ThredUp

I recently joined a site where you can swap clothes call ThredUp. The concept is that you pack up standard flat rate boxes from USPS with as much clothing of the same size and someone chooses it and you ship it to them. They pay for shipping $13 and you print out the label and it’s picked up at your door. So it’s not much work. Then you purchase a box (pay for shipping) in return. So in the end it’s supposed to level out basically. You give away clothes and get some in return. It’s worked out well. So far I’ve only purchased two boxes, both for Annabelle, and have come into some great clothes for only $13 dollars.

If you want to join click here: ThredUp

What does bother me is the review process. When Kaylee was young I had in style clothes that didn’t fit her so others could wear them and look in style. But now that she’s older her clothes are lasting longer. And this means that her winter clothes in particular are from last season. I’ve had two reviews of her last season winter styles that say they’re out of date. And all I can say is, of course they’re out of date. I wouldn’t be giving away clothes that she can wear. And clothes that she can wear typically are in style and by the time she grows out of them they are out of style.

For a discount swapping site, people are expecting too much in my opinion. I give five star ratings even if it’s out of date styles as long as there are no stains.

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Our Off Week

This week Kaylee is off of school for their school prep week. She starts her new class (pre-kindergarten) next Wednesday. She’s excited because she’s a Hummingbird now! So in the off week I’ve tried to pack the schedule. Today was our only off day. We did a little prep for Brian’s first day at work tomorrow. He’ll be getting a laptop tomorrow and the wireless card and phone next week sometime. I added voip service to our TV/Internet package so we’ll have a main line now and so we had to go out and purchase a phone that he can use to conference call with (instead of using his cell phone). Brian’s contract with AT&T is up on the 14th so we’ll cancel his line and he’s getting a new number with Verizon. Then in an effort to save some money I’m reducing my data plan and minutes for my phone. I don’t need half as much as I have right now.

Tomorrow we’re going to probably go to The Lakes and do their kids club and then maybe to the park unless Kaylee is not down for it. Thursday is another water play day and I really hope people show up to it. It’s the last time in the season to go to this water feature. Friday I think is free but I’ll figure something out. Saturday we have Home Depot and I think the MIL will be out as well. Sunday is church!

So in a few weeks we will be doing a dedication orientation for the baby’s dedication at church. With my former church all you did was email the pastor and pick a day. Apparently there is a whole class or something for Discovery. I’m fine with that to be honest. I just hope they aren’t expecting us to do much, especially for Brian since he’s not really a believer, he just goes because I go.

I’m looking forward to it. I mean it’s not like I’ll send out invites and so forth but I’ve wanted it done for a while now so it’s nice that it’s finally coming up.

We have our rooms booked for Thanksgiving. I have to remember to call Grandma and let her know that we’ll be staying at a hotel. If as many people are coming as I’ve been told (6 kids all under the age of 6) then I will need a hotel room. LOL! I’m looking forward to going to Arizona. I wanted to go to the Grand Canyon but it seems that everyone had determined that it’s too far so Flagstaff and Sedona are my only options for sight seeing. We’ll probably go to the Rim and I like going up into Strawberry as well just to look around.

I’m not worried about the drive so much because we’ve done it before. We’ll be caravaning with the parents (providing they don’t take the Jeep). I think it will be fun. I’m looking forward to getting away. A mini vacation. LOL! Just something different you know.

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Following Directions

Mommy is not so good with following the directions. We went to Lowes to build a bus (that was this weeks activity). Well I didn’t follow the directions so I accidentally did it wrong. LOL! What I typically do is put the nails in and Kaylee hammers them into place. She gets bored fast so I often have to finish up the project. It’s cool, I enjoy doing it.

So we came home and I had to pull out the tools to fix it. Luckily we had wood glue so I could finish it even though I did it wrong. Here’s Kaylee with the finished product!

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The Newest Thing

I’ve come to realize through my visits to several sites that the Internet allows mothers to basically pick each other apart. There are many things I disagree with in regards to people’s parenting, but most of the time, unless it’s dangerous to the child, I don’t really care much about what people do. We all make our choices and I would like to be able to make mine, so others have to be able to make theirs as well.

It is amazing to me that mothers feel the need to validate themselves through picking at others though. It’s sort of sad because the only real question you have to ask yourself to validate whether you are a good parent or not is, is your child happy, fed, loved? If you answer yes, them who cares how you do it? Who cares if you breastfeed them? Who cares if you have to work? They’re happy, fed, loved!

Dr. Laura said that you don’t blame the Internet for why people feel so comfortable bashing the hell out of others. It’s just the avenue that people chose to do it in. Because there are no real social consequences to doing it. You’re anonymous (well mostly but anyone can be tracked down). So it’s easy to go to a website or forum and make these judgements on others and you’ll never have to answer to anyone.

I’m lucky I think. I have a bunch of friends, many of us with differing parenting styles, but all friends with each other. And we connect and go through our parenting journey together. We don’t feel the need to bash each other and we are all accepting of our differences. We know just how hard parenting is and we know the support we get from each other is important. And hopefully we’re developing life long friendships not only for ourselves but for our children as well.

So I’ve made a decision. I’m going to stop visiting those sites with hateful mothers who validate their parenting by putting others down. Sadly this means two sites that I typical visit I will no longer visit. What’s really sad about one (which is a forum) is before we had our babies there wasn’t this issue. Then everyone had their babies and now there are tons of judgements being made. I wonder if it’s because before you have your baby you believe you will do things one way but that all changes when you have the baby. So I think there comes a lot of self placed guilt over not doing what you said you were going to and thus people feel a need to jump on others to overcome what they see as a bad thing.

Oh well. I’ll find someplace better to go. Or maybe this blog will be updated more. LOL! You know with those horrible photos of my children! I need article ideas. I wrote one on car safety for children. I’m thinking of writing another on this subject of Mommy Bashing and then I was thinking of writing one on how to stay sane as a Stay at Home Mom.

Stay tuned… I am uploading some pictures!

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Bad Mummy!

I’ve learned a few things from this site I visit that I thought everyone should know because you know the mom’s at this site are perfect so we must all follow these rules in order to be perfect parents:

1. You can’t take photo’s of your children. There’s a limit. No one has said exactly what the limit is, but it’s not good to carry your camera around and take pictures of them all the time. Apparently that’s bad parenting because you shouldn’t document your child’s life in such a manner. Memories should only be in your head, not in photos.

2. Do not at all go on your cell phone. I mean ever. Talking on the phone, checking Facebook, checking Twitter, etc… ALL BAD! Doesn’t matter if your children are napping, or if it’s 5am in the morning and you’re just feeding an infant. Doesn’t matter if you aren’t even with your children.

3. If you decide to Homeschool, you need to do it every day, all day long. Children who are home schooled shouldn’t have breaks or time off to play.

4. You need to bathe everyday, and your children need to bathe everyday. If you are spit up on or get dirt on yourself or your children, they need to be cleaned and changed right away. Oh and never let your children wear the same clothes they wore the day before. Oh and NEVER let them sleep in their dirty clothes!

5. Never leave the house with an infant. They should be locked away inside for at least 3 months even though you may have an older child who will never stand for that sort of thing. But who cares, disease runs rampant apparently in the world so keep your kid inside.

6. Don’t blog. Because your child will hate you when they grow older and Google themselves and find that you actually paid enough attention to blog about the minor stupid stuff no one will ever remember.

So what we’ve learned is that you must pay attention 100% to your children, never do anything for yourself, and if you don’t do it exactly as that you’re a horrible parent.

And if it’s lost, this is pure sarcasm. This site is full of people who believe they are perfect and it’s starting to annoy me because none of what I posted above will ever effect a child in a manner that will hurt them. It’s sad that Mom’s judge like they do online. But it’s anonymous.

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