Neighborhood-Kids All Local. All for Kids. All the Time.

Parenting

•   Taking a Flight with the Kids
  

  If you’re a grown-up who travels often, flying on an airplane might be as commonplace as a ride on a WTA bus. But when you’re a kid, there’s still something exciting about flying. Maybe your kids are even going to take their first airplane ride this holiday season. While they might be chomping at the bit to get on the plane, you’re probably dreading the long lines and other unpredictable pitfalls of traveling by air.

•   Practical Tips to Help Kids Reach Goals
  

  In "Goal Setting: Good for the Whole Family," I presented a background to encourage parents to join with their kid(s) in using goal setting and the variety of benefits it can provide for family and individual growth. This piece will build upon that work by offering tips to remember in developing a goal setting strategy with and for your children. Some foundational questions should be addressed by each family member before creating a plan.

•   Goal Setting: Good for the Whole Family
  

  Goal setting can be an important aspect of defining a family and setting a course for growing children. Kids’ ability to develop and meet goals is important on a variety of levels. The following information will help parents clarify hopes and expectations related to goal setting with kids. Before jumping into the activity of goal setting with your kid(s), reflect on the following foundational supports.

•   Helping Kids in Changing Economic Times
  

  The daily news of high gas prices, lay-offs, unstable housing markets and other factors continue to remind us that we are in new economic territory. Beyond these big scale shifts, many families deal with illness, death and divorce in personal ways that can drastically alter family life style. These changes impact everybody, including children. How does a family deal with financial shifts and in some cases crises?

•   Protecting Your Child's Safety on the 'Net
  

  If you’re reading the words on this website, you’re obviously an Internet-savvy adult. And depending on their age, your kids might also be well-versed in surfing the web. The Internet provides some great resources for kids, but there are potential risks that come with letting your child go online too. Before letting them log on, here are some precautions to take to keep your child safe when using the Internet.

•   Wedding Etiquette for Kids (And Adults)
  

  A wedding is a special day for two people to declare their love in front of their friends and family, and to celebrate that love with a big party. Children can be a fun part of weddings, but there are a lot of points to consider, both for the Happy Couple and for parents. In honor of wedding season, here are some tips to think about when including kids in wedding festivities.

•   Building Lifelong Relationships
  

  Our two sons are now in their mid-twenties and settling into their adult lives. We find ourselves enjoying the new adventures of grandparenting. We are finding great joy in walking alongside our sons during this new life phase. Even when they were children, one of our long-term parenting goals was to establish and enjoy healthy and lifelong relationships with our sons that would continue in their adulthood.

•   Tips for Taking Your Kids to Shows
  

  On the list of reasons why Bellingham is a great place to raise a family, I place exposure to the arts toward the top. Not only are there some great local programs that can get kids involved in theatre and music, but there are also plenty of theatres and venues which showcase the performing arts. But before buying your tickets, here are some things to be prepared for when you start taking your kids to shows.

•   Answering the Tough Questions
  

  My 7 year old grandson always seems to save the tough questions for me when no one else is around to help. It’s great to know that our grandchildren are comfortable asking us about anything, but before answering, we like to make sure that our responses are acceptable to their parents, our children. If you spend time alone with your grandchild, consider having a heart-to-heart with your child to find out how they'd like you to handle the tough questions.

•   What Every Child Needs
  

  “What is it my child really needs?” Parents might ask themselves this question on a daily basis. Above all else, children need provisions that money can’t buy. The time, attention, and efforts you devote to your child are priceless and can have a tremendous impact on their emotional well-being. Jim Schmotzer offers a list of the most important gifts parents can give a child to help them develop into a mature and loving adult.

•   Reducing the Stress of Sibling Rivalry
  

  All it takes to establish sibling rivalry is to have more than one child. Almost every child wants to feel special, be first, get the most and generally have their own way. The tension this creates can lead to harsh words, attempts at one-up-man-ship, arguments and, in some situations, physical fighting, leaving most parents desperately seeking a "cease-fire" on the home front. To ease some of this sibling drama, I suggest a tool that can help parents in the quest for family peace.

•   Eight Rules for Safety
  

  Some safety rules that the Bellingham Police Department recommends sharing with your children.

•   Help Your Child to Give During the Holiday Season
  

  Have you found yourself sitting by the tree Christmas morning, watching your child tear through their mountain of gifts, and you hear them say “What! That’s it?” I have and it made me squirm in my slippers. As a parent I want to teach my children the important lessons of life: treating people with respect, sticking up for the underdog, wearing clean underwear and, in this case, being gracious when given a gift.

•   Finding (and Keeping) a Babysitter
  

  There are lots of different reasons to need a babysitter, for various lengths of time and hours per week. As seasoned in-home babysitter, I’m happy to give you a few tips on where to find and how to keep the right babysitter for your kids.

•   Meeting Friends With Babies In Bellingham
  

  It’s like buying a new car and suddenly seeing the same make and model at every traffic light. Being a new mom in Bellingham means abruptly realizing that this place is lousy with babies. Before my pregnancy, I categorized our fair city primarily as a mecca for sporty twenty- and thirty-somethings who rode their bikes to bars and bought hipster shirts at Goodwill.