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That's awesome :) I am a

MommaRoberts — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:07:42 -0600

That's awesome :) I am a Carolina fan but Hubby is die hard Clemson :)

~David's Wife 6/9/07~ ~Haleigh's Mommy 11/13/07~ ~TTC Baby #2 8/2008~

Go Tigers!

Denise — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:58:46 -0600

(I'm a South Carolinian and a Tiger, heh.)

~Denise BlogHer Community Manager
Flamingo House Happenings

Patched

Jill Miller Zimon — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:33:23 -0600

That was the operative word for me from 1994 through 2000 when I had my kids while working a variety of arrangements, including fulltime, parttime, telecommuting, independent contracting - you name it. But now, nearly 15 years out from when I first had to start...cobbling, I refer to it as a patchwork. Cobbled does it too though.

It continues to be very challenging - and I'm one of the lucky ones.

Jill Writes Like She Talks

It is really complicated

HelloLadies — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:37:00 -0600

You touched on one of the key points: leave policies vary at each company. Cross check the info you get from your insurance company, HR dept. and manager. They may all tell you three different things. http://www.helloladies.com

I try not to BUT . . .

masalachica — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:48:32 -0600

We both grew up in households where we saw a lot of fighting. Not just bickering but some hard-core, throw down fighting.

SO . . . we really, really try not to. Our two year old seems to be picking up on it now and so we really try to table it. BUT, despite our efforts - it still happens. My husband knows exactly how to rile me up - and after saying what he has to say, when I start responding - he will be like 'uh uh uh - not in front of the kids." which is really just infuriating! So i sit there and simmer and come up with all the things I am going to say once its just the two of us.

Cuz that's when he's REALLY going to get it.

http://masalachica.blogspot.com/

OH Dear

JennaHatfield — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:45:32 -0600

Gosh. It took me a full two minutes to figure out what STD meant. (Short-term disability.) I couldn't figure out why we were talking about sexually transmitted diseases!

With our older son, it was extremely complicated. I was put on bedrest at 30 weeks. My employer was kind enough to pay me until the point I said I was taking leave (at 38 weeks). I then had 10 weeks of unpaid time whereupon I went back, part time, to get things ready for my full time return two weeks later. Thankfully, my husband and I knew that my pregnancies were horribly complicated and had budgeted accordingly. I am also thankful that my employer was kind enough to have my back. (I did answer calls when they called with questions.)

Then again, with our younger son, when I was freelancing, I had to work three days after his birth to make my deadlines. Such is life.

@FireMom from Stop, Drop and Blog and The Chronicles of Munchkin Land

Enjoy your maternity leave

Rachael Henning — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:13:55 -0600

Freelancer here and I have no option, no maternity. In other countries, doesn't the government help with that kind of thing? eek! Enjoy what you get:)

That sounds really complicated...

kazari — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:33:31 -0600

In Australia, there is no mandated PAID maternity leave. But every woman is entitled to up to 12 months unpaid leave (mine starts next friday).

My company, a pretty big utility company, will give me 14 weeks paid mat leave, which I will take at half pay to spread out. After that I could use my holiday pay or long service leave but I don't have much of either, so I'll be winging it. we've been saving up for the length of the pregnancy, so we should be ok. And if I want to go back to work earlier, I can do that too.

12 weeks paid maternity leave is a fairly common entitlement here, if you work for government or a larger company, but there is no obligation on them to provide it. There is discussion about government provided paid maternity leave here, but it's a fairly divisive issue.

http://myrope.wordpress.com

My Parents Never Fought, My Husband's Did

AmyMusings — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:31:10 -0600

My parents never fought. My husband's mom and step-dad fought until his mom ran out of steam. I avoid conflict. It makes my guts tie up in knots. The dog hides, the kids are on eggshells. So he doesn't understand why I always say "let's talk about it later." He wants to tick this "discussion" off of his to-do list. I think fights where you have your buttons pushed and it's not behavior you want to model for your children, should be fought when the kids aren't around. But to fight over things that you know you can resolve are constructive fights that the kids need to learn from so they know how to do it. There are healthy fights and unhealthy fights. The goal is to model the healthy fights, not no fighting at all and not fight until you drop.

Amy Kehoe

www.amymusings.com

Discernment is Key

HappyHer — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:11:07 -0600

Great Article! Children learn relationship dynamics at home. I think it's imporant to allow them to see their parents in all facets of their relationship, including fighting. I feel you need to discern what the appropriate topics are though and to use respectful and healthy communication tools when you do fight.

Allowing your children to see that you can disagree, compromise, and to continue on in a loving manner will help them learn life lessons that will allow them to create their own healthy adult relationships.

Tracy Morrow Intimacy Specialist http://www.HappyHer.com/Blog

hmm ...

RawOn10 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:33:41 -0500

patty,

if hypoglycemia were the problem, then kids would get wacked out after eating bananas or watermelon or other high glycemic carbs ... and they don't ... also, as you know (or should know), hypoglycemia isn't some vague, ethereal condition that mysteriously happens after one kind of high glycemic carb and not another ... it's a very specific and measurable condition ... also, "flipping out and running around like a goofball" are NOT symptoms of hypoglycemia, and are not part of the "whipple's triad" to determine if symptoms are caused by genuine hypoglycemia

intolerance to corn syrup/high fructose corn syrup is a very real and (can be a) very disruptive condition ...

sugar's not the problem (usually)

RawOn10 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:56:49 -0500

if you look at the ingredient list for any candy you'll see that there's very little sugar there ... what IS there is corn syrup and other corn products ... high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, dextrose, maltodextrine, et al ...

this is nearly always what causes a "devilish" reaction in kids (with high fructose corn syrup causing the worst reaction) ... not sugar ...

it's a genuine food intolerance and far more serious than just "my kid gets hyper on sweets" ... it's causing a reaction in the brain severe enough to alter behavior ... it's not quite as deadly as a peanut allergy, but it IS harmful and probably should be treated almost as seriously as a peanut allergy ... because we really don't know just what this stuff is doing to our kids ... or, more accurately, what it's doing to their brains and nervous systems ... a behavioral reaction means it's doing something ...

this is a good resource for info ... http://babyandkidallergies.com/high_fructose_corn_syrup.php ... but just google "high fructose corn syrup" and "kids" ...

good luck ... one of my kids and one of my grandkids (and me, too!) are all intolerant to corn syrup ... it makes a HUGE difference when we keep those things out of our diet ...

It's in at Scholastic Canada

sassymonkey — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:23:36 -0500

A few of us (Canadians) were discussing this on Twitter and found out that Scholastic Canada has a different take on it.

From Scholastic Canada: Love Ya Bunches is in Scholastic Canada’s Arrow December Book Club and Spring 2010 Book Fairs.

Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.

Just an idea...

Jac3286 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:12:11 -0500

I'm not sure if it would work, or if it's even feasible, but maybe you could try sugar free candy? I know there are sugar free hard candies, and I'm sure I've seen sugar free gummies. It might be too late for Halloween, but maybe for next year, you can look online and see if you can find some sugar free chocolate bars. You can ask the teacher to give them to your kids in place of the sugary chocolate and give them to your kids yourself on Halloween and at parties. That way your child doesn't feel left out, but you don't have to deal with a hyperactive kid.

You are right!

pattypless — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:13:16 -0500

You have all made the right observations. There are some kids who can tolerate a certain amount of sugar, while others go wild after one candy. The explanation lies in their sugar sensitivity and their body's ability to maintain a stable blood sugar. Children (and adults) with strong mood and behavior changes after sugar, as well as strong sugar cravings often have Hypoglycemia. This means that their blood sugar drops dramatically after ingesting fast acting carbohydrates like plain sugar or easily digested carbs like white bread, noodles, cake, cookies etc. Often, these people can describe that they feel jittery, nervous, angry, light-headed about two to three hours after eating something sugary. They get tremendous cravings for sweets in order to get their blood sugar up again. The way to help these children and adults (as some of you found out already) is to stabilize the blood sugar with foods that take longer to digest and don't have such a big impact on the blood sugar level. Those foods include foods rich in protein and fiber. So, yes, a string cheese works! Make sure that every time your sugar-sensitive child eats something sweet to also serve protein-rich foods. Another trick to maintain a stable blood sugar is to eat frequent small meals, about every 3 hours.

There are some great books out about sugar sensitivity:

Sugar Shock! by Connie Bennett

Little Sugar Addicts by Kathleen Desmaisons

Bad Attitude by Audrey Ricker

In our sugar-sensitive household with four children we have a candy collection bag. Every candy the kids get at parties or restaurants goes in the bag. Once we have 100 candies, the kids have earned a special outing. They can't wait to get Halloween candy - to fill the bag! (The full bag will get magically emptied after the outing...)

Patty Pless MD, PCI Certified Parent Coach®, www.familyequilibrium.com