motherhood

Real Mom Roll Call
LifestyleParenthood

Real Mom Roll Call

by Jill
written by Jill

“My name is Jill.
I have 4 kids.
And 5 places to be at the same time…… OMG one just pooped up his back, why does that always happen in the exersaucer?
We’re always late.”

Real mom roll call!

I felt compelled to make my own real mom roll call after watching these from Good Food Made Simple’s new campaign, which nails what my motherhood looks like right now.

I think this fist full of mints one is my favorite.

But the 5 am wake-up call is also my current reality.

Good Food Made Simple is paying for this post so I can tell you all about 1. their delicious frozen food and 2. their Real Mom Roll Call fan promotion where they are giving out BOGO coupons and giving you a chance to win $1,000! More details below. 

Speaking of real life, here is an actual scene from my Sunday-

First of all, the kids were mad we didn’t make a “fancy” breakfast this weekend. Scott usually makes pancakes and eggs and bacon Sunday morning, but this weekend has been bananas- and not banana pancakes, unfortunately.

But lo! We have frozen blueberry pancakes from Good Food Made Simple, so we popped those in the toaster and had “fancy” breakfast in minutes.

Please note how I got the white plate out because I was like, “Oh, I need to take a picture of this!” But then I checked myself and was like, “Jill, this post is about Good Food Made Simple saving your real-mom butt, and let’s be totally honest. You’re serving these on paper plates.” 

Then it was time to run off to a birthday party a few hours later. I hadn’t eaten yet. There weren’t enough waffles go around this morning, plus breakfast isn’t really my thing, so I found myself at 1:30 fighting off the hunger shakes and needing to leave in 15 minutes. We all know you don’t want to show up at a child’s birthday with the hunger shakes.

Enter a little hatch chile mac, which is worlds better than what I usually end up shoving down my throat when we’re in a hurry- dry cereal, food left on plates from the previous meal, fists full of mints.

And you know I ate that right out of the microwavable paper bowl. I am not here to stage Instagram-worthy lifestyle shots of my perfectly plated meal. I was too busy yelling at Kendall to brush his teeth before we had to go, and then trying to remember if I had brushed mine yet.

Good Food Made Simple sent me a box full of their frozen burritos, entrees, and breakfast foods at the beginning of the week, and it has been a joy to open my freezer and quickly heat up a wholesome meal or snack with good, simple, clean ingredients. What I pull out of the microwave is not the greasy, salty sludge of some frozen meals, and not the flavorless, dry slop of others. It is, simply, good food.

Good Food Made Simple never uses artificial preservatives, flavors or colors and their meats are nitrate-free and antibiotic-free.

I know I’m not alone in this busy-parent struggle. I know I’m not the only one picking sandwich crusts off of paper plates, washing it down with coffee I’ve reheated 3 times, and calling that lunch.

So here’s the fun part- pick a Real Mom Roll Call video that resonates with you the most, or one you think your friend will find hilarious, and share it with them via email from this site. When you do that, everyone you email to (and you can send as many as you want, even to yourself) will get a BOGO coupon for a Good Food Made Simple meal. Then you will be entered to win a $1,000 American Express gift card.

Wondering where to use that coupon to get your meals? You can check out their store locator here. Our Target and Kroger carries them.

Here are the other 2 Real Mom Roll Calls. High fives to anyone who’s ever had the balls to do the gas station blueberry muffin trick in real life.

Don’t forget to GO HERE to choose your favorite Real Mom Roll Call video and email to a friend… all your friends.. and yourself. You want that BOGO coupon. Trust.

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Playgroup Week 8: Parenting Big Families
Playgroup

Playgroup Week 8: Parenting Big Families

by Désirée
written by Désirée

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My guest for this week’s episode of the Baby Rabies Playgroup is Julia Forbes. She’s a former news anchor, most recently in Nashville, she blogs for Otteroo, and between the two of us, we have EIGHT children.

Out topic? Today we’re going to talk about what it’s like to be parents in a big families.

Let the games begin!

As promised… we have a brand new giveaway for you guys!

Giveaway

This week, we’re sharing FOUR prize packs from the awesome people over at Otteroo. Four winners (open to US and Canada) will get an Otteroo Swim Floatie and an Easy Peasy Cradling Towel.

Otteroo Giveaway

Remember Lowell hanging out in his Otteroo?

You can also check out the blog post I wrote about LOVING our Otteroo.

Otteroo

CUTENESS.

I’ll be giving it a try with Wallace later this week… stay tuned 😉

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Playgroup Week 6: How To Encourage Family Bonds
Playgroup

Playgroup Week 6: How To Encourage Family Bonds

by Désirée
written by Désirée

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This week’s episode of the Baby Rabies Playgroup is all about encouraging family bonds. My guest, Kristina Grum from Thriving Parents, shares her advice on how to connect individually with your children, as well as how to help siblings form bonds.

If you have a new baby, or you’re looking for tips on how to handle sibling rivalry, you’re going to love what Kristina has to say. She’s a wealth of parenting knowledge!

Here are some of the blog posts we talked about in the video:

And some posts I’ve written about the topic:

Thanks for watching!

PS. If you’re not already getting my brand new newsletter each week, click here to sign up.

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Israel Trip, Part 2- An Afternoon With an Israeli Mother In Pictures
BloggingParenthoodPhotographyTravel

Israel Trip, Part 2- An Afternoon With an Israeli Mother In Pictures

by Jill
written by Jill

When the Vibe Israel team asked me what I most wanted to do in Israel, I thought for a few hours, then I knew exactly what.

I wanted to meet a local mom, and I wanted to photograph a small part of a day in her regular life.

Okay, sure, Jerusalem would be cool, the Dead Sea would be rad. But when do I have the opportunity to connect with a mother a half a world away, and document her in a way that is so meaningful to me, and hopefully to her?

Read Part 1 here

The journalist in me wanted to report on how similar and different motherhood is between her and me. The photographer in me craved new spaces and fresh faces. The blogger in me wanted all of YOU to connect with this woman and family the way I was hoping I would (and did).

Esin lives in Tel Aviv, in a small apartment, with her husband and 2 young children- a boy named Yuval, and a girl named Bar. They are currently building their dream home, which Esin is itching to move into for many reasons- one being that she’s an interior designer, and really looking forward to putting personal touches on her own space.

Though her current (adorable) apartment is certainly not lacking…
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We began our afternoon together with some divine Israeli takeout- the really yummy, healthy kind, I’m told. Hummus, falafel, dried fruit and nuts, and some cookies that Esin made out of probably 20 lbs of butter. The unhealthy part of the meal, but I wasn’t complaining.

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Or, a friend of Esin’s and straight up hilarious person, joined us, too. Her family lives too far from the city for me to meet her children that day, but I’m really happy she at least got to hang out with us and chime in.

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I did get to meet Or’s girlfriend for a short time who was pregnant and just had her baby yesterday! (Congrats Or and Ellie!)

We talked for over an hour, comparing cultures and questioning each other like we had just met at summer camp and wondered what the other’s town was like. We came to the conclusion that we are really quite similar in so many ways, from work-life balance struggles to how we are combining the internet, motherhood, and what we love to make a living.

Or does marketing for baby brands and products, and she blogs for a large Israeli parenting site. As for Esin? Here’s a little more about what she does, in her own words:

I am an interior designer, working from home. Mostly I design spaces and apartments and houses for families with kids, while paying attention to functionality and design. On my blog, I write about styling and about the process and the choices that I take with the family. It’s important for me that through my writing my followers will get to know me and my style. 

I could write about these women and our conversations all day, but I guess I should get to the pictures. There are a lot of them. Get your scrolling finger ready!

After our lunch wrapped up, it was time for Esin and I to head out and pick up her children from school.

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I laughed because Esin lamented that they must pass by this snack shop every day on their way from Yuval’s school, and every. day. he begs for a treat. I KNOW YOUR STRUGGLE, ESIN.

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Between pickups and the apartment, there were a few carseat battles and Esin apologized more than once for her “messy” car. It was like I was home with my people.

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The children were delighted to arrive back. I think this could have been because there was a plate of buttery cookies on the coffee table. Not sure.

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Universally, toddlers just want to get naked.IMG_4374IMG_4366

While Yuval and Or took up a lively game of ping pong..

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I poked around and took more pictures. I was quite nosey, and in love with Esin’s decorating.

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You can not escape minions.

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She had strict instructions from me to not clean. I wanted to capture real life. Isn’t real life the most beautiful?

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I asked Esin to answer a few questions about motherhood for me.

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Do you think it’s easy or hard to be a parent in Israel? Why?

For me, its easy to be a parent in Israel!! First, we live in a warm country, our winter is short so we have a little bit rain and then a long summer with a lot of outdoor fun days with the kids. Tel Aviv is the biggest city in Israel, but compared to big cities around the globe, its very small, so everything is close and safe (more quality time with my kids), for example, my parents live 5 minutes walk from us, my husband’s work is 15 minutes drive from our home, and the beach is 5 minutes drive (my kids are crazy about the beach and the sand). 

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What’s your biggest fear as a mother? 

 My biggest fear as a mother is that my children won’t feel safe to tell me everything (good or bad). I would like to know all about my children and what they are going through so I can help them when they feel needed and be happy for them when they are happy.

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What are you most proud of as a mother? 

Mmmmm… nice question!  I think that I’m most proud of the values that I’m giving them. I would like my children to be caring and polite. 

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What was my takeaway from this? As cliche as it sounds, we have so much in common. The differences were there, of course, but through all the cultural barriers and the horrific and hilarious Google translations for words that were lost, we were mothers in a fast-paced world. We have technology at our finger tips, but we struggle to find the time to balance everything. We want the best for our kids, and we wonder sometimes what that is. We wrestle toddlers into car seats, and we have sippy cups on our floor boards.

We are driven by love… and a healthy dose of humor.

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I hope you all loved getting to know Esin, her family, and Or today! Tomorrow, part 3 of my Israel posts will be about overcoming the fear I had before I went- on more levels than just the “OMG, a 13 hour flight?!” fear. Hint: postpartum anxiety lost this battle.

 

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Parenthood

10 Things Parents Should Do

by Jill
written by Jill

 

1. Educate yourself– read books, read *reputable* websites, get various opinions, talk to your doctors

2. Don’t always trust your doctor– blindly, that is- sort of goes back to the whole educating yourself thing- YOU are you child’s best advocate

3. Trust your gut– even though sometimes it will tell you the exact opposite of every other member of your family- these are YOUR choices to make

4. Own your choices– no matter what it is you decide to do, if you’ve educated yourself and analyzed your situation enough to trust your gut to make a decision, what more can you do? Own it. It’s the BEST YOU CAN DO.

5. Don’t let other’s choices make you feel any less or more of a mother– THIS. IS. HARD. To be honest, I struggle with this one every day- on both sides.  Just remember you are doing the BEST YOU CAN DO and so are they… hopefully… but that’s really none of your business… unless they leave the kid in the car with a 10 lb bag of crack and a rabid dog… then intervene because that is some shitty parenting and I encourage you to judge, judge, judge.

6. Cut yourself some slack– I’m serious. This is another one I struggle with a lot. Caring for another, smaller human doesn’t make us superhuman. We are allowed to feel tired, sick, annoyed, stressed. We are allowed to let all the balls drop, to just sit on the couch while the house is falling apart around us, children jumping off of couches with sharp-ish objects in their hands, dirty dishes piled to the sky in the kitchen, small animal sized dust balls blowing across the floor, and not GIVE A DAMN.

I challenge any one of you with a kid over the age of 18 months to tell me this has not been a scene from your life at some point or another. It happens to ALL OF US at some point. Yes, even that perky, put together, pearl-wearing mom who’s always perfectly pressed for the play date, it happens to her, too.

7. Allow yourself to change– So you did your research and you owned your choices and now you’re not so sure about them? You know what? No big deal. So staying at home didn’t work out and you want to go back to work? Fine! So you thought you’d never, ever, ever let your kids watch TV, but now it’s the only way to get 15 minutes of peace? That’s okay! Parenthood is all about being flexible and eating all those words that started with “I will never…”

8. Stick to your guns– Sometimes you think you need to cave on something you felt so passionately about, but doing so would compromise your values and the example you want to set for your children. Another confusing one, I know, because while parenthood is all about being flexible, it’s also about knowing which battles are worth the big fight and then fighting them.

9. Don’t box yourself in– You don’t have to be any “type” of parent. You don’t have to abide by every rule in any book. You should always make the choices that work for you and your family, even if, in this world that loves to put groups of people in uniform boxes, those choices seem to contradict each other.

I’ve always considered myself a bit of a hybrid parent, and for a long while it kind of bothered me. Was I an Attachment Parent? Was I a Modern Parent? Was I a Traditional Parent? Why did I have to be any one of them? I was just… me… just doing what felt right, and while I can associate with a lot of different “types” of parents, I don’t feel the need to wholly belong to just one.

10. Love your children– If every choice you make is with the love you have for your children in mind, how can you go wrong? Just love them in the best way you know how, and try to get better at it every day. Know that there will be some days that are harder than others and be OKAY  with that.

None of those had anything to do with the manner in which you transport your baby around or what you use to collect their poop. Make the educated choices that feel right to you, own them, allow yourself to change your mind and just roll with it. I think that’s what it all boils down to.

I wrote this list within a post nearly 2 years ago, in response to an article that was circulating at the time. I found it in my archives last night and thought this list deserved a re-post. If anything, it was a good reminder for myself.

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