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Mama Hack: Join the Y

November 7, 2008 By

Entertaining kids is hard. And expensive. It seemed like every time our foster daughter left the house, it cost PapaHacks and me at least 20 bucks. Not only that, but the activities she and her friends were involved in could sometimes leave a bit to be desired. I mean, what eleven-year old really needs to spend that much time at the mall?

We were able to work around some of our moral and financial objections by purchasing a family membership to our local YMCA. The Y is awesome, because there are always activities going on, and many of them are geared toward kids. I can tell you that I don’t think my foster daughter and her friends ever once felt like they were “missing out” on the mall when they got to go swimming in the middle of winter instead.

A family pass to the Y isn’t cheap, but it turned out to actually be a bargain. As a family of three, it costs us about $40 just to go to the movies once a month. With our membership, we could go take karate or yoga or swimming lessons instead. We were able to engage in activities that were actually good for us instead of rotting our brains with junk from Hollywood and our teeth with junk from the concession stand.

As an added bonus, while my foster daughter and her friends swam or played billiards, I could go up to the exercise room and spend my time working out instead of cramping her style.

Mama Hack: n. A tip or technique that reduces the chaos in a mama’s life and makes it easier to manage or more convenient. Because no one looks back and says, “I think we did too many wholesome activities.”)

Filed Under: Schmoozin on Moms Tagged With: , , ,

Mama Hack: Pictures to Go

October 20, 2008 By

Baby Photo TipsLiving in a digital age has a lot of benefits. For example, I love being able to post pictures to my Facebook page or my personal blog so that my sister can log in and keep tabs on the most recent photographic evidence of her niece’s genius. I can hunt and peck with one hand while nursing the baby, which ensures that I’m able to keep up with my college friends via email, at least. And the ability to hit “erase” on the digital camera has come in handy on more than one bad hair day.

Still, there are some downsides to being so reliant on technology. One of those is the fact that not everyone else in the world is tech savvy. While it’s super handy to be able to email BabyHacks’ picture to her grandmother, there’s no way on earth I can send a digital file to my grandmother. She wants to see her great-granddaughter, and the only way that can happen is if I actually get print photos made.

OK, I know that you can print pictures out on your home printer these days, and that there are special papers for it and everything. Unfortunately, I’ve never had any luck getting these to look like anything other than printouts from a home printer. For the good stuff that my grandma expects, I’m afraid I have to actually go to the “trouble” of emailing the files to Costco or Walgreens and having them printed out there.

What I’ve discovered, however, is that since I’m already getting prints made for a ridiculously low price, it’s not really any harder to get a couple of extras made. Once I have a few pictures of BabyHacks in the newest, cutest outfit or pose, I can just write her name and the date on the back and tuck the extras into the diaper bag. Then when I’m out and about I can easily hand them out to the friends I don’t necessarily keep up with through the aforementioned digital means.

Not only does it cost something like 19 cents, but it also gives them a tangible photo to put on the fridge or tuck into their wallet or to add to their scrapbooks. Plus, it makes them feel special.

Mama Hack: n. A tip or technique that reduces the chaos in a mama’s life and makes it easier to manage or more convenient. Because no one looks back and says, “I just didn’t think to take any pictures of my first baby.”)

Filed Under: Schmoozin on Moms Tagged With: ,

MamaHack: Reduce Dinnertime Stress

October 19, 2008 By

There’s an excruciating ritual that takes place around the Hacks house pretty often. PapaHacks will say something like “So, what do you want for dinner?” About seven years ago I got tired of the “I don’t know, what do you want?” conversation, so I started making suggestions. Look at me solving problems.

Or not.

For some reason, no matter what I suggest, he’ll say, “Nah, I’m not in the mood for that.” No. Matter. What. It is positively infuriating, especially when the conversation immediately returns to “So, what do you want for dinner?” It’s sort of like dancing with someone who insists on leading but doesn’t know the steps.

I can only imagine that this problem will grow once BabyHacks has a say.

Thanks to The Mama Too, I many now have a tool to combat this ridiculousness. In her house, “I don’t want that” is not considered to be an entire response. They have a rule that if you veto one suggestion, you have to follow it up with another.

So, now PapaHacks will have to say something like, “I’m not in the mood for pizza, how about tacos?” To which I’ll mostly likely agree instead of saying, “Nah, I’m not in the mood for that.” Not that I’ll be able to anymore, I’ll have to counter with my own suggestion if I’m just not intersted in Mexican cuisine that night.

I love this. It’s simple. It has the potential to be effective. And it could possibly reduce the divorce rate in North America.

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