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All About Family

All About Family

  Gordon B. Hinckley presented The Family: A Proclamation to the World over twenty years ago. While members of the Church thought it was an inspired document then it has only become more needed to guide to the members of The Church of Jesus Christ 

13 Organizing Ideas

13 Organizing Ideas

Are you in the process of planning your child’s nursery? Maybe you are just trying to figure out the final details? Or maybe you don’t know what to do with the awkward closet or some bookcases you love? Either way, here are some helpful organizing 

Kids and Money

Kids and Money

kids and finance

Becoming an adult (at least in age) will quickly teach you one thing, if nothing else: living can be expensive. What seemed like a huge investment of cash as a kid is suddenly just a fraction of your rent and other bills. It’s a difficult transition time if you’re not prepared for it; the question is, how can families help their kids prepare for their financial future?

Look for advice on parenting online, and you’ll quickly find any number of sources who will tell you all sorts of contradictory things. This is especially true when it comes to kids and teaching them how to handle money: should they be given an allowance? Should they have to earn it? How can you help kids learn whether they can afford expenses, and how to budget and save up when they can’t? I was curious what other people thought, and only a few minutes of searching showed me that people think pretty much everything imaginable about this topic. There was, however, one thing that was fairly consistent: parents need to learn to be open with their children about family finances.

This might be one of the most important things that we can do to help children learn from our examples. If you don’t have money in your budget for fast food that day, it helps to be upfront about it and tell the kids. If they want a toy or game that you can’t pay for right then (or don’t want to, of course), help them learn about saving money for future purchases.

Children probably don’t assume that you have unlimited sources of money, but if you act like you do they won’t learn as quickly how to deal with their own finances. Seeing their parents’ care with financial things, kids will pay more attention to how money is spent: what mom and dad buy, what they don’t, and when they do (This has the additional bonus of being an incentive for parents to stick to a reasonable budget!). It’s much better to be able to learn from others’ actions than to have to struggle through things for ourselves. Kids will still need to develop their own habits, of course, and like I mentioned there are plenty of online sources that have innumerable suggestions about that, but kids will have a good place to start from the things they discuss and observe with their parents. Like so many other things, learning to budget and save starts in the home.

—Sam Watson, Editor, Stance

Parenting Advice

Parenting Advice

As a parent to be, I tend to think about parenting advice and mentally collect my favorites for my future parenting needs. One of my recent favorites is a picture my husband told me about.                   This 

DIY Christmas

DIY Christmas

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! Now that the Thanksgiving feast is over and the snow has started to come, it’s time to bring out the Christmas décor! There are lights to hang, the tree to decorate, and goodies to bake. But this 

Food Poisoning

Food Poisoning

first aid_food poisoning

What do street tacos, Chinese take-out, and contaminated food have in common? All three are capable of causing food poisoning. Symptoms of food poisoning include nausea, cramping, diarrhea, and vomiting.

If you suspect that the food poisoning is a result of seafood or mushrooms, call 911 immediately. If you aren’t sure what the cause of the food poisoning is, adhere to the following rules:

  1. Control the nausea. Avoid solid foods until vomiting has ceased and then eat bland foods. Stick to the BRAT (bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast) diet. Don’t take anti-diarrheal medication because it might cause more stomach irritation than it fixes.
  2. Stay hydrated. Avoiding dehydration is vital to recovering quickly. Clear liquids should be sipped regularly.
  3. Call a doctor if the symptoms last for longer than three days, a fever sets on, diarrhea becomes worse, or dehydration does not resolve.

—Frances Avery, Editor, Stance

Perfection and Purpose

Perfection and Purpose

  As students, it is easy to feel inadequate in our studies, social circles, and everyday endeavors here at BYU. No matter how hard we try, sometimes our imperfections are all too clear before us. A few weeks ago, my friend told me about an experience 

Winter Weddingland

Winter Weddingland

IT’S WINTER!!! Isn’t it wonderful?! Here are five reasons why a winter wedding is a wonderful idea:   Rustic Pinecone Boutonnieres      Stand Out Winter weddings are unique. Flowers and colorful leaves tend to steal the spotlight, but what could be more magical than 

Entertaining Kids on a Budget

Entertaining Kids on a Budget

financial blog 4 picture

There’s a sad fact of life that everyone has to learn eventually: doing awesome things can cost a lot of money. The good news is that kids usually don’t care how much it costs to do something fun. For example, most children can be just as happy visiting a free playground as they would be doing something much more expensive and involved, especially when they’re young. The other benefit to simple entertainment options is that they involve less standing in line, less being “on your best behavior” for kids who have a hard time staying still, and less stress for the rest of the family overall. The important thing is to spend time on the things that kids enjoy, not how hard it was for us to plan and carry out the activity.

With that in mind, here are some ideas for cheap or free activities to do with young children that will be more fun and less money for everyone:

  • Rent or borrow a new movie: Most families end up having a few well-worn movies that the kids love to watch, but it’s always nice for everyone to have a fresh story to enjoy. Instead of paying to go to the theater and getting pressured into buying that $4 tub of popcorn, try renting or streaming a kid’s video at home and setting up your own “home theater” (trust me, the popcorn from the grocery store can be just as good). Almost everything about this is more convenient than actually going to a movie theater.
  • Family picnic: Next time you think how nice it’d be to go to McDonalds and get the kids some food and run-around-time, I’d suggest first that you stop and think seriously about all of the better places you could get food. Second, try using what you have at home and setting up a fun outdoor picnic lunch for the kids, either in your backyard or somewhere close by like a neighborhood park. It doesn’t even have to be outdoors! Kids love novelty.
    • If picnics aren’t your thing, or if you have slightly older kids, try baking or barbecuing together instead of visiting a restaurant.
  • Set up a treasure hunt! It can be a simple map, a series of clues, or anything else that will lead them around the house and/or the yard to find some kind of “treasure.” It can be almost anything; in my family, my younger siblings loved doing this even when the treasure ended up being just a toy that they already owned. It’s the experience that’s the fun part!

Not only are these ideas less stressful for the parents, but they can also be helpful for children. There are some fun things that you can’t do at home and have to pay for, and I’m sure that everyone will want to do those every now and then, but showing children that it’s important to think about the cost of activities first will help them have better habits in the future with their own personal finances.

 

—Sam Watson, Editor, Stance

Sleep and Pregnancy Pillows

Sleep and Pregnancy Pillows

Pregnant women struggle to get enough sleep, especially when they are in the third trimester. Most articles say sleep is illusive because pregnant women’s bellies are so big that a comfortable sleeping position is difficult to find. I didn’t think this applied to me because