Building self esteem in our children is part of a parent’s job. If you have a daughter, this job is made even more difficult because of the media.

This commercial by Dove may be a bit extreme - but it summarizes all of the body image messages that our daughters are being bombarded with. Messages that tell them that they are not beautiful “as is”. We, as parents, need to be aware of this and the effect that it has on our goal of building self esteem.

Take a peek at the video and tell me what you think. Is it over the top or is it an accurate reflection on how our daughters will someday perceive themselves? What can we do about this - and how can we twist these negative media messages to work on building self esteem instead of breaking it down?

I was not always germophobic. Once upon a time - when we had only 1 kid, I never took cover at the sound of a sniffle. Exposure builds immunity was my rationale. I put up a tough front.

Three kids later (four in total), I have done a complete 180. Why? Because there is no such thing as 1 sick child. Never.

Take the past 2 weeks for instance. Wednesday morning my oldest son announced that his stomach didn’t feel good. And then - Blah!. I will spare you the details.Translation: 2 days home from school plus 1 complete wipedown of the entire house, sheets and towels laundered, and all surfaces sanitized, courtesy of yours truly.

By Friday all was back to normal - and sparkling clean.

And then Saturday night, son #2’s tummy hurts. Blah! Déja vu. One sleepless night and 2 days later the house is once again scrubbed and son #2 is back at school.

But the saga continues …..

Wednesday rolls around again, and you guessed it, #3 and #4 down with the stomach bug. Sheets (once again, no details), towels, comforters, all being washed in our laundry room - apparently open for business 24/7.

Two days later and we are thrice again climbing out from under.

So, if by chance we should meet, you will forgive me if I scream in horror and run away if you should so much as sneeze.

Photo by tanakawho

Each and every day I come across some great parenting tips across the internet. And I always think that I should share these great ideas with all of you. Then something else captures my interest and onward I click.

But not today. Today I was bound and determined to share some excellent parenting tips and here they are!

• Organize your coupons - I always clip coupons, after all saving money is a good thing. But filing them away is a problem. I find coupons in the bottom of my handbag, crumpled in my pocket, int the kitchen drawer - you get the idea. Well, the folks at TipNut have put together a comprehensive list of ways to organize my coupon mess. No more of these regrets at the store - I just know I have a coupon for that …. somewhere!
• It is not often that you find two great things in one place. Asha Dornfest, of Parent Hacks fame, has written an informative guest post at Zen Habits. Asha’s post offers up a list of 20 Top Parent Hacks with links to the full posts. There is a parenting tip here for everyone.
• Boogiemum brings to light a potential lead danger lurking in all of our homes: the dishes in our kitchens. Yes the very ones that we eat dinner off of daily. Apparently many ceramics and their glazes can contain lead. What next?
• Jennifer at De-Clutter It! gives us some tips for more efficient freezing. No, I don’t mean us freezing, I mean the stuff we put in our freezers - how to make more efficient use of the limited freezer space that we have.

Why raise the child when you can raise the chair? Here is a parenting tip that you won’t want to miss - Kaboost is a new spin on the old booster.

When children graduate from the high chair, they are usually not tall enough to sit in a regular “adult” size chair. When I was a kid, my parents solved this problem with a thick stack of phone books - eat dinner, make a phone call ….., I digress.

Kaboost vs. the “old fashioned” booster

Times changed and the booster seat became a common addition to households with toddlers. I found these booster seats to be a necessary evil. The booster itself was difficult to clean (think sticky fingers, messy spills, and crumbs - lots of crumbs). Also, the booster was a space hog. If you had a small kitchen or dining area, then seating was limited. If you had company over you would have to remove the booster to accommodate an adult (and you would have to make profuse apologies for the muck that you just knew was lurking under the seat).

Kaboost elimates this issue. By raising the whole chair, clean up is easy - no little crevices to deal with. The weight limit for Kaboost is a hefty 300 pounds, so many adults will be able to use the seat in pinch, without having to remove Kaboost first. (They will be sitting a bit higher up though. )

Kaboost makes toddlers feel like “big kids”

And then - the booster seat wars. This happens when the child decides he is too old for a booster and you know better. My kids were smart and removed the booster seat every chance they got creating an obstacle course on the kitchen floor.

With Kaboost, kids are actually sitting in the grown up chair. So they will probably forget that they are being “boosterized” (like that word?). And while Kaboost is easy for adults to set up, it is hard for little kids to remove - no more obstacle course.

Traveling with Kaboost

Remeber lugging around booster seats to grandma’s house or on vacation? Don’t remind me! Unlike traditional boosters - Kaboost is easy to travel with. It folds up easily, into a lightweigt package that won’t take too much luggage space.

Okay, what’s the downside of Kaboost? I can only see just one - no seatbelt. The youngest and wiggliest booster users will probably still need their traditional boosters if they need to be buckled in.

For more information about Kaboost visit Kaboost.com.

Today I read the New York Times with a very heavy heart. There has been another school shooting massacre at the Northern Illinois University. An unnamed gunman opened fire in a lecture hall, killing five students and injuring sixteen before killing himself. At this time it appears that the shooter was a former graduate student at the University. (Update - the killer has now been identified as Stephen P. Kazmierczak, age 27, and four of the victims have been identified as Daniel Parmenter, age 20, Catalina Garcia, age 20, Ryanne Mace, age 19, and Julianna Gehant, age 32.)

As a parent, I feel helpless. Schools and universities were once considered safe environments in which children could make the transition to adulthood. What is happening to that sheltered place? What can be done to stop it from happening over and over again? Why are children falling at the hands of their classmates? And what is happening to society that people cannot manage their anger or inner demons?

This was not the only depressing story in this morning’s National news. The New York Times featured two other stories that caught my eye and broke my heart. One story was headlined Attacks on the Homeless Rise, With Youths Mostly to Blame and the other When Strains on Military Families Turn Deadly. All three stories have one common theme - brutal acts of crime committed by young people.

Why? Have violent tv shows, video games, and movies desensitized today’s youth? Or are the pressures too heavy to handle? Or are we not teaching our children the skills to cope with stress or at least the knowledge to recognize that they need help and that help is available?

And what about the victims? How do families come to terms with the fact that their loved one was taken from them randomly because of someone else’s rage?

It is just all so senseless.