Children and Nightmares-ET and Night At the Museum

I thought I had passed this phase in my life with my little girls. We'll for the last few days after my older daughter watched ET, my younger one who caught some glimpses of it, now has nightmares. She has become so attached to me in the last week, it's nothing like I have ever seen before. She wants all the lights on all the time and holds my hand whenever she can. Last night after a sucessful run of no accidents in the bed, she had one. She even comes into my room every night and wants to sleep with us. The end result, even if you're child is not watching the movie but is in the same room doing something else, they can still have those nightmares as if they watched the whole thing. She thinks there are aliens in the house. I know spouses disagree with things from time to time but to make my point, I was against this movie from the beginnning!

So how do you correct the problem? Although this is another setback in our daily routine, it will pass. Children really believe it's real so you should take extra care in helping them get through it. Be selective about choosing movies. Think about how the kids will react. If they start to cover their eyes, then it's time to stop watching. However, we did go to the Night at the Museum and she loved it, but I guess you never know.

Baby Einstein AND every other video out there?

I don't really comment about other baby videos out there including Baby Einstein but recently with retailers having little shelf space to share, I think it is important to share this with moms and dads. As the creator of a baby video company, I can understand people liking the Baby Einstein videos and for good reason, however, will parents be open to trying other videos on the market? When my daughters were young, there were only a few competitors to Baby Einstein. However, to be fair, a lot of the stores will not carry the smaller company's products because they are not a big brand name. Things have really changed in the video industry from the late 90's. There are dozens of great videos out there for children of this age group you just have to find them. I hope parents start to try some other companies out there before they all disappear and only have one option left, Baby Einstein! Remember, just because you don't see it on the shelf, doesn't mean it's not a fantastic product. The reason usually has to do with the distributor and the relationship they have with the stores not so much the product.

You can find great baby videos at amazon.com and other fine retailers for a much lower price.

Celebrity Moms

I was wondering how many moms out there actually buy products because they are seen on a celebrity baby? If you see a shirt that Angelina Jolie's baby has on, do you go out and buy it? Does it mean it's better than chosing one on your own? If you're like most people, we love our babies to get that celebrity look like Katie's Holmes, Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie or Courtney Cox's babies. Can most moms afford to keep up that look?

Of course not! But there are many stores out there that have lovely clothes for our babies. And, remember, how many times your little one has spit up on the clothes. Probably one too many. Buying a few nice outfits is great, however, the reality is that most of the clothes get ruined. Be a smart shopper when it comes to your baby. Buy soft, easy to wash clothes that can be worn over and over again. Those formula stains hardly ever come out!!

The Wall Street Journal

Although I haven't posted recently, I wanted to mention that my company will be mentioned in the Wall Street Journal on Tues. Jan 30, in the Entreprenuer section. If it's not in this Tues. they said the following Tues. When I get the link, I will put it on the blog. They also may put a clip of the Baby Pre-school DVD on the website. For me and my company, it's quite exciting! I hope you get a chance to view it.

What do I do when I don't like my child's teacher?

Happy New Year!

I want to cover this topic because now that my oldest is in 2nd grade, I've seen more and more parent teacher conflicts! We can all remember when we didn't like some of our elementary school teachers. But what happens when the parent is the one who doesn't get along with the teacher. Unfortunately, I've seen this one too many times and even parents putting in requests for certain teachers as young as Kindergarten so they don't have to deal with all those rumors that went around regarding certain teachers. So, what do we do?

If you can remember back, how many of you actually got taken out of your class because your parents didn't like the teacher. We'll not many of us. And, what I have found is that the principal and faculty tend to stick together. The best thing to do is try to work out your conflicts with the teacher directly. Going over his or her head to the principal doesn't really work well because the principal will then speak to the teacher who will then be upset.

Teachers really appreciate hearing directly from the parents especially when there is a problem. The more you work with the teacher and listen to what they have to say, the more you will find that everyone will be happy, especially your child. What child really wants to be pulled out of a class to go to a new one? Now a days, teachers even give their e-mail addresses and in some cases their home phone number to parents. Stay in touch with the teacher on a regular basis and get to know other parents by joining the PTA.

And most of all, don't take what the teacher says as negative critism of your child. They are just trying to help correct problems that your child may be having in class. Remember teachers have our children for most of the day starting first grade so we may not notice what the teacher notices. In fact, in most cases you will learn a lot from the teacher about your child's habits!!