Mama's tips for travelling sucess

We just completed what I refer to as the EPIC EXTRAVAGANZA. What else could you call a road trip where you drive 4 province and 13 sates in just 17 days? I call it epic especially when you do it with three young children. It is amazing how many people look at me like I am or at was completely nuts. I may possibly be but that is another topic completely. You know what we survived and with our family intact. There are no hurt feeling and no damaging arguments. It was a really good time. So after people hear about this usually they want to know my secret. How much did you drug them? Nope. Did they watch movies and play video games the whole way? They had one maybe two movies a day and 20 minutes each on the leapster. Next the baffled look came.Always with the baffled look. So here is Mama's tips for travelling success

Frequent quick stops. Do they need to pee? Find a rest stop or at least a good pull out and everyone get out. Run play tag, get the blood flowing do a few jumping jacks have a race. Exercise increases endorphins.  Endorphin help make you happy. Fresh air can do wonders as well.

Something new. We got the kids new colouring books a lapboard and new markers. We went for the Colour Wonder stuff from Crayola. This was amazing It kept the boys busy. I never buy this for them regularly, they are fine using regular felts at home. But I had no desire to have a colouring war in the van.

Keep it fun. If it isn't interesting kids are going to get bored and make things a bit more unenjoyable. The mood tend to set the attitude. So if the mood goes down try and increase it, put on some good music sing be silly. It is really okay to be silly as an adult, we don't do it enough.

Pack good snacks. Sure treats are great to get them to shhh! for a bit but then they want more and the sugary treats aren't good for you or your children. Pack stuff that keep hunger at bay, and is easy to eat. Fruit cups aren't really a good idea but dehydrated fruit is excellent. Now I know regular diet goes out the window but there are good quick options.

Talk it up. The kids knew that we were going on this road trip. They were told it was going to take long drives, but they also knew about the fun things we were going to do. Every stop had something interesting for the children, even if it was just a campground with a pool and a playground. They knew there was something exciting at the end of the road.

Their opinion counts. Ask your kids if they are enjoying the trip. If they aren't ask them why not? Ask them if there is something that can be done to help them enjoy the trip more? Now you don't have to change your entire trip around your children but they need to know that you care about their opinion. Understand why they aren't having fun. On the same token if they are having fun engage them in conversation about what they like. That way if things turn and they said they didn't enjoy anything you have a conversation to go back to.


So there it is pretty simple.If all else fails the DVD player is still there but I think everyone enjoys the trip more if you engage with one another.

Some Days I Severely Dislike Facebook

I have a major love/hate relationship with facebook. I love it for keeping connected and reconnecting with people. I can share photos with friends and family and chat with people without running up my phone bill. Facebook has allowed me to connect with people and stay in contact with others who I may have not seen again. Facebook is wonderful for these things and it has many good aspects of it, though there are some downfalls.

On Facebook is so easy to misunderstand people. In person it is much easier to understand tone and intent when you can actually hear a persons voice and often you will choose your word better. A lot of people use Facebook to hide behind they are all abrasive and forward, and say things they never would in person. Sometimes this is a good thing most times it is a bad thing. If you wouldn't normally say something to someone then just don't say it. Remember the good old advice from Thumper's dad. " If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." I know sometimes that advice is super hard to follow. Sometimes you don't even say something intending to be mean and others interpret it as mean. Facebook can be a wonderful place for DRAMA, and I hate to say it but it is worse among us females. We have a whole new method of being catty and mean with Facebook. We message each other and talk about others. Sometimes it is speculation that they are talking about you other times you just know they are talking about you. We play little games and tags ourselves out with our friends, sometimes knowing that the person we left out is going to see and feel jealous. Facebook has given people a super easy way to bully, heck you don't even have to get dressed to make someone's life miserable.

Bullying aside, the drama that one can create on Facebook is just silly. I had seen a really funny meme the other day but I can't find it now. Which said " Quitting Facebook is just like running away from home, you know you'll be back!" It is so true, on a regualr basis I see people. They get all fired up and mad about something and want attention so they post saying that they are leaving Facebook. Their friends then tell them that Facebook wouldn't be the same, they are so sad to see them go and yada yada yada. If they leave they never leave for long, at least in my experience. It's drama plain and simple. Someone want to feel like they matter and for some if no one posts after they have had their status up, they simply delete it and post something else whiny. Sometimes it's not outwardly whiny though some times it is totally passive aggressive. Just pointed enough that the knowing party in which it is intended for will know what you are talking about, but no one else will.  Or even better people can ask you what is up and you can hash out your poor side of the story, playing even more of the victim.

Now don't get me wrong I'm all for passive aggressive behavior at time but when it is all the time it is annoying. Sometimes you need to be a bit subtle and underhanded with some people in order to get the message across, or to just make someone feel like crap. There are people who sometimes need to be taken down a peg or five.

I recently got to be in the middle one one of these Facebook girl fights and not just a bystander like normal. It really was silly I said something, and people didn't like the way I said it even though they agreed with me.  o_O I know sometimes people just want to pick fights. The girl I pretty much told to "own her issues and if it was important she would make it work" freaked out. Swore at me and just lost it. There life went a little high school from there with other girls cutting me down ( even thought they "agreed" with me ) Some standing up for me. the banter went back and forth for an hour or so and then it fizzled out. Only to be brought to life again on a totally unrelated topic. Well poop hit the fan and things were said, feeling were hurt, people got mad. One person left the group in the heat of the moment and all seemed to calm. The next day everything was revived by a certain offended person saying that maybe things weren't right for them and blah blah blah. They said they would leave in 48 hours and that you could say what you wanted to to them. o_O Once again attention seeking.. If you are leaving say goodbye and leave. don't stay around asking for people to be sad you are going say your piece and leave, that is if you are really done and not just looking for attention. Ugh I'm getting too old for this.

So in final bit. Please stop the Facebook drama. Talk to real people. Go outside and if someone says something that upsets you go to that person don't make a big deal over it. Have some tact and decency!