“All great adventures must first begin as a dream,” Heather says. “My dream was to stay at home with my son Hunter, while also helping the family financially. I realized that there were many options that could work, but only a few that I would be truly passionate about. I began by searching for a few unique products that would be helpful to almost any mom. Soon thereafter, I began to get recommendations from other moms about products that they knew and loved. Thus, my inventory began to grow,” and Mom4Life was born.

She also dreamed of helping pregnant mothers. The realization of that dream took the form of a donation of 10% of her business’s profits to Open Hearts Pregnancy Care Center in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho. Heather says: “I believe that our children are a gift from God. I also understand that for many women, the news of their pregnancy can be very scary. It is my desire that no mother go down this road alone. To help support women who may be facing the difficult choice of an unplanned pregnancy, I have chosen to team up with the Open Arms Pregnancy Care Center. This center is dedicated to providing support, education and council to women who are seeking support or information with the prayer that these women may choose life for their baby.”

It is a Jewish proverb that states “God could not be everywhere, so he made mothers.” A mother’s work is truly a labor of love. It is also a journey, one that no woman can truly prepare for or understand until the moment her child is born, and which denotes progression along a road of learning and experience. It’s also fair to say that that most mothers fare far better on that journey when helped by other moms, because it is a truly unique, powerful, difficult, rewarding journey. Heather has been both the recipient and the giver of that help. On her journey, giving to help other moms is a natural extension of being a mom, running a mom business, and enjoying motherhood.

Whether being a better parent is one of your New Year’s resolutions or if you’re always in the market for parenting tips and motherhood tricks, start now to establish good habits with your children. Raising them to be responsible and showing them the benefits of that trait is a great way to start this new year.

10 Parenting Tips for Raising Responsible Children

Here are 10 ways you can teach responsibility to your kids:

1. Start young. Young children can help us set the dinner table or put their toys in the toy box.

2. Show children how tasks should be done. Be clear with your expectations. Kids are imitators and they do much better when they are shown how to do something. Let’s use those imitation skills to our advantage!

3. Let kids show someone else how a task should be done. Nothing reinforces a skill like teaching it to another person.

4. Be trustworthy and dependable. Children watch us like junior reporters, monitoring our every move. If they see us being responsible, trustworthy, and dependable on a regular basis, they are more likely to conclude being responsible is just a given.

5. Apologize when you make a mistake. Kids already know we make mistakes, so we might as well admit them when we do. If we own up to our mistakes without blaming someone or something else, we show our children there is no shame in being wrong or falling short, especially when we accept responsibility for it.

6. Give children a role or responsibility within the family. It’s important to give them a task that really matters and let them know exactly why it matters. If you have a dog, changing out the puppy pad is important for both the family and the dog— both sides are thankful!

7. Expect them to make mistakes. It is so easy to forget, especially with older children and teens, that even though the body looks like an adult on the outside, the inside still has an incomplete operating system, i.e. their brains are not yet fully developed.

8. Avoid nagging, yelling, and criticizing. As hard as it might be, we have much less conflict when we avoid nagging, yelling, criticizing or other emotional displays when we are teaching or correcting.

9. Work together as a family. Our children are not here to do the chores we don’t want to do ourselves. Everyone in the family can take a turn doing the “yucky” chores, such as cleaning the dogs teeth at home or cleaning out the litter box.

10. Provide friendly reminders to your children. Remind our children that everybody has to do things they don’t like at one time or another; raking leaves is not your hobby – you do it because it needs to be done – and so should they.

Talking with our children about what it means to be responsible, and the opportunities it affords is the first step to raising responsible children. People who are responsible have better reputations, more educational options, and the freedom to work at a job they like.

How do you help your child learn about and practice responsibility?

Jane Warren writes about home life, parenting and pet care. She enjoys spending time on the ocean, scuba diving and international travel.

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

10 Tips for Making Healthy Family Living More Enjoyable

Check out these 10 tips shared at a MomItForward Twitter Girls’ Night Out (#gno) with Together Counts for ideas on making healthy living fun for the whole family.

1. Mix it up when it comes to packing lunches. In addition to the usual whole wheat bread sandwich with carrot sticks or fruit, try adding things like bok choy, which is a valuable source of folate and vitamins A, C and K.  @Vidia2Be packs it daily, vacuum sealing it for freshness. @OhioCatfish packs frozen strawberries, which thaw by lunchtime. And @MarlaMeredith offers a whole list of healthy lunch box tips.
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2. Plan theme dinners. Categories like Mexican, Soup Night, etc. are common. But what about Dinner Roulette, Finger Foods, Ghoulish Creations, and Colors, which is what @Vidia2be does?
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3. Add music to your dinner routine. @Bodhi_Bear says: “You know who is great at theme dinners that are meatless? BryantTerry: themes include music soundtracks.
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4. Make healthy versions of family favorites, like mini pizzas (see @Whyveg’s video recipe), or chili with Quinoa, from @SavorTheThyme. Quinoa is an amino acid-rich seed that has a fluffy, creamy, slightly crunchy texture and a somewhat nutty flavor when cooked.
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5. Schedule frequent family meals. If possible, plan more than one meal together a week. Try these conversation starter cards from @CherishBound to help spark conversation.
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6. Try unique ways to be active together, such Muggle Quidditch, which is apparently becoming all the rage, according to @WriterUnblocked and @CBSNews.
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7. Play paintball together, which @EarthAngel2Be says is better in cooler temperatures because of all the gear.
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8. Use computer/video gaming/TV time as an incentive. Have computer, video game, or TV time be the reward for spending active time playing. @EarthAngel2b says it was easy with her five kids.
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9. Cook with sweet potatoes more. @WhyVeg provides this great plan for Lily Pads, Yam Yums, and a fabulous dipping sauce, and says: “I have found that with my 3 year old daughter just renaming some foods with silly substitutes or cutting the “usuals” into cute shape will get her interested and eating some different foods.”
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10. Involve the family in the meal-planning process, as recommended by @Bodhi_Bear, or at least have them write down a list of their favorite foods, as a starting point to thinking about what they do and don’t like about healthy foods.

Ultimately, no one will live healthily if it’s not enjoyable in some way, especially our kids. Making healthy living fun or interesting can make a mother’s job easier. And ultimately, a son or daughter who is healthy is more able to think outside themselves and consider the needs of others.

How do you keep your family fit and healthy? What tips do you have for making healthy living fun for your family?

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

To begin our mother-son chat, I asked him what he thought my goals were as a parent and why I would ask him to clean up. He scratched his head, probably thinking the only reason I’d do it was to torture him, just like I thought my mom was trying to torture me when I was a child and she “made me” do chores. I then took that moment to explain that my goals were for him to grow up with the skills and habits he needed to be a successful adult. We discussed a variety of things that contributed to possible definitions of “successful adult,” one of which was for him to be able to clean up after himself. We discussed the benefits of him learning how to clean and why having order and being clean was important.

We also discussed service and how important it is to not only think about ourselves, but to focus on the needs of others. We talked about how cleaning was not only a way to keep order, but an act of service for those around us. I asked him how serving others may help him both now in his role as a brother, friend, and neighbor and later in life as he becomes a father and husband and what other examples of service he could think of. He wasn’t sure and that made me think that we need to expose him to more opportunities so he has more experiences to draw on should I ask him that question in the future.

As a parent, finding regular opportunities to raise responsible children can require patience. The time I spend “encouraging” my kids to do their chores increases the amount of time it takes to clean the house. But, having that patience helps me not only to have a clean house (shout out to the Electrolux Nimble, the world’s best vacuum!), but also to raise responsible and service-oriented children.

Aside from cleaning and helping others in our own family through chores or other acts of service, finding opportunities to raise giving children can be challenging. I have found lots of ideas online. This list is a great way to get started. And here are some tips for helping young children to be more charitable. And, I especially love this list, which identifies 10 tips for raising given children of all ages.

But the best opportunities, it seems, are those that present themselves to us as we go throughout our daily lives. Here’s one that happened just this past week…

Our friend Jeanne is in an assisted living facility and she needed to go to the store. Unable to drive or walk without assistance, we decided to make the outing a family activity. We loaded up her wheelchair and took her to Wal-Mart, where thankfully, they had a Senior Citizen Parking spot with her name all over it. We took turns pushing her through the store, walking up and down the aisles, gathering the things she needed. After an hour, with both her and our shopping done, we took her back to her new home, walked her up to her room, helped her put her things away, and returned home.

On our drive home, we talked to our kids about Jeanne, sharing her limited abilities at this point in her life. We helped them see that something as fun and simple to them as pushing her wheelchair was a huge act of service and kindness to her. Their smiles in recognizing their contribution recommitted me to creating more opportunities for them to have action-oriented opportunities that teach them responsibility and service while they’re young.

 How do you model and give your children opportunities to be responsible as well as service-oriented? Tips for helping them do chores? Serve others?

As we walked back up the steep hill to get in the car, breathless from the journey, I thought of what a fun excursion that was for our family compared with the necessity that it was for the women we visited with. I thought about how I complain at walking down 15 stairs with one laundry basket. I vent about the lack of time to do laundry. I get frustrated with the task of getting clean clothes folded and put away. I have voiced on many occasions how “I hate laundry” all because it is inconvenient and takes time from my other, more important tasks, like tweeting!

To make laundry less of a chore for me, we made some changes in our family. Primarily, my husband now does it. It’s all about delegation, right? Check out his thoughts on the matter at Dadventurous.com. What I love about guys when they take over what has traditionally been “woman’s work” is how practical they are about it.

4 Tips to Streamlining Your Approach to Laundry

Here’s some things my husband does that simplify the laundry process:

1. He bought one of those folding thingies… you know? The kind the gap uses to get the perfectly folded t-shirt. This has made folding the laundry fast and fun.
2. He got the kids involved. He pays them $.10 for each piece of laundry they fold and put away. And, he taught them to use the laundry folding thingie, which they think is really fun.
3. His home office is right next to the laundry room, so he does laundry on work breaks.
4. One tip we both just learned about from Hanes is their Easy Sort Socks—color coded by size for easy matching. Are you kidding me? Is this awesome or what? Click here to see what I’m talking about. Just one more practical way to make laundry easier.

Given Troy’s practical approach to laundry, my vote is to have him do our laundry forever—even if it just means overseeing the kids!

How does laundry work in your household? Who does it? What tips and tricks do you recommend for simplifying the process?

Disclosure: I partner with Hanes as part of their #ComfortCrew. They treated me to a retreat in Orlando last week, where I got up close and personal with their products. The trip, including a variety of product, was provided to me by Hanes. My absolute obsession with their Easy Sort Socks is my own!

Psychologists have studied Happiness and discovered that GIVING is one of the key principles that makes people happy and drives out stress, anxiety, and depression.

So, how can we raise GIVING kids in a ME generation? I believe it starts out with us as parents. I thought about how my parents raised my siblings and me to think of others and to feel what others go through during tough times. We grew up with very little yet my parents gave of whatever time, money, or resources that they had to help others.

When my family came to America as refugees from Vietnam, we arrived in a small town of Beloit, Wisconsin with a cardboard box with belongings that we managed to collect during the journey.

My parents were so grateful for the opportunity to live in America that they wanted to help other refugees just like us. With broken English and the little amount of money they earned weekly at their factory jobs, they started taking in Vietnamese refugees who arrived in our town without a place to live.

The new refugees were clothed, fed and taught how to drive, and find employment where they worked to saved up enough to be on their own. I watched people come and go during these years. This continued for most of the years I lived at home.

I watched my father serve and give. He was honored in 1984 as Volunteer of the Year by the community with an awards dinner. He was truly an example to my siblings and me.

I wanted to raise my children to be givers and not takers in life. I wanted to carry on the legacy that my father instilled in my siblings and me. “Life is to give and not to take.” My father would also say, “These are seeds for your future.” He believed in the principles of giving will be reaped in the next generation.

He was right. I watched, observed, and I followed. If there’s anything that I resemble of my father-it’s compassion for others and I’m proud to have that trait.

When my husband and I had our first child, we taught her early on to be a giver. Starting with simple lessons; instead of fighting over the same toy, give it to the other child. This taught her to put others first.

As she got older, it got to the point where she would want to give EVERYTHING she owned to all of her friends; presents that she received from relatives were cheerfully given away without parental approval. She learned the art of being a cheerful giver at a young age. We eventually explained that it’s a beautiful thing to GIVE but balance is good too.

When our sons were born and the kids were older, we got involved in the Angel Tree program at Christmas. The Angel Tree program connects parents in prison with their children through the delivery of Christmas gifts.

We picked out the gifts, wrapped them with the child name and signed them from their parents who were in prison and personally delivered the gifts to their homes.

I always looked forward to hearing how they felt after delivering the gifts to these children and often times they expressed how sad they felt seeing the living conditions. But how blessed they felt to be able to give and put a smile on another child’s face who was less fortunate.

Participating giving opportunity allowed our kids to see what others go through and made them more compassionate people. I believe this principle will be passed from one generation to the next as long as we make GIVING a lifestyle.

What tips do you have for raising giving children?

But today, the educational landscape has changed. STEM is taught in a much more hands-on, interactive way. As a parent, taking advantage of opportunities to help your child learn and love these subjects can be as simple as visiting a local children’s museum, taking your kids rock climbing, or talking about gravity when a spill occurs instead of hurrying to wipe it up.

Want to learn more tips for helping your kids get excited about STEM, then join the #gno gang along with PBS Kids this Tuesday, March 2 from 9-11 ET (8 CT, 7 MT, and 6 PT)!

• What: Girls’ Night Out (#gno) Twitter party (Click here to learn about #gno!)
• When: Tuesday, March 2, 9-11 p.m. EST (8CT, 7 MT, & 6 PT)
• Where: Click here to party with us on our very own Custom Tweetgrid! (Use hashtags #gno and #pbskids.)
• Topic: Helping Kids Learn and Love STEM
• Who: @hensoncompany @geekmommy @mommyniri @moneywisemoms @mrsmoNJ @pbsparents @simchabe @techmama @techsavvymama @thinkmaya @WGBH_Kids @WGBH_STEM @whymommy
• Party Favors: Click here to enter for a chance to win this week’s giveaway. Deadline: 3/3
• RSVP: Use Mr. Linky below (enter the twitter URL and your twitter ID (e.g., http://twitter.com/jyl_momIF). If you would like to include your blog, please enter it next to your name. Make sure to include your twitter URL in the URL line. Please do not enter your blog URL there.

Note: Mom It Forward accepts paid sponsorships for most #gno Twitter parties. During the parties, brand sponsors provide tips, techniques, expert advice, and information on party topics. Mom It Forward is grateful for the giveaway prizes, coupons, and discounts that sponsors also provide to the Mom It Forward community in conjunction with #gno Twitter parties.

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

Click here to join the #gno Twitter party this Tuesday 2/2 from 9-11 PM EST with Pepperidge Farm Fishful Thinking to share parenting advice and activities with other moms and Dr. Karen Reivich, renowned Positive Psychologist.

Prizes

One winner will receive a Fishful Thinking prize pack, which includes one Canon digital camera to capture life’s precious moments and “The Optimistic Child,” co-authored by Dr. Karen Reivich. ($250 Approximate Retail Value)

Extra Entries

To enter for a chance to win the Fishful Thinking prize pack giveaway, you must do the following and leave a corresponding comment and link on this post:

• Follow @PepperidgeFarm on Twitter.

• Visit FishfulThinking.com and find your favorite activity (found under each of the five ingredients). Tweet the name of the activity and a link to that activity. Include the #fishfulthinking hashtag. Here is an example:

My favorite #fishfulthinking activity is Praise with Purpose http://bit.ly/7UYYz6 What’s yours? #fishfulthinking #gno

• Tweet the following:

Discuss positive parenting & connect w/ moms Tues., 2/2 (9-11 pm ET) @ #gno! RSVP: http://bit.ly/bOsFEk #fishfulthinking

Extra Entry

Complete the following option to earn one extra entry for each tweet for a total of two extra entries. Make sure to leave separate comments for each with corresponding links to the tweet(s) on this post.

• Tweet the following:

Check out what 1,100 moms said about parenting on the #fishfulthinking Parenting Survey:  http://bit.ly/4Q7LvH #gno

GIVEAWAY! Enter 2 win @pepperidgefarm #FishfulThinking Prize Pack incl digi camera ($250 ARV). http://bit.ly/cedSUa #gno PLS RT

Terms and Conditions

No purchase necessary to enter. Winners will be selected randomly. Mom It Forward and Pepperidge Farm employees are ineligible to participate. All entries received after Wednesday, February 3 at midnight PT will not be considered. Entries that do not follow all of the entry requirements will not be considered. Winners will be notified and will have 24 hours to confirm receipt of the e-mail. If they do not reply within 24 hours, another winner will be selected. Open to participants in the US and Canada 18 years and older. One entry per person.

For a complete listing of sweepstakes terms and conditions, please click here.

Fishful Thinking^SM is a program sponsored by Pepperidge Farm that provides resources, tips, and activities for raising happy, healthy children. Pepperidge Farm teamed with Dr. Karen Reivich, a leader in positive psychology research, and a mother of four, to provide parents with resources, tips, and activities they can use to help kids tackle life’s obstacles.

Who do you go to for parenting advice? Join us for a night connecting with other moms to share tips and activities for positive parenting! Join us here at #gno on February 2 from 9-11PM EST with Dr. Karen Reivich, the Mom It Forward gals, and the Fishful Thinking team to share a night of parenting support!

• What: Girls’ Night Out (#gno) Twitter party (Click here to learn about #gno!)
• When: Tuesday, February 2, 9-11 p.m. EST (8CT, 7 MT, & 6 PT)
• Where: Click here to party with us on our very own Custom Tweetgrid! (Use hashtags #gno and #fishfulthinking.)
• Topic: Fishful Thinking: A Resource for Positive Parenting
• Who: @1momof5 @cecilyr @karenreivich @noflashcards @pepperidgefarm @sarah0514 @sitsgirls @springtacious @ssmirnov @reneejross @rockandrollmama @writingthewaves @youngmommy
• Party Favors: Click here to enter for a chance to win this week’s giveaway from Pepperidge Farm Fishful Thinking. Deadline: 2/3
• RSVP: Use Mr. Linky below (enter the twitter URL and your twitter ID (e.g., http://twitter.com/jyl_momIF). If you would like to include your blog, please enter it next to your name. Make sure to include your twitter URL in the URL line. Please do not enter your blog URL there.

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Note: Mom It Forward accepts paid sponsorships for most #gno Twitter parties. During the parties, brand sponsors provide tips, techniques, expert advice, and information on party topics. Mom It Forward is grateful for the giveaway prizes, coupons, and discounts that sponsors also provide to the Mom It Forward community in conjunction with #gno Twitter parties.

Happy Mother’s Day! You are amazing!