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How to Raise Frugal Kids

It’s up to you to instill positive values in your kids. It seems as though we are entering an age of permanent austerity. Because of this, our kids should be prepared for what lies ahead of them. The TV shows they watch and magazines they read aren’t going to do this for them. Remember though, you are not teaching your kids to be greedy or cheap. You want your kids to be frugal – this means smart with your money, confident in trying to save money and resourceful. 

1. Needs and Wants
The earlier you let your children know about needs and wants, the sooner they will be in a position to know what to ask for, and less likely to be disappointed if it’s simply impossible for you to afford a new video game. You should politely explain to your kids why they cannot have a certain item for free. Perhaps they can pay for half, or save up for it themselves. Regardless, you have to make sure that you let them understand your entire financial situation and the importance of spending money wisely.

2. Shop Smart
When shopping, especially buying things for the children, you will come across different things that may seem nice or thoughtful. To stay on the safe side, you should have a list of all the things that you should buy. It is advisable that you carry the exact amount of cash you require with you when going shopping. This will make it impossible for you to buy things that you don’t require. Even some things that you think you may need may not actually be necessary. If you’re smart, you’ll learn how to find deals so that you have enough left-over cash to get something else.

3. Reuse and Recycle
You should teach your children to share their clothes. If the older one’s clothes have been outgrown, you should make clear to them why they should give their clothes to their younger siblings. You can also exchange clothes with your neighbor or friend. Also, if you come across any kind of clothes that are quite affordable but too big for your child, you should buy it now and then put it aside until the child grows into it.

4. Responsibility
It is important to communicate to your children why they have to be responsible for their actions. This will put them in a good position to budget the finances that they have. If they do any kinds of chores, you can reward them by giving them a small amount of cash. This will teach them that they have to work and put in a lot of effort to get cash. After giving them money, help them in making decisions on how to use it and how best to save the remaining cash. By guiding them, the children will grow up knowing how to be responsible with their finances.

Kelsey Mass loves to write, save money and visit healthinsurancequotes.org.

Creating a Safer Community

Home sweet home. It’s great returning to the warmth and comfort of your home after a stressful day at work. Even better is living in a clean neighborhood full of friendly neighbors. A nice neighborhood gives you peace of mind, assuaging any fears when you go to bed each night. For kids, a safe neighborhood makes for a good environment to play and thrive.

While not every neighborhood is completely safe, there are some steps you can take to ensure the community’s safety.

Traffic Signs

While it might seem like an insignificant step, putting up proper traffic road signs is an effective, affordable way to keep pedestrians and drivers in the know at all times.

Regulatory signs keep drivers in check. The most important of these are speed limit signs. Speeding in residential areas is careless and could lead to property damage, injury, and potentially death. Tow away zones also inform drivers not to park in certain areas, while simultaneously ensuring open, vacant streets.

Warning signs are also important, especially if your neighborhood has lots of kids. Warning signs should keep drivers informed of any pedestrians or children at play. If there’s a predominant biking community in your neighborhood, warning signs will make sure drivers practice proper vigilance and traffic rules regarding bikes.

Cleanliness

Keeping your community clean is beneficial in several ways. First, picking up trash makes for a much safer environment for children and pedestrians. Trash can attract disease-carrying pests or lead to bacterial molds. Moreover, studies show that criminals are less likely to commit crimes in neighborhoods that look cared for. Criminals see a clean neighborhood that is clearly cared-for and assume it is being diligently watched. Having a regular trash pick-up program will make for a healthy community and a cleaner environment in general.

Changing the way your neighborhood looks is a big part of keeping it safe. Remove or paint over graffiti. Organize a group to clean up the neighborhood regularly.

There are numerous things you can do on your own as well. Make sure your front yard and lawn are well cared for. Cut your grass and rake up any leaves. Trim your tree, keeping the branches up high. Trim hedges and bushes back from sidewalks to make for safer walking after dark. Even planting flowers and trees around your neighborhood will make it look that much cleaner. Team up with the rest of your community to create a safe, thriving living environment.  

Pool Fences And Gates For Children Safety

having a pool in your home can be a fantastic luxury, especially on hot summer days when the prospect of a crowded beach or public swimming area is less than appealing. Those pool owners with young children, however, need to be adequately informed about the potential dangers that a pool can pose.

Young children, being as curious and sometimes mischievous as they tend to be, should never be left unattended near a pool. Even extremely shallow pools can contain enough water to drown a small child.  You might not even consider it as drowning hazard but small children can drown in just about anything that has water in; coolers, bath tubs, even the toilette. The truly frightening part about this hazard is just how quickly that can happen. It only takes a second for a child to slip into the water and for tragedy to strike.

Luckily, there are simple ways to avoid these dangers and give yourself some peace of mind. Just look into purchasing pool fences and gates. These are devices that can go around the entirety of your pool, ensuring that your child or any other toddler cannot fall into the pool.

These pool fences and gates have several distinct advantages. Beyond the offer of safety, they are easy to set up, so in a matter of hours, anyone can have a properly baby-proofed pool. They are also mobile, so if you want to remove them at any given time, it’s a quick and easy process.

Because of their portability and ease of use, they have a place in any home where children are present. Even if you don’t have the child every day (perhaps you babysit your grandchildren on the weekends, or you only occasionally have family over with young children), these pool fences and gates can provide the safety you need.

Don’t forget that use of these gates and fences all year round is recommended. A drained pool, after all, can be just as dangerous as one full of water. Just think what kind of devastating results a fall into the concrete bottom of a pool could have for a small child.

Pick one up for yourself, but also make sure to inform all friends and family with small children about their usefulness. They would even make a practical and much appreciated gift. Whatever the circumstances, just make sure that you never allow your pool to become a threat in your own home. Take some simple measures and ensure it remains the source of fun and joy you want it to be.

Please note, a pool fence is no substitute for adult supervision. Read our pool safety guidelines for more.

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Give Your Kid Candy To Stop Tantrums

Kids are very intelligent and experimental creatures, they love to push their parents to the limit to know what they can get, and they always try new and different ways to get what they want.

Most kids experience tantrums by the age of two and they get really mad that they can even hurt them self during a tantrum. Tantrums are also very frustrating for parents who never want to see their child crying but you cannot give them everything as well for health and safety reasons.

Tantrums are very embarrassing if you were outside with your child and it causes big disturbance for people. Most parents try to avoid the scene by giving their kid what they wanted or even give them some candy.

Now, I think that what goes in your kids' mind after that is: “All I have to do is crying and I get a lollipop, yay". And the problem won't stop. On the contrary, it will get harder and harder cause he knows that you will surrender and give him what he wants.

Candy can never be the solution of tantrums, what is it then?

Total ignorance is, act as if nothing is happening around. Sooner or later they will stop crying the moment they figure out that there is no use of it.

If you can't handle the tension, go clean a room, watch TV, or wash some dishes and if you were outside, ignore it by looking at a product or anything that gets your thinking out of it. I actually know a mom who has a card with her saying "Sorry for disturbance, a tantrum in process". It is a very funny and smart way to ease the tension and make people smile and ignore the noise,

After the whole tantrum is gone, talk to your child in a compassionate but firm voice that this way won't work at all and tell him or her reason why you refused to do or get what caused the problem. Go down to his height level and maintain eye contact to make sure that he gets the message.

If tantrums last for more than half an hour or last for a whole day, you probably need to talk to the doctor about that.

Also remember that you can't do this with a child under two years old cause you cannot spoil them at this age. They need your love to know that the world is a good place and grow up to be confident and happy people.

At the end, you will still face tantrums now and then and sometimes you will have to do what you have to do to stop it, but try to ignore them as much as possible and never reward bad behavior with getting things or buying candy.

Translate Your Teen Messages

What if your teen speaks a different language? How on earth will you be able to make sure of his safety? Most kids now are talking CODES and parents don't have a clue what they are talking about. Studies showed that most kids between 12 and 17 years old are sending more than 50 messages every day and that one third of them sends over 100 messages.

With the increasing use of internet and texting with the young age and in order to make sure that your kid is safe, sneaking won't work and asking them every moment about what they are saying or writing won't work either. What will really work is learning and understanding your teen's new language.

I will help you in this article decode teens’ new acronyms; here are some of the codes used:

GNOC: Get Naked On Camera!!

NOF: Naked On Front of camera!

CD9: Parents are around!

MOS: Mother Over Shoulder!!!

Can you believe it? They are making their own way of escaping and they wouldn't hide anything unless it was suspicious. I don't mean by this article to be very involved in their live, on the contrary, I really like it when parents give their kids some privacy and a good area for their secrets. However, some of these codes are really serious and could make lots of troubles. Imagine if your daughter or son is NOF and some crazy hacker got the pics or videos and spread it on the internet. I can't even think of it, it is very important issue.

Plus it is spying when you look in your daughter’s diaries or open your kid's closet because these are his private stuff, but it's totally not spying if they are the ones who started exposing themselves on the internet. This age is very sensitive and they won’t let you be friends with them and a parent is got to do what they got to do to insure the best interest for their kid.

Finally, I recommend that parents trust their kids and give them allowable privacy area and to be smart in the same time. Read and keep updated about new trends in teens lives trying to figure out how the heck they are thinking. We live in a world full of crazy and psycho people that we have to get together as a society and stand up in their faces.

At the end, please share acronyms and tips if you think this might help other parent protect their child.