"Christmas can be tough on the family bank balance, but even
when budgets are squeezed parents still want to provide all they can for their
children,” says Julian Foster, managing director of Computershare Voucher
Services (CVS), the largest dedicated childcare voucher provider.
"To help parents, we have put together these simple
ideas of fun ways for families to come together and really ‘make’ this
Christmas the best yet.”
CVS’ tips for ‘making’ this Christmas the best ever
Spending less can often mean giving more, especially when it
comes to presents for relatives such as grandparents. Here are some ideas for
‘making’ Christmas:
·Get handy - Handmade Christmas cards
are fun and easy to make, highly personal and will always be well received. One
idea to try with the children is to create a design using ...
When I became a mother myself, what surprised me the most was the depth of my emotions that suddenly appeared around my own upbringing. Not many women talk about it, so I thought it may be 'taboo' - those of you who know me, know I will talk about any topic that's seemingly taboo, if it helps a fellow mum!
Our anxieties about the way we mother are usually shaped around the areas where we experienced difficulties with our own mother. And without awareness of these difficult areas we tend to repeat the same patterns. This is because learned behaviour surfaces under stress - and we all know that motherhood can be deeply stressful at times! For example, say you have a child who refuses to eat hisvegetables. You fly into a rage and blow the situation completely out ofproportion. It's likely that the sameefusal provoked an extreme response in your ...
The role of ‘mum’ is certainly complex! It is a multi-layered function made up of a vast variety of unrelenting roles, duties and tasks. A good definition of the main role of a mum is ‘carer’. We care for the health, education, development, success, shortcomings, strengths and weaknesses of our children. We care about the cleanliness and tidiness of our homes. We care about the needs, happiness and worries of our partners. We care about the well-being of our extended family members.
So why do we find it sodifficult to care forourselves?
Women tend to have many reasons for disregarding self-care but here are a few:
- Lack of time.
- Lack of self-worth.
- Procrastination.
- The belief that the needs of others are greater than our own.
These reasons may feel valid to you but do you also feel worn-out, under-valued, frustrated and unfulfilled? If you are honest with yourself, you areprobably feeling a few of ...
Happiness experts are saying that buying luxury goods tends to create one-upmanship behaviour and that wealth may actually interfere with people's ability to enjoy positiveemotions that come from life's small pleasures, like eating a chocolate bar. On the flip side, investing in an event-relatedactivity like travel or cooking classes is less likely to incite competitivebehaviour with others andtherefore lead to more feelings of happiness.
Here are 9 activities we've uncovered:
1.Climb a mountain, go on a hike, take a walk.
2.Make new friends, build lastingrelationships.
3.Pamper yourself with innovative spa treatments.
4.Enjoy guilt-free fine dining in a paradise setting.
5.Get in the flow of your life: Do something new, challenging and fun.
6.Breathe in salt air, listen to wave sounds, feel the sand between your toes.
7.Experience girls' night out onsteroids: The Trip of a Lifetime.
8.Get inspired and follow in thefootsteps of successful celeb-preneurs. Learn how ...
Stress is our reaction to any stimulus (physical, mental, or emotional—internal or external), that tends to upset us. When the reactions are inappropriate, they can lead to health problems. The diseases most often connected to a stressful environment are heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer.
Additionally, doctors are seeing increasing incidents of stress as being connected to other conditions such as asthma, allergies, migraines, ulcers, bowel and skin problems. In fact,75-90% of all visits to the doctor are related to stress.
To deal with stress effectively, identify your sources of stress, either within yourself or your environment, and then plan strategies for coping.
1. Rise early - reserve an hour before the family wakes to get organized for the day.
2. Share your workload with family and co-workers.
3. Take breaks in the day - even just 10 minutes - to clear your head and catch your breath.
Clutter is caused by the need to justify wastefulness. It is a collection of possessions that no longer serve a purpose in our daily lives but seem to take up valuable space. More times than not we think only of the physical impact that clutter has on our space. But it is the emotional impact of the clutter that makes it almost unbearable to deal with.
Limit Surfing Time
Do you often find yourself searching for something on the web, only to find yourself still surfing hours later looking at a completely different topic? It’s easy to get drawn into the Internet, so limit your time. If you need to do Internet shopping, schedule this time in your diary and stick to your allocated time. This really is a time zapper so be weary of browsing the Internet too often!
No matter how hard mums try to do the right things for their families, guilt always creeps into the mindset and creates negative thoughts, insecurities and unhappiness. Guilt, for mums who are trying to juggle many responsibilities, such as work, home, school runs, support and time for other family members and friends, can be all consuming.
Instead of giving into these pangs of guilt, try to acknowledge and celebrate everything you do as a good mum. No matter what you are trying to achieve for you and your family, observe the many benefits it brings! Here are some quick tips to help you eliminate guilt from your life for good!
If you are a working mum who has to arrange childcare for your children, reassure yourself that they are being cared for appropriately in your absence. They will be having a great time taking part in ...
The ability to follow and understand your own natural rhythms and patterns over a day, a week - even a lifetime, will bring better balance into busy life. Make the most of your high and lows by getting to understand your circadian rhythms (Latin circa, around: diem day) which are monthly and seasonal too, rhythms of hormones,heartbeat, respiration and temperature, a powerful and inexorable timetable which dominates sleep, hunger, physical activity, mental alertness, mood and bodilyfunction, affecting our performance at many levels, not just physical but emotional and intellectual as well. Our natural body clocks are triggered from the hypothalamus in response to light, and are genetically determined. These timings vary from person to person and the chart below offers a rough guide. Body clocks can vary by up to 2 hours—which is why some of us are larks and others are owls.
The key to enjoying life confidently and passionately is to celebrate the woman you are! You are many things – a mum, a wife, a partner, a friend, a daughter, a work colleague, a PTA member – and you should be proud of all the things you achieve for yourself and your family on a daily basis.
Being a mum is extremely rewarding but it can be exhausting. When you are so busy attending the needs of others, you can often forget about your own needs and quickly become resentful and under valued. It is important, therefore, toensure you value yourself, your time and your qualities – doing this will ensure you make the most out of every experience in life.
Evaluate Your Self-Worth
You should ensure you value everything you do and everything about yourself, including anything you ultimately want to change aboutyourself. Embrace your ...
