This post is brought to you by Mott’s and The Motherhood. All opinions are my own.
Parenting is hard! The work just never stops! You get up early to help get the kids ready for school, you go to work for 8 hours (or more), then come back home for dinner, bedtime, etc. before finishing up the day with chores that you couldn’t do during the day because you were working! It’s hard work and we are far from perfect! Mott’s knows this and wants to encourage parents with their new “Good and Honest” campaign.
Our “Good and Honest” moment involves our behavior chart. We recognize that it is very easy to focus on what the kids do wrong, but we find so much more reward in “catching” our kids being good. They just act better when they know that you can catch them being good and they feel less need to hide their activities. It’s just a happier household.
Whenever we catch them being particularly good, they get to add a sticker to their “Bonus Activity Chart.” Once the kids, as a group, fill up the chart, they get a bonus activity. This could be a trip to the movies, a special dinner, anything, really.
To be completely honest, though, even finding time for those bonus activities can be a little difficult. So, sometimes, we’ll trade in those bonus activities for something that we were going to do anyhow. Going out for dinner? We might choose one of their favorite places and add an ice cream trip in. Taking everyone out to pick strawberries? That sounds special! Let’s make that a bonus activity!
Sometimes we feel a little guilty about it, but we are just doing the best we can. We never feel guilty about serving out Mott’s products, though. Since 1842, Mott’s has made applesauce and 100% juice and juice drinks. Busy families like ours have been counting on them for years! Mott’s has plenty of products, including Mott’s Original, Mott’s for Tots, and Mott’s Naturals. By far, my kids’ favorites are the Mott’s Snack & Go Applesauce Pouches. They love them because they taste great. I love them because I know that my kids will eat them for a healthy snack and because they are so easy to toss into a picnic lunch on a perfect spring day!
We are excited to ask you to share your Good & Honest moments for a chance to win a $50 gift card and Mott’s product. So what is your parenting hack? Leave a comment and let us know!
Details: This drawing will end April 17, 2014 at 11:59 ET. The winner will have 48 hours to reply with their address. You must include your email address in the comment form so you can be contacted if you are a winner! You must complete the Mandatory Entry. This giveaway is open to US residents only. The prize sponsor is responsible for the prize fulfillment. Please allow 6 – 8 weeks for prize fulfillment. The owner of Simply Budgeted is not responsible for prize fulfillment.
One time when I was babysitting for my niece at my brother’s house we baked some cookies. The kitchen was in complete disarray, so I told her if she helped me clean up, the next time she slept over we would do “makeovers”. She happily went along and the kitchen was pretty clean in no time 🙂
My parenting hack is to smile and always keep a positive attitude. Kids are perceptive and they tend to take on whatever mood you have so if you can see that your child is unhappy or not in the best mood, it’s good to smile and give him/her a big and act like everything is amazing and it’s amazing how he/she will begin to feel that way too.
I had a moment like this today. We planned on going to the park which is by a lake front and has a small beach area to swim. Well last minute they decided they wanted to swim instead of play at the park. I had an extra pair of clothes for them with us, but no towels. Soo after dripping dry for a few minutes, we went into the bathroom to change their clothes and I had them dry the rest with the warm air dryers in the bathrooms. They were mostly dry by that point but it was just one of those moments!
There were time when my kids asked for random stuffs that their friends at school had. Conversations always went on like because Linda, Natalie and Mary had it so I wanted it too. I told them we didn’t have the budget for since we were saving for a house purchase (or other goals applied). Just like that, truth worked out quite well in our situation.
My kids where helping me bake a cake for there dads birthday, I told them to butter the aluminum pan, to me a easy task which I thought they could handle without any supervision while I did other tasks, well they literally buttered the entire pan, inside and out and it got pretty dinged up and damaged along the way. It was quite a laugh, but I was lucky to enough to borrow a neighbors glass dish which saved the day and the cake was a hit.
My Parenting hack is that I made my own kids training pants when they were being potty trained. I took a pair of underwear and put in maxi pads and this kept my child from waking up wet in the morning! It really worked great for potty training and is not expensive to do!
My parenting hack was that I would pay my kids a dollar every time I saw them do a chore that I did not ask them to do. They would clean the house randomly in the hopes I saw!
When my kids were smaller they didn’t want to try fish so we used to tell them it was “special chicken”. It worked.
When they were small I used to be over-protective, but now I just let them enjoy themselves. I used to get in all sorts of mischief as a kid. I had a blast, created great memories, and I survived. I don’t want to rob my kids of a childhood because I worry about a broken arm or a few stitches. I want to let them have fun, and it is hard to let them out of the protective bubble and hope they turn out okay.
I used to add some veggies into my child’s fruit smoothies. I later told him about it and he was fine with that
My Good and Honest parenting moment comes when I accidentally forgot to pack a snack for my son (I had everything else in the diaper bag.) Thank goodness a Mott’s applesauce pouch was found in my purse! My son gobbled it down.
Another “honest” moment is when I always use applesauce to get my sons to take their medications. It has such a great flavor, they can hardly taste the medicine.
When my son does not want to take his medicine, I try to buy the medicine in blue for leonardo from tmnt and tell him to take his Leo medicine so he can be strong and save the world from bad guys.
My parenting hack…..when getting a cold icee or shake…and its always so cold for the little ones to hold. We ask for an extra cup and napkins. You wrap the cold cup with a couple napkins and put it in the empty cup! The napkins in between the two cups keep the outside cup from getting so cold! Works great!!!
My parenting hack is to not sweat the small stuff. Kids will be kids and they can be pretty amazing. I just go with the flow.
My youngest daughter would never want to brush her teeth so we started playing music and made it into a fun, dance party of a time. She started actively looking forward to it every morning and night so she could play her music in the bathroom and dance around with Mommy and/or Daddy.
My hack is adding veggies or fruits to foods they love!! My son loves meatloaf and so I add in carrots and he wouldn’t have a clue they’re in there!!
My parenting hack is to live in the moment. Don’t be afraid to get dirty and make messes whether it be finger painting or cooking together.
My husband and I do our best to keep up positive reinforcement with our three boys. We praise them every time we see them make a good choice. And we always let each other know that we love them.
Sometimes if my son has to take medicine but won’t take it I sneak it into ice cream and he does’nt know.