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Five tricks to teaching your child courteous communication

By Faye Rogaski

Respect for yourself is the foundation of respect for others. Lead by example and show your child that YOU respect yourself and take good care of yourself each day. It’s not what you say, it’s what you do.

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9 Cash-Saving Tips That Pay Big Bucks

complaintsboard.com

The expression "a penny saved is a penny earned" doesn't cut it these days. But saving a few dollars here and there can add up...

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TheOnlineMom.com offers parents and consumers a guide to the top-rated, age-appropriate, kid-tested and parent-approved tech toys and gifts.

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Teach Your Kid Confidence - from Birth

By Cynthia Ramnarace

Even Babies Can Be Confident. What can you do when your child is an infant to help him develop the confidence to "try, try again"?
Create a predictable routine. When your baby knows that after having his bath he'll be fed and then go to bed, he doesn't have to worry about what's going to happen next. Instead, his mind is free to focus on mastering new skills, such as how to get his belly up off the floor so he can crawl.

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Cutting Grocery Costs without Cutting Nutrition

Simple, healthy, and affordable ways to weather the rising price of food

Karen Collins, R.D., American Institute of Cancer Research

Grocery prices are projected to increase again in 2008 – that’s following 2007’s highest annual increase in 17 years. But surviving these tough economic times doesn’t have to mean sacrificing good nutrition. Some simple strategies can help you cut food costs and eat more healthfully, too.

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Madlynn is Kid of the Month

Fight against credit card rate hikes

by Gerri Willis, CNN finance editor

As expected, credit card issuers are raising fees and rates just before legislative restrictions take place next February. But you don't have to be vulnerable. Here are some alternatives to bank credit cards.

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91 Ways to Save on Almost Anything

Here's how to stretch your dollars -- and pinch your pennies 'til they scream -- while you feel little or no pain.

by Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine

Want to save a buck? How about a few hundred or a couple thousand?

We took a look at eight spending categories in your budget and identified dozens of ways you can keep more money. Whether you need to plug leaks in your spending, learn where to find the best deals or even trick yourself into shaving expenses, we've got something for everyone.

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10 Tips for Improving Your Family's Eating Habits

With today’s busy lifestyles, families don’t always eat as healthfully as we would like. But by practicing healthy eating habits at home, you can make it easier for your family to eat right. Try these 10 tips designed to encourage healthy eating habits:

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Single Moms - find here resources on financial aid, scholarships, help with basic needs, food, prescription drugs, health care, housing, legal info, and much more...


More Single Moms Caving in to be the "Cool Mom"

Bestselling author offers first-hand advice for beating solo-parent guilt

by Angela Thomas
author of My Single Mom Life: True Stories & Practical Lessons for Your Journey
Sources by Amanda Bach

In Knoxville, Tennessee - A recent study by the University of Maryland says today's single mothers, who head of 14 million single-parent home in America, spend less time with their children than mothers did 40 years ago.

Bestselling author, nationally acclaimed speaker and single mother, Angela Thomas says a result, women raising familites as a single parent are often guilt-ridden. Ask any single mom and she'll say no matter how much she does for her kids, it is never enough.

Thomas, whose new book, My Single Mom Life: True Stories & Practical Lessons for Your Journey (Thomas Nelson Inc., May 2007), chronicles her life as a single mom, says these guilty moms often feel pressure to become "cool moms" rather than grounded, string parents.

While embracing the "cool moms" image, women are letting parenting roles take the backseat as they also juggle other roles from Tired Mom to Dating Mom, even Financial Mom. In her new book, Thomas shares her hard-earned wisdom on loneliness, dating, finance and parenting, encouraging every solo mom to become a better parents.

"solo-parnet guilt is the stuff we do so our kids won't have to go without just because they have a single mom," says Thomas, single mother of four. "We convince ourselves that our children should have the coolest skateboard shoes the Internet can provide, shipped overnight so their single-parented feet won't have to wait one more day. We're all done it, just before we catch ourselves and feel guilty for over indulging."

Thomas offers tips for moms to distinguish "right" guilt from "wrong" guilt from "wrong" guilt. The right kind of guilt, she says, inspires women to become consistent, secure moms. Ask yourself at the end of the day, "Given the circumstance and the resources and my energy, have I done all I can?" However, wrong guilt moves moms into "doing" rather than "being" a better mom, anteing up for bigger birthday parties and better presents fueled by the need to do more to compensate for what you will never be able to give.


My Single Mom Life addresses topics such as:


Finding time for you as a dual-parent


What to do when you're exhausted and overextended Learning to date again: Dating do's and don'ts for the single mom


Overcoming loneliness as a single mom


Surviving "Post-Traumatic Single Mom Syndrome"


Budget tips for the single mom


Book Summary of My Single Mom Life: True Stories & Practical Lessons for Your Journey


The day Angela Thomas sold the only thing she had, the diamond from her engagement ring, to take care of her kids was the day she began to believe they were going to make it. In that decision, the faith she had always talked about became the faith she was going to learn how to live. In the years since, God has given Angela a passionate desire . . . to live an amazing life, even while raising four kids as a single mom. In this book she shares her hard-earned wisdom on loneliness, dating, finances, and parenting, encouraging every solo mom. "As a gift to our children," she says, "we can become healthy moms who are strong and amazing women in spite of our circumstances."

Copyright © 2007 by Angela Thomas Published by Thomas Nelson Inc. May 2007; Book Description - $19.99 ISBN-13: 978-0785221289


Review


Here's a review from Midwest Book Review of My Single Mom Life:

It is an unfortunate fact that many children now grow-up in a one parent home due to divorce or unexpected death. The problem exists of the emotional growth of these children to become un-scared adults; not an easy task by far. In this work by author Angela Thomas we are given an inside view of a scorned woman, left with young children to raise and the challenges before her. How she handles them may well shape the future of her children; this fact is ever forefront to her.

In her book she deals with some hard situations with the many roles that she must now assume and the emotional trauma that she is also working through. It is hard enough to be thrust into a world of change without having the added responsibility of children. However, she is not a quitter, and after allowing herself some time to adjust she bravely pulls herself together and forges forward determined to have a brighter future than was her past. Ms. Thomas is frank and honest as she opens her heart to her readers concerning feelings of anger and resentment, guilt and unwanted pressures and being just plain tired of all the responsibilities that should never have been placed upon her in the first place.

She guides the reader through her walk as she learns to cope with these many responsibilities that are hers and hers alone, and she clearly emphasizes the importance of having God on your side to get you through each and every challenge faced. She shares many practical lessons, learned from experience on such things as dating, finances, just being a mom and some wonderful advice on loneliness. After reading this book you will certainly walk away with a greater assurance that you can achieve and rise above your circumstances and live a happy full life, for you and your children. A very helpful, encouraging read for any mom who now must walk with road of parenthood alone. Recommended.

 

Author:

Dina Koutas Poch holds a B.A. from Brown University and an M.F.A. from Columbia University. She is a writer and filmmaker living in New York City with her husband. Her in-laws live in Connecticut.

For more information, please visit iheartmyinlaws.com

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Top 8 Tips for Reducing Kids Screen Time This Summer

Reducing time spent in front of televisions and computers is one of the easiest ways to improve your family's health. Here are eight simple ways to limit screen time so you can help crank up your kids’ energy, re-charge their minds, and improve their health.

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What would you change?

Weekly Column, by Annette Bridges

Change -- some people dread it, and others can’t get enough. It may be much like the idiom, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” When it comes to what we would alter or why we would make a modification, the answers vary because we all have different things we value, want, need and consider important.

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Being a Role Model

by Laurie Cesario-Overton

If I had to choose one sentence that would best describe what I feel parents need to learn, it would be this: Be your child's BEST ROLE MODEL in all the ways that truly count. Be your child's HERO. Whatever you do, do it for all the right reasons.

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How to Find the Best Car Loans for Single Moms

Financial Advice for Single Moms

The best car loans for single mothers might be just around the corner at your local car lot.

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3 Money Rules for Stay-at-Home Moms

As we all know, life is unpredictable. We lose jobs, get divorced and even become widowed...
Here are three steps stay-at-home parents should take to better manage their own and the family’s finances.

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You May Have Too Much Debt But You Also Have Options

How Life Works

If you feel like you're in over your head with personal debt, you're not alone. Millions of Americans have become overextended, many as a result of easy credit and the recessions. Credit cards, medical bills, personal loans and raising interest rates do not make a good financial mix.

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Could fat babies mean fat toddlers?

A new study from Harvard Medical School found that babies who gained weight quickly had a sharply higher risk of obesity. The study followed close to 600 babies and found those in the top quarter of weight for their length at 6 months had a 40 percent higher risk of obesity by age 3 than smaller babies.

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Crystal Bowersox - A Single Mom And A Real American Idol

Read how the amazing Crystal Bowersox. the runner-up of American Idol Season 9, handles fame and life as a single mom, raising her 17 month old son.

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5 Ways for Single Moms to Save Money

Single moms are always looking for ways to save money, and for good reason... It’s important to find ways to cut corners on the little things that perhaps you don’t think about too often, because those are usually where your biggest money drains are.

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Suze Orman's Recession Rescue Plan - helps you survive in times of financial crisis

OPRAH.com

Do you know what your family would do if you lost your job - or worse, your home? Financial expert Suze Orman is ready to help you devise a recession rescue plan to survive - and possibly thrive - during this deepening financial crisis...

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Your Just-in-Case Emergency Plan

by RealSimple

Who do you call if you can't make it home in time to meet the kids' bus? Who do you trust to take in your mail when you're on vacation? Who do you trust with the extra set of keys to your house?

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How to save $10,000

By Liz Pulliam Weston

If you were hoping for a list of small tweaks you could make in your spending to save $10,000 a year, sorry. The reality is that $10,000 is a lot of money. And saving big money usually means making big changes in the areas where we spend the most, such as: Housing, Transportation, Food.

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The Super, Sexy, Single Mom on a Budget

by Renee Rayles

A quick reference guide designed for the busy, single mom who has

little time to read while running the mom taxi, cooking dinner, helping with homework, and trying to fit in a date night every now and then.

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Single Mothers &
Male Role-Models / Mentors

Single mothers carry an enormous load of responsibility, especially those having sole and/or primary custody of minor children. They nourish, they nurture, they teach, they discipline, they shelter, they protect, and they provide… all without the assistance of another equally-invested adult.

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Mom's Obesity Raises Newborn's Heart Risk

from the National Institute of Health

The more obese a woman is when she becomes pregnant, the greater the likelihood that her newborn baby will have a congenital heart defect, a new study suggests. The finding raises concerns because 1 in 5 women are obese at the start of pregnancy in the United States.

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The 10-Ingredient Shopping Trip

By Tara Parker-Pope and Mark Bittman

... In his latest “How to Cook Everything” segment on the Today Show, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman makes it surprisingly easy to cook a week’s worth of dinners with just a 10-ingredient shopping trip.

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Your 5-minute guide to protecting your identity

20 steps to protect yourself from identity theft, and seven ways to clean up things if you become a victim.

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TheOnlineMom.com offers parents and consumers a guide to the top-rated, age-appropriate, kid-tested and parent-approved tech toys and gifts.

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Single Moms in the News

6 Best Celebrity Single Moms
Read about Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Michelle Williams, Reese Witherspoon, Kimora Lee Simmons, Mary-Louise Parker... read more

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw

by Jeff Kinney

For those wondering why tween boys don’t read very much, the answer is that more books aren’t like this...

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