Parenting @ MindSay 
Kid car seats are something that is usually overlooked by parents when they are cleaning their babys products. It is important that the seat is cleaned regularly for hygiene reasons. You should try your very best to wash it at least one time each and every month and possibly even more if needed.
Step 1 - Take the youngsters seat out of the vehicle, then you should position the seat lightly onto an old blanket or cloth outside the car. Before setting your car seat on a blanket etc give the seat a really good shake as this will dislodge any small crumbs etc. Before you clean the seat, make sure you have put all your babys toys and blankets etc away.
Step 2 - You should now be ready to hoover and wipe over the rear seat of your vehicle around where the baby car seat was fitted.
Step 3 - Pick up any crumbs from your youngsters travel seat with a vacuum cleaner, it would ideally be a hand held vacuum cleaner.
Step 4 - You can now clean all of the plastic bits of your childs car seat using some gentle soap and water. Before cleaning the plastic parts of the seat, you should have already disassembled the removeable bits of the kid car seat which should be wiped down separately. When you have finished cleaning each part of the safety seat, you can now put the parts back together and make sure that everything is as it should be.
Step 5 - Put the baby car seats cover in the washing machines gentle cycle if the cover can be detached. A tumble dryer could shrink your seat cover so be sure not to make the error of using it. Hang it out on your washing line instead of placing it in the tumble dryer. If the soap isn't compatible with the child seats fabric or the actual seat then this can cause some damage. Always check over the label prior to using any cleaning products.
Step 6 - If it is not possible to remove the car seat cover then just wipe the stained patches of the cover. Wipe down all the other parts of the child seat gently. Let any cleaning fumes out by keeping all your car doors wide open for two or more hours. Have a look over the guidelines for the cleaning soap to make sure you can use it to clean the child seat without damaging the seats material.
Step 7 - The arms of the child seat, the back, and bottom are areas that should be scrubbed well as these places get very dirty.
Step 8 - Your childs car toys can be just as dirty as the car seat so those should be thoroughly cleaned as well.
Step 9 - Secure the child seat back into the car. Always make sure you follow the manufacturers fitting instructions. Take your time when fitting travel baby car seats as it is very important you do everything right. Make sure all parts of the travel seat are present and correctly installed.
By Kerri Bullock
BabyOnTheGo - Our online baby store (www.babyonthego.co.uk)
First story was a 6 year old boy was suspended from school for 45 days for bringing a knife/spoon/fork that he got from the cub scouts to school. Now during the child's 45 day suspension he is supposed to attend an alternative disciplinary school. Seriously? the kid gets straight A's and he has never been in trouble before, and on top of that he's a cub scout. He didn't bring it to school with the attempt to harm someone and if his parents trust him with it why not just confiscate it and give it to them?? Someone posted on a facebook what kind of parent allows their child to have that? A parent responsible enough to teach the child how to use it. I had a teacher last year who used to teach at a disciplinary in upstate New York. Now these kids make the delinquents in my school look like cranky kinder gardeners throwing a temper tantrum. Now where they grow up hunting is a way of life, according to my teacher there was a two week period in which the students didn't come at all because it was hunting season. These kids have open access to the guns in their home and they are taught how to kill with them, guess how many were in that school for gun related altercations???? None. These kids were raised with a respect for guns. They were taken out on hunting trips when they were as young as 3 years old so they know its not a toy, they're parents would never accept them playing around with a gun or another humans life.
Story number two involves some elementary school kids learning a song about Barrack Obama and his policies. A group of protesters think that politics should be kept out of the classroom and that the song teaches the kids to idolize the president. That is just about the dumbest thing I've heard all week (so far, its only Wednesday). What happened to current events?? When I was in elementary school I had to do current events every night and I learned a song about Martin Luther King Jr (not exactly the same thing but stick with me here people). The song informs the students of what's going on today politically, they cry and whine about how younger generations are so unaware and how we (younger generation) are choosing to stay blind to these things but a catchy song is just the thing we need to jump start little kids interest in politics and news. I know that doing current events at first was the most tedious thing in the world to me but by the time I reached 3rd grade I would stay up til ten to watch the news because I had an after school program. I liked being informed and feeling smart, I liked being able to discuss my political stance with adults and them telling my parent I was a very bright child. Most adults aren't aware of Barrack Obama's political policies are, shouldn't we be applauding the students and not chastising them and their teachers because we may not agree????
And I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist so the whole Michael Jackson dying story seems a little fishy to me. Ok so if he is dead and someone did murder him, who and why? Who stood to gain the most from Michael being dead? I don't know what his relations were like with his brothers but I'm pretty sure he was closest to janet and his mother so they wouldn't see to much gain from it: Janet makes her own money and he'd give his mom the world if she asked so I pick Joe. If anyone wanted Michael out of the way most it'd be him. Joe is no longer the belligerent jerk we all know him to be but the grieving father and I'm sure there is money to be had in there some way some how. His brothers are also suspect, honestly who here can name all of the other Jackson 5 members?? Not me. But, would one of them really kill their brother over jealousy and money, not likely and I'd know, I have a younger sister I'd sell if they'd let me. Then there's also the possibility he's not dead at all and hiding out somewhere. Michaels music and style has always been popular and probably always will be, but he hasn't been. People have songs, and jokes and comedy sketches dedicated to the fall of Michael Jackson. I don't give a shit dead or alive the guy is weird and I'm not going to take back my statements about him because he's dead. I do still believe he had the tendencies of a pedophile and I do believe he must have lost his god damn mind to destroy his face the way he did. I'm not falling for that "lost childhood" bull shit the Jackson's have been trying to push on people for years. Day after day kids in America are forced to grow up at younger ages because of situations that they are put in, now whether it makes you crazy or pushes you forward is up to you. Michael was going forward for awhile and then something broke in him, but they need to realize that's a reason not an excuse. I can't just go around punching people in the face, later telling them that I came from a broken home and expecting them to be less mad at me, now can I?? They want us as the American Public to rethink the way we treated him because he was the king of pop, but how would they feel about a math teacher touching on their child's goodies? We shouldn't feel guilty about our statements because they hurt his feelings and now he's dead, it was true, Michael for the past two decades has been the epitome of a freak. We (or at least, I) never said we hated Michael but its hard to accept him knowing what he'd become, it wasn't that we didn't understand him, it was that we were finally beginning to understand him personally and not liking what we were seeing.
Please Lord give me strength to make it through the next 3 weeks until school starts.
Please give me the patience to overlook the 3 slugs (aka my kids) who are imprisoned in the house because it’s literally a burning hell (temp wise) outside.
Please give me the fortitude to stay on their asses regarding cleaning up after themselves instead of doing it myself.
Please give me Zen to overlook the fact that I haven’t been alone in 2 ½ months.
Please give me perseverance in this parenting endeavor I’ve embarked on because I’m ready to throw in the towel.
Please give me optimism that things will get better… in about 3 weeks.
Please grant me the strength to accept the things I cannot change (4 very different personalities trapped inside a becoming smaller and smaller house). The courage to change the things I can (my attitude, I’m putting on my happy face). And the wisdom to know the difference (and the peace that comes with knowing the end is near-only 3 more weeks!!!)
Thank you Lord.
What is with girls these days? And by these days, I mean since the dawn of time. I was doing some work around the house the other day when the phone rang. I didn’t even bother to attempt to answer it since my 11 year old daughter was in the house. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that the age of the phone planted to her ear has arrived in the house. I’m ok with that. Within 30 seconds of her phone conversation I hear her dishing about how so and so was online and talking trash about so and so. “She really said that. Can you believe that?” I hear. “I know I know right?” I hear.
Listening to this one sided conversation coming from my 11 year old had me disturbed. I’m not sure if I was more disturbed by her ending every sentence with “I know, right” or by the nature of the call. It is becoming more and more apparent that my 11 year old is one of those girls. And by one of those girls, I mean the gossipy, all about appearance, totally superficial type of girl. One of those girls. I can’t stand it.
I have prided myself on being an open parent. I have prided myself on teaching both my son and girls the importance of empathy. The importance of humanity. That we are all of the same earth. That though we look different we are all unique and of value. Blah, blah, blah. And I have Cher from Clueless as my daughter. I don’t get it. What am I doing wrong?
As I listened to this conversation, aghast, I grabbed my cell phone. I cowered in my bathroom in my bedroom, otherwise known as the “safe place” and called my friend Cynthia to report that my daughter is one of those girls. In heated whisper so as not to be detected by infiltrators outside the locked bathroom door, I repeated the listened in on phone call. “She really said that! Can you believe that?” I whispered frantically to Cynthia. “I know I know right!” I was on the phone with Cynthia locked in my own bathroom for over an hour rehashing every detail of my daughter’s transgression. Believe me; the irony is not lost on me.
What is with us women? Why do we bond over trashing each other? Why can we not wait to share the first sordid detail of any bad news? As open as I am. As empathetic and humanitarian as I am, I am one of those girls. I’m not proud of this fact. I’m certainly not jumping for joy that I’ve created a monster in my own image.
But sad to say, I do have a lot of fun with my daughter. Walking the mall commenting on bad hair. Bad outfits. Bad manners. Reading magazines together. Commenting on the latest celeb gossip. Going to Starbucks for a chai tea, (she’s only 11, I’m not getting her hopped up on caffeine) and chattering about nothingness, fluff. I'm not saying it's right but I don't know that I'm saying it's wrong either. We parents are typecast as the heavy. We have to be, it’s part of the job. I can do heavy. I nag, complain, critique and criticize with the best of them. But isn’t it important to bond as well? Isn’t it good for our souls to dish? I wish we women could get the same sense of community and connectedness from hashing out world peace. But let’s face it, we don’t. Or most of us don’t. If you are one who does, I bow down to you.
Maybe the best we can hope for is to mix in some good with the not so good. After all, isn’t that the point? To accept each other and ourselves for what we are? The good, the bad and the ugly?
DELIGHTFUL.
New-found appreciation of all you parents out there who survive(d) loveliness like that. I just actually thanked my parents for putting up with me.
Can't wait to see them this weekend :)
(this phone call started because she came into the store today, apparently, and my dad was able to tell me her toe-nail color and that she had a toe-ring, but ... apparently, Claudia's brown hair is ACTUALLY black. Oh daddy...)
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