How to save on childcare costs!

Ok so there is this "news" story that I just saw on yahoo on how to save on child care costs. It lists ideas like tax credits, cutting the babysitters pay (I'm sure the sitter loves that idea!), arranging some sort of swap with another family. Another thing mentioned is finding out if your company offers discounts anywhere.

Now I have a GREAT idea how to save child care costs. We practice it all the time. Our childcare costs for a whole year YES a year. Are you ready for it? $00.00 That is what we have spent on child care for the last 7 years. Every year we shell out $0! It has been hard to come up with that kind of money it really makes you work hard for that kind of dough!

The way we do this and this may seem crazy to a few, but we take care of them ourselves! GASP you mean spend time with them??? Yes I am with them ALL THE TIME. I even homeschool them. OK stop I know what you are saying you are saying good for you but I can't do that. I don't have the patience for that. Or I don't have a degree. Or I am not qualified to teach them. I think God gives better degrees than any college, plus what do you think Adam and Eve did? Do you think there children were shipped off to be with the other kids and a qualified teacher? Did you know that public school is a relativity new idea? Did you know that in the Bible it tells us to teach them diligently? Do you think that means just how to behave? How do you think they will learn how to cook or manage the bills if you don't teach them? Do you think that the school is going to do it? Our schools are failing miserably! And who said public school is free? First they have to have the right clothes, then you have to help buy the school supplies, then you have to buy things for fund raisers, then you have to pay for the field trips. Ohhhh noooo Johnny got something on his shirt now it is stained head off to the store again because he needs more new clothes. It is not free. My homeschooling including my church covering required by Alabama is $300 a year. That is for homeschooling a 4th grader, and a 1st grader, and preschool with my 3rd child.

Ok so back to the other thing that is running through your mind. We need my income to pay the bills. Look honestly at all of your expenses. Look at the extra gas, the eating out, the prepackaged lunch items, the foods you don't have time to make yourself so you buy them now. Look at the clothes that you would not have to buy if you didn't have to compete with the others at your workplace. Your car insurance may go down due to less miles traveled. No more take out every night. Look at all those expenses including child care add them all together. Now subtract that from your take home pay. Now there is not much left, or you are even in the red huh? So take care of your children. Save yourself some money, and you would even be helping the government out. They can't seem to figure out how to get all of these children that are wayward to become responsible. That is because it is not their responsibility it is YOURS to take care of your children, and trust me your children would love to spend more time with you!

My parenting book

Ok so I'm not going to write a book on parenting. It would be way to short it would be a pamphlet. So here are my tips:

Tip 1: Read your Bible.

Raise your children according to God's ways and you will be fine.

Tip 2: Expect more out of your children.

Do not talk down to them do not think that they don't understand you. If my children when they are 1 year old can follow directions like put that away, clean that up, and hand me potatoes when I need them while making dinner, they understand much more than you will ever think that they do.
Why do you think that they start talking so early. They look right at Mama and say "mama" because they know who you are. They know what you are saying. They are not dumb. But big but here they are master manipulators. That leads me to my next tip.

Tip 3: Do not let them manipulate you.

A sin is a sin. God sees them all equally so why not treat the sins equally? If they talk back correct them. If they throw something in the house correct them, if they are disrespectful to ANYONE parents included correct them. They have been watching you since they were born. Moms you know the look of them nursing or just sitting with you when they were first born how much they studied your face. Then when they began to crawl how they wanted to be involved in everything you were doing. Then walking if you swept the floor once the broom was put away they got it out. Then when they talk they use the same hand motions, and phrases you use. When they are 5 they want to do everything you do. They know you more than you know yourself. They can predict everything you do before you do it. They scratch their head when you do something out of character. They know they can push the button 5 times, but the 6th time they know they will get a reaction. They know where the true line is drawn. We may say don't do .... but then they know they can do it 3 times before they have a consequence. The line is drawn where we enforce it, not where we say it is. Our children know this and will manipulate the system for there advantage. Make your system the same every time and they will not have room to push.

Tip 4: Be consistent in everything you do.

That means no means no every time. If they are told to get in the car they should get in the car. If they don't there is a consequence. We parents should never have to ask our children a second time for anything! If you tell your toddler Do not touch the light switch and 5 seconds later he even reaches for it there should be a consequence. Otherwise you are letting them push and them form the line in the sand.

Tip 5: If you want socialized children then don't let them only be around children their own age. If you want children that can ultimately function in society then you need to give them exposure to different age groups. One of the best ways to do that is take them with you when you go out. Plus if you are leaving them with others to "watch" them while you are out look at all the one on one time you are missing. Turn off the radio, turn off the IPod, turn off the DVD's. Talk with your children. Count how many UPS trucks you pass count the school buses. Count white cars. It will evolve to conversation. Have your children sit with you during church, and be a part of your socialization after church. Yes children can sit through church just fine. Mine have been happily sitting through church since they were 2. (yes exceptions are made for babies) At about 2 1/2 our children are expected to sit through church. The conversations that are had after church can benefit the children. Spend time with other families. Share meals and talk as a family. Play games with other families. Your children will learn so much more when they are not "stuck" with only children their own age.

Tip 6: Expect more!

Expect your children to behave, expect your children to be respectful. Expect your children to be helpful. If you were a boss would you tolerate someone that just still doesn't get it after 6 months on the job? No you would fire them because they are not meeting expectations. Why after we teach our children how to do something like behave do we tollerate them to be disobedient? Expect good behavior out of them. Tell them what you want out of them, and praise them when the meet your expectations. Our children want to please us, so give them a chance to do a good job.

Tip 7: Give them chores!

They need chores. If you had someone always doing something for you your whole life how would you ever learn to do it for yourself? Teach them how to do laundry. My girls have done laundry since they were 5. Yes it is possible. My 2 year old son helps sort the laundry and put the clothes in the proper rooms. He is learning how to fold the laundry too. By the time your children are 10 they should be able to clean your whole house because little by little they have been trained to do it. I'm not saying that they need to just work all the time and no fun. There is time for fun, but there is time for work also. In the Bible it says no work no food. So make them work! They will thank you for it when they are older. When they know how to do the laundry (many many children go off to college and have no idea how to do their laundry! no joke), cook, clean, and run a household. It will not be easy for anyone if the day that they get married they have to learn all of this. Trust me it wouldn't be pretty.

Tip 8: Love your children.

That is why you need to discipline, correct, and train your children. It is because you love them. You want them to be the best adults, parents, and whatever they can be. All of that starts out with training them out of love. Hug them tickle them give them kisses. They are you children. A well behaved, trained child will have much more time for the hugs and kisses, and playing then the child that frustrates the parents.

Tip 9: You are setting patterns for your children's lives.

There is a joke that I heard a while back about a mom cutting the ends off the roast. The daughter asks "why do you always cut the ends off your roast?" The mom replies with "I don't know my mother always did it and now I do." Later the mom calls her mother to ask why. The response was "So it would fit in the pan." We do things all the time because we were raised to do it that way. I know someone who grew up with a swamp cooler in his room and now he can't go to sleep without loud white noise. Can you imagine being married to him? Whatever patterns we set up with our children now there is a good chance they will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Tip 10: If it is not cute when they are 5, 10, 15 or 20 it is never cute!

If you allow a child to make a giant mess in their room at 3 when do you teach them not to? Do you one day say ok you are 6 now today this stops? If you allow them to jump on the bed at what point do they "mature" enough to not be allowed to do it? 4 years and 200 days? If you allow them to play with their food instead of eating when do you stop that behavior? Wouldn't it be easier to stop the behavior the first time than after they do it 100+ times?

Here is the harsh part but unfortunately it is true. If you have any bad behaviors in your children; parents it is YOUR fault. No one did this to them, they are not born evil. They will do what they are allowed, and they will obey when told. If there is something in them that needs work it is YOUR job to do it. The blessings in your home are YOUR responsibility. If all parents took responsibility for their children's behaviors, attitudes, and actions this country would look much much different! So do your part and "train up your children in they way they should go."

Do you have a brain?

I have noticed many many people in our society just take whatever people tell them and take it as truth. Why do we have a website called snopes.com???? It is because the facts are out there and we should go to look things up for ourselves. Did you know that sometimes snopes.com is wrong too? We should never listen to a preacher and take his word for it we all have access to Bibles, and can look it up for ourselves. Our culture is getting into lots of trouble for the simple reason of no one checks the facts. How hard is it for someone to check snopes.com before forwarding a email that tells you to look under your car before you get in it because you don't know what or who may be under there, or not to take those papers off the windshield before you drive away. These are all out to scare us and they are being used all the time to get our society to do things. We are like a heard of cattle afraid of a dog because it has a loud bark. We are all being driven into the slaughtering house, but it is ok because they told us we would be safe. Common sense has become very uncommon.

Lets look at the presidential election that is quickly approaching. Now I am not going to tell anyone who to vote for because I believe we all have a brain, the facts are out there, and we all (if you are reading this) easily have access to the facts. Do your homework. Don't vote for the person because you have heard their name the most. Don't vote for someone because someone told you to. Look up ALL the candidates qualifications (yes there are more than 2 candidates) make a decision for yourself. Which candidate is going to lead our country into prosperity? Who is going to make choices that are best for the long run. Who is being up-front with everyone. Who is someone you would trust in a crisis. Our world is very different than it was even when I was a child. Imagine what those who are in there 70's or more have gone through and how the world has changed. Our country has had enough of lets deal with this for now and we will really fix it later. Lets look for long term solutions not quick fixes. Lets stop jumping on the band wagon because it is the popular thing to do. Look at lemmings. Should we all blindly follow each other around until we all fall off a cliff, or should we all grow some "brass ones" and make a decision for ourselves and our country for the better.

BTW voting is anonymous so if you don't want anyone to know who you voted for you don't have to tell them.

My revelation

So I had a revelation last night. That we are all tempted all the time. But just when we feel like things are going good, and life is great BAMM! We end up flat on our face. We are to constantly be looking out for the enemy and watching our every step.
I was telling my oldest the other day when she was doing something to be careful. Just when you feel like you got the hang of it, pride will come in. That is when you have watch out because you will make your mistake then and thats when you get hurt. So I'm sure you know what happened next. I got the yha mama I will be careful and 5 min later she got hurt.
It is so easy to take our life and think that WE have it under control and the whole time God is up there waiting for us to realize he has been waiting for us. When we keep our eyes on him and do not get ourselves entangled in the world, life is much better. But for some reason I am to thick headed to realize that all the time.

jumping on the bandwagon!

OK there is so much blogging going on I thought I would join in. Not that I have any time for it but hey thats ok. I can put it in my "I'll get to it later" pile. That pile is now the contents of a tote bag. Fairly soon it will need its own box. Plus I have a whole shelving unit with things I "need" to sew. In fact some of the things I have "needed" to sew have been there for so long that my children outgrew them, and I gave them away.