A Fine Parent

A Life Skills Blog Exclusively For Parents

4 Ideas for Saving Money on Family Essentials

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(This article is part of the Wisdom From the Trenches series. Get free article updates here.)

teaching_kids_about_money_8660182.jpgImagine how your life could change if you were to discover extra money in your family’s monthly budget. What would you do with it? Could you pay down debt?  Start, or add to, a savings fund for your children’s college educations? Get a pet?

Let’s discuss 4 smart and viable ways you can save substantially on everyday family essentials, freeing up money you could better allocate in other ways.

1. Stop Using Disposable Items

Have you ever stopped to calculate how much your family is spending on disposable items? If your family is like most, you’re spending a bundle on these conveniences.

If you have two children wearing diapers, you might be spending anywhere from $100 to $200 a month or perhaps even more just for their diapers and baby wipes. Cloth diapering can save you hundreds or possibly even thousands of dollars in the long term. Your total savings depends on how many children you have and how long they’re in diapers before successfully potty training.

Cleaning wipes, paper towels, paper napkins, tissues and other paper items can all drive your grocery costs up. Going paperless in the kitchen can create substantial savings.

Here are a few suggestions for a variety of disposable items you can easily replace:

[Read more…]

Empowering Your Kids to Develop Skills Future Employers Will Covet

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(This article is part of the Wisdom From the Trenches series. Get free article updates here.)

Preparing Kids for Future Career OpportunitiesA significant percentage of today’s workforce is now working at jobs that didn’t exist twenty years ago. Technological advances have provided the greatest drivers prompting the changes in the nature of work. Considering that technology is always hastening to advance, there’s a high probability that the nature of work will also continue to change. This means that many of our kids will need to figure out how to train for jobs that don’t even exist yet.

This isn’t even the greatest challenge facing kids today. An even greater challenge: Experts at some of the world’s most prominent organizations, including the World Economic Forum,  are predicting that automation technologies will most certainly reduce the numbers of employees required to do the world’s work. That means it is likely to be increasingly difficult for today’s kids to find viable work in the future.

We’ve already witnessed the rise of self-checkout service at retail stores and self-service food and beverage kiosks at casual dining establishments. By all appearances, we’re in the beginning stages of an automation revolution that will transform the entire way the world does business.

It’s unclear what the results of all this will be. Some experts predict that human workers will inevitably no longer be needed in the future. Many predict that the nature of work will simply change – and that in the future, humans will be able to focus on creative, compelling work, leaving the dangerous or tedious tasks for robots to handle. This will be the likeliest outcome in the near future as today’s kids transform into adults and enter the workforce.

So how do you empower your kids to gain the skills she’ll need to be successful at a job that doesn’t yet exist? This is one of the major challenges facing today’s parents.

This is a question that has been on my mind as I help my daughter prepare for her future. I’ve become uncomfortably aware that many of the historically “safe” career choices such as accountant, lawyer and paralegal are likely to be automated out of viability soon.

I find this to be a scary thought, and I won’t lie; I’m anxious for my daughter. It would be all too easy to fixate on my fear that she will choose the wrong career. Instead, I’ve decided to focus on the things I can actively do to help my girl develop the mindset and skills she needs for navigating an uncertain future. Here are some of the action items we came up with:

[Read more…]

Understanding and Strengthening the School Counselor-Parent Relationship

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(This article is part of the Wisdom From the Trenches series. Get free article updates here.)

Parent and school counselorWhen you think of a school, you likely consider many different types of relationships there. The students are a priority, from their academic performance to their social development. For kids to be at their best, there must be healthy, strong relationships between student-teacher and school counselor-parent, along with many others. Let’s focus on the school counselor-parent connection, focusing on providing the environment that the child deserves, now and in the future. For those who wonder how to become a school counselor and parents and others in the educational system, this discussion is an important one.

Why Including Parents is Important for Counselors to Do

When school counselors include the parents in their bond with a student, they have the potential to make the relationship an amazing one. Supporting the entire family and providing clear communication to all can benefit the child immensely moving forward. For that reason, there are discussions about family involvement in the classroom when learning how to become a school counselor

[Read more…]

Four Parenting Myths That Need To Be Busted

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(This article is part of the Wisdom From the Trenches series. Get free article updates here.)

Parenting Myths - MainThere are just too many myths about parenting that need to be dispelled. They are not helpful and only deplete parents’ confidence in how they raise their child. Once they get called out and we address them, you will feel so much more confident and lighter. So let me share with you some truths to help relieve some of your potential angst.

Good parents put their children’s needs first

The belief that children should come first is a complete fallacy. I know, you are thinking I am out of my mind. “How can I say such a thing!?” But the reality is that if you do not put your needs first you will be completely depleted and will not have the energy to be calm, thoughtful and patient when your child misbehaves and needs you the most.

TRUTH

When you understand how important it is to get your needs met and are clear on how to schedule your needs into your daily life, you will be fueled to be the best parent, partner, employee, etc.

Take a look at your calendar this week and add in one thing that is just for you. (Yes, right now please)! It can be a 10-minute walk, ordering a special coffee, working out, showering, calling a friend or even something luxurious like a night away. After scheduling that one self-care item, notice how you feel for the rest of the day and how you respond to your child. Scheduling small things often into your daily, weekly and monthly calendar WILL change the way you feel and how you respond to your child.

[Read more…]

A Personal Story:
Life, Goals and Gobi Manchurian

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(This article is part of the Wisdom From the Trenches series. Get free article updates here.)

Personal Story - Life, Goals and Gobi Manchurian - Main ImageDo you believe in the power of stories?

I do.

And today, on the almost-3rd anniversary of this blog (it’s on Oct 7th, woot!), I want to share with you a story that has driven some of the biggest decisions of my life in the recent years and helped me turn my life around.

This is a story from my college days.

As many of you know, I was born and raised in India. The culture and lifestyle there, particularly 20+ years back was very different than it is here now.

Back in India, parents fund children’s college years. There are no jobs for students to do to earn an income. You learn to make do with whatever allowance your parents give you.

I am a middle child from a middle-class family. My years in college overlapped those of my sisters… first my older sister and then my younger sister. Consequently, the allowances we received were pretty meager.

I didn’t think too much about it at the time though. It was the norm. Most students fell into one of two distinct classes — the “rich” or the “others”.

I firmly belonged among the “others” and for the most part, I was perfectly fine with it.

During the first years of my college, I received an allowance of Rs. 800 (USD 12) per month, and a little more in the later years. Out of this Rs. 600 – Rs. 650 would go towards my board (a small room shared with two others), food and electric bills. That left me with roughly Rs. 150 – Rs. 200 (about USD 2.25 – USD 3) to for all other expenses — from books to tampons.

The cost of living in India 20 years back was quite low. But still, Rs. 200 didn’t go very far. Ever the resourceful, we — the “others” — made up with creativity what we lacked in the financial department. [Read more…]