Any doctor will tell you that depression is a hard illness to come to terms with.   Depression causes people to feel alone, it makes you feel like going into hiding, as if you should just climb up under the bed covers and disappear from reality, though its never that easy and hiding is never the answer.

So what causes this depression?  That answer depends on who you speak with, some will tell you that there is one of a million different causes, while another person will tell you that they are unsure as to what causes it.  One thing we do know for sure is that the world we live in can be a difficult place to wake each day.  As mothers, many of us know all to well what effects depression can have on a family.  Though we do not have the luxury of hiding, crying or wishing it away.  No, we instead have to be strong, we have to make ourselves be better for our kids, our husbands, our family.

One mother can carry the wait of an entire family, career and world on her shoulders when her family is in the room and as they leave, its almost as if that same woman was weakest being on the planet.  There were times when I found myself crying for hours on end and wanting to be left alone, even the idea of taking my own life came into my mind a few times, I never knew where to turn for help.  When I tried to talk to my husband he told me to get over it, he didn’t understand that it jst wasn’t that easy of a thing to get over, how do you stop feeling as though you hate everything.

I kept telling myself that I needed to get some help, if for nothing more than so I could be around for my husband and my children.  I love my family, they are my world and I didn’t want our family to crumble because I wouldn’t take the time to get the help that I needed.   Eventually, I went to my doctor and explained to her how I had been feeling, how much I had been crying, not sleeping and how I just felt like everything was falling down around me.  My doctor was able to give me some options as to what I could do to control this disease, I took her advice and went with a medication that, in a short amount of time, made my life a whole lot better.

These days I am nowhere near as emotional as I was then, I can actually sleep at night.   One of my concerns was that my prescription would make me a little loony, not that I don’t like space cadets, I just don’t want to be one.  Some people told me that the medication would have adverse effects, though in my case I have suffered from none of those.

It is a wonderful thing to know that I can now relax and enjoy life, because life is just so short.  You never realize that until you actually live it.  If any of you feel bad and  want to hide from your life, I encourage you to take the time and see your doctor, allow someone to step in and help you just as I did.  Allow yourself to live life to its fullest and never look back!

As parents, we experience constant mood fluctuations as our kids continue to develop and grow older.  For the majority of us, there will be nothing more difficult than shipping are children away to school that very first time, but we know that it has to be done.  Every parent wants the best for their kids and that includes allowing them to receive a quality education which as we know begins with kindergarten.

So how do we let go of this hardship and separation anxiety?  The reality is that you can’t, but you can make sure that your child is prepared both mentally and emotionally to begin the new school year.  We as parents are crucial tools in developing our children’s mental aptitude and there is no time like the present to get started.

Most parents tend to think that you can just put your kids in kindergarten and they will learn all they need to know with no effort on their part, well that is not the case anymore.  Now days kids need to be ready for kindergarten.  Children are supposed to know their letters, numbers, colors, shapes, and even how to write their names before entering.  When we were kids, we just went to school and learned all that from the teachers.  We were able to have fun in kindergarten and enjoy it, but now the schools are often so worried about kids knowing every little thing that kids just don’t get to have the same fun that we did in school.

Looking back to when I was in kindergarten, I can remember having story time and painting, short naps and milk breaks.  We also had a lot of time to interact with the other kids, which was crucial to developing interpersonal skills.  Now kids are learning how to multiply and are doing fractions, spelling and the like.  I didn’t do any of that when I was five, hadn’t even come close to anything similar.  In fact, I don’t believe that even learned how to multiply until I was in the third grade at least.  The comment argument is that there is just  way to much pressure on such young minds in school right now,  it’s no wonder kids want to dropout and what about the parents, often working a couple different jobs just to stay afloat and still manage to find the time to teach you children the things our teachers should be teaching.

Nonetheless, this is the way of school is in many states and to truly give your child a good start in school, you have to take the time to sit down with them and teach them what they need to know.   Most kids are good with shapes and colors and most can say there ABC’s but being able to tell what a letter or a number is, might be a different story.

Flash cards are a great way to get kids started on knowing their letters and numbers.  Sure, it is going to take time, nothing ever happens right away, and it will take patients so please be patient with them.  It is so hard on a little kid to be pressured and make sure when they do something or try and do something that you give them praise for that. Try to teach them how school will be, make them as prepared as possible before sending them off to grow up on their own.

Teaching them little things like how to listen to the teacher and raising your hand before you can speak will make a world of difference in the development of your child.  Be sure to instruct them of classroom etiquate, like not talking to the other kids while the teacher is talking and so on, kids have a difficult time knowing what they should and shouldn’t do in school.

What are your tips for preparing a child for kindergarten?  Share them with us in the comment section below.

I became a mother at the age of 23. I don’t think that is as young as a lot of mothers are now days, but it was still scary and exciting none the less.  I found out I was pregnant 3 months into my pregnancy.  Really, the only reason I found out I was pregnant was because of a persistent pain in the lower left of my abdomen that made me seek medical attention. The doctor took some urine from me and came back in and told me I was pregnant.

I was completely shocked and had absolutely no idea of what was going to happen.  I called my parents and they were pretty upset for a little bit but they got over it, just as most parents do.  I was married at the time but the man I was with left me for another woman.  I was destroyed!   I didn’t no where to turn at the time because not only was I pregnant, but now I had to deal with a jerk who could care less about me and the baby.  For those of you that have never been in this situation, it is very difficult and one of the worst things I have ever experienced.

I was crying a lot.  I ended up in the hospital six times for high blood pressure which scared me tremendously since I didn’t know if my son was going to be okay or not.  I remember my sister having to watch over me while my parents were gone just in case I needed to go to the hospital again.  Then I went to the doctor for a regular check up and he wanted me to have yet another ultra sound which showed that my son was not developing the way he should have been.  By that I mean, I was supposed to be at 35 weeks gestation and he was only measuring 32 weeks gestation, so not good.

I guess he wasn’t getting the nutrition that he needed so he was smaller than normal and the majority of the problem was being caused by my blood pressure problem.  Now, don’t go assuming that I was heavy and that’s why I had high blood pressure, because in fact I had only gained about 6 pounds during the whole pregnancy, which is not much at all.

After that I went and saw another ultra sound specialist and my blood pressure was up yet again so the doctor told the specialist to do a amniocentesis,

Amniocentesis is a prenatal test in which a small amount of amniotic fluid is removed from the sac surrounding the fetus and is tested. The sample of amniotic fluid (less than one ounce) is removed through a fine needle inserted into the uterus through the abdomen, under ultrasound guidance. The fluid is then sent to a laboratory for analysis. Different tests can be performed on a sample of amniotic fluid, depending on the genetic risk and indication for the test.

according to WebMD.

So it turned out that his lungs were good so they gave me medicine to induce labor which I hated I was in labor for twelve hours . By no means was it as bad as some labors but to me it was because I was horribly sick to my stomach.  I couldn’t sleep and was just miserable at that point. The following morning my doctor came in and checked me and found I hadn’t progressed at all so he told me that I could go on for three days like I was and hope to go into full labor or I could have a c-section so I opted for the c-section because I was so tired. C-sections are not bad at all.

They gave me a epidural in my spine so I wouldn’t feel a thing and all I did was lay there and waited until I heard my son cry.  Let me say what I said then, “you never know you could love someone so much until you look at your own child”.  I was so excited to finally see my little boy.  He was so little he only weighed 4lbs 10oz.  I considered him my little football because he was about the size of one.  Having been through all of this, I felt that I could offer my parenting advice to other parents:

• If you find out your pregnant and you smoke, you need to quit, I did.  These smoking facts should help you want to quit.

• Follow the directions your doctor gives you very closely for the health of your child.

• Nutrition is very important try to eat healthy.  I had a hard time with that but here are some ideas on how to make diet shakes.

• Make sure to take all prenatal vitamins.

• After your child is born you will freak out about a lot but don’t feel bad. Mothers all over the world do it to you are not the only one.

• When you are done feeding your baby make sure to burp them because if you don’t you are in for a lot of crying because the gas buildup in there tummy hurts a lot.

• If your baby spits up a lot and I mean like projectile vomit where it gets all over everything, make sure you tell your doctor because there could be an underlying problem.

• Sleep whenever you get a chance because if your baby was like my son he woke every two hours and I still had to get up and go to work after my maternity leave was over. It was hard but eventually he started to sleep through the night.  You might consider using some natural sleeping aids to help a little.

• Avoid pacifiers if you can because they become a security thing for some kids and they won’t let go of them . I had to take my sons away when he was two because it was impeding on his speech.

• The other thing to avoid is giving them a favorite blanket to carry around because my son is four now and he still wants to take his blanket with him places he is like Linus from Charlie Brown.

• Do not let your baby sleep in your bed because they do get used to it and you can’t get them out of your bed once you start doing it. I never listened to my mom when she told me the same thing and now my daughter keeps wanting to sleep in my bed.

• Always remember to take time out for yourself and your significant other because the health of your own relationship is important.  Of course if you are looking for someone, you can try our online dating tips, who knows maybe its your turn for love.

• Make sure that you try and just get out by yourself there is nothing like having time alone to yourself. It helps you to relax.

Just make sure you always show your children lots of love and no matter what they do they are still as precious as gold. You will never want to trade them for anything else even if you do think about it sometimes. No matter what, your children will always look up to you and love you so make sure that you show them how to be a great parent because someday they just might be a parent too.

When I decided to make the change from work at the office to work at home, I expected to have a whole lot more time to spend with my family. I had envisioned day trips to the park with the kids, early afternoon movies with my honey and vacations where we would just pack up and leave on a whim, it seemed as though it would be so easy since I would no longer have a boss looking over my shoulder. The problem was I didn’t figure one aspect into the equation, myself.

Its something I have known for quite a while, I am a work-a-holic, I love working and once I get going it becomes very hard to pull me away from my project until its finished. I think I must have overlooked that or maybe thought I could change once I setup headquarters at home, but I didn’t. The reality is that I found myself working more hours than ever before, not because I had to but because I wanted to. I wanted to sit in front of this computer and type up articles, manage numerous websites and so on, I love it and thats why I do it to this day, but it was effecting my family and I couldn’t even see it.

I felt like it was a blessing for my family, I was home and they could see me or talk to me whenever they wanted, but I realized that I wasn’t really there, it was kind of a shell they were talking to. I mean sure I was sitting there, but I was so engrossed in the work that I couldn’t fully devote my attention to the conversation. It had got to the point where we would go out and I was always in a hurry to get home, I had to see if I missed anything important, maybe an email I was waiting on came through, or worse yet maybe one of sites were down and would often ruin the outing because I cut it short to be with my work. I hate to say it, but it was almost as if I were having an affair with the Internet.

It took me over a year to finally realize this myself, that even though I was technically spending time with my family, I really wasn’t spending time with them at all. Once I was able to see that I knew I had to make a change, but how do you stop doing something that you love? The easiest way is to think about which you love the most, because after a while you will have to choose one so it had better be the one you want. The one I wanted was my family, I love them with all of my heart, they are the reason I decided to work from home in the first place, to spend time with them.

The strange thing is, that even though I had began to sacrifice time from my work to spend with my loved ones, my business actually began to flourish, more so than it was before my insight. Now that I look back, I can see that sure I was spending 18 hours a day working, but most of the time I was so burnt out that the work just wasn’t good, it was hurting me more than doing good. So once I pulled away from the work a bit, I again was able to enjoy what I was doing with the added benefit of more free time to do what I really wanted to do.

The Moral of the Story

Whether you’re poor, rich, working or out of work you have to stop and realize what truly is number one in the grander scheme of things. You always have to put your family first, everything else can fall into place in a close second, but family has to come first. Once you put family first, everything else has this weird way of working itself out.

If you can do all of this, your life will be better, fuller and more enriched than it ever has been before, I promise. Just do what comes naturally and let your family know just how much you love them.

Staying in shape is by no means an easy task, we all know that. What’s even more difficult is trying to stay in shape by yourself. The most effective method is to have a support group in place, so that you are not the only one exercising and feeding on bland rabbit food.

Family fitness routines are a great way to not only have your support group, but to also get everyone in shape. Let’s face it, the kids eat way to much junk food, dad has gotten a little lazy in his old age and you, well you just need a little toning.

So how do you do it, how do you bribe the rest of the family into a fitness routine without knowing they are doing it? Or how do you get them to take part willingly, thinking it won’t be quite so bad? The answer is surprisingly simple, make it fun for everyone. That’s it, that is all you have to do, make fitness fun. Below are some ideas to make those family fitness plans a little more appealing to the whole family: Read the full story