisstree

Earning her keep

Image details: Thinkstock Single Images served by picapp.com

We’ve had our house on the market for the last several weeks and because of this it’s important that things stay spotless so we can dash out when a realtor calls. I don’t usually care so much that the house is gleaming – tidy is nice – but we’re in a tough area for selling right now and can use any help we can get!

Anyway, keeping things clean is easy to do when I’m the only one home. But when the girls walk in the door from school there’s suddenly stuff just everywhere – backpacks, shoes, homework, random papers, wrappers, pencils, hair bands – you get the idea. I’ve tried to keep a close eye on them as they unload from their day and I swear, the stuff just materializes.

It’s gotten old riding them about it. They’re usually pretty good about putting their things away when they’ve had a chance to settle in but I’ve figured that putting things away immediately will help save some time and maybe keep everything else from just deteriorating into “I’ll take care of that later” mode.

So on Friday I went out to the garage and brought a garbage bag inside. Just a regular 13 gallon kitchen garbage bag. I told the girls they had five minutes to pick up everything that belonged to them and put them away in the correct places or else it was going in The Bag.

You should have seen them start hopping. I also made sure to tell them that the bag’s domain wasn’t limited to just the family room and that we’d be heading to their bedrooms too to make sure they weren’t just moving piles of stuff around from one room to another.

So what’s the point of the bag? As I explained to the girls, anything left behind goes in. I didn’t care of it’s shoes, toys, homework or clothes – if they leave it out it’s going in. However, this trash bag isn’t going in the trash. I designated a spot in the laundry room up on a shelf as the new home of the bag, and the girls have to earn their items if they want it back. This can consist of anything from doing an extra chore to picking something up without me asking them to (they get one warning before the bag comes out).

So far, Friday is the only day we’ve had to use the bag! All weekend they managed to keep on top of it, even mentioning that they didn’t want this doll or that toy ending up in the bag.

Now, this isn’t something I came up with on my own. My stepmom tried to use it on all of us kids when I was much younger, but it wasn’t enforced so it didn’t work, which is probably why I didn’t think to try it out for myself sooner. But so far, so good!

Have you ever tried using the bag or a similar stay-clean method?

Post from: Blisstree

Mom Tip: “The Bag”

Image details: Girl with stack of dishes served by picapp.com

I’ve been thinking about chores lately. Our kids don’t really have any set chores right now at age two and five, but I’m starting to rethink that. It’s not that they get to eat peeled grapes with their feet up while I sweat up a storm cleaning around them all day long. They do clean up, they just don’t have specific jobs. I’ll ask my oldest to make her bed, my youngest will help pick up toys and put them back in their proper baskets in the living room (while singing the Barney “clean up” song at the top of her lungs). They’re not super ecstatic to clean up that often, although they both love to be handed either a dry or damp cloth to dust or wipe things, but they will usually do what they’re asked even if it means some grumbling.

I’m wondering though if we’d be better off assigning specific chores to each of them. Technically, my youngest could already have a chore of her own since she almost always helps me transfer wet clothes into the dryer.

What works in your home? Do your kids just do whatever is needed or do they have set chores? What jobs do they do and what age are they? Do you use a chore chart or some sort of game type system to make it fun and challenging?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments! If you use an online source for charts, please let me know so I can check it out!

Post from: Blisstree

Helping out around the house

My youngest daughter has often enjoyed cleaning up, but her sister’s example has been leading her away from that and now she’s becoming a little more fond of tossing her toys across the room and then just leaving them there.

I do try to enforce the rule of “put it away before you take something else out” but sometimes it doesn’t work out, either because whatever they’re playing with has eight billion pieces anyway or else I’m not in the same room – if they’re in one of the bedrooms and I’m in the kitchen cooking supper, I can’t see what they’re pulling out, and believe me, kids can make a mess faster than anyone can clean up.

Sometimes the only thing you can do is try to clean up the carnage after it’s all over, and that’s where your energetic kids might suddenly start sighing about how incredibly tiiiiiiiired they are. At that point, getting them to clean up is an exercise in frustration.

Over at <a href=”http://www.declutterit.com/the-clean-up-game”>De-clutter It!</a> there’s a great post about one way to encourage kids to clean up by making it fun. Julie suggests using a kitchen timer. Set it for five minutes (longer than five minutes would probably be too long for a child’s attention span, especially if it’s something they don’t necessarily enjoy) and then challenge them to see if they can pick up all their toys and stash them away (specify that they need to go where they belong, otherwise you may have a big surprise under the bed or in the closet) before the timer goes off. Kids love games and challenges, so making clean-up a race instead of a chore will be more interesting and definitely more productive than standing in the middle of the room hollering at everyone to just bloody-well clean up their crap already. Not that I’ve ever done that. Uhhh. Nope, not me. Ahem.

I know that it works for me. Sometime sI’m not motivated to do housework but if I find out someone’s on their way over to drop by and I have 15 minutes, I end up racing the clock to get the dishes washed, toys picked up, bathroom counter wiped down, etc. before the guest arrives. It’s a little exhilerating, so if it can work for an adult, it can work for our kids too!

Post from: Blisstree

Finding fun ways to get kids to clean up

But then I found these adorable doe hooks from Figments and I desperately want to get some, or something similar.

These would be perfect for a child to hang things on. A hook for a hat and scarf, another for a winter coat (and if you’re in a snow-blanketed area like I am, another one for snow pants!), and maybe even one for a school bag. If you have a mud room, they’d be great in there, but even an entrance way or hall closet could work if you space them out right.

I figure, right now I’m using a long planter to store mitts, gloves, and scarves, so these hooks would be a definite improvement!

How do you organize Winter accessories?

Post from: Blisstree

Organizing your child’s winter things