Teenage Girls

by | Jan 15, 2019 | Parenting, Teenagers, Truth-Telling

Teenage girls just show up overnight in secret while you were sleeping.

I was once a teenager too and hopefully when your teenage time passes our relationship will still be intact.

Chase Young is the founder of The Mommy Rebellion a place for judgment-free parenting.  She’s created a place to get tips, tools and support for what it is truly like to be a mother, stories from the trenches that show you you’re not alone.  Tips that real mothers use.  Tools to give to yourself and to your parenting friends to feel more focused, have more patience and energy, and feel less tired and snappy .  
You can follow Chase here on this blog, sign up for her newsletter here and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Intentional New Year’s

by | Jan 8, 2019 | Affirmations, Grounding, Journal Writing, Parenting, Self-Care, Tips and Techniques

Did you get any dreaming time during the holidays?

Did you get any time to process 2018 and think about what you might want to invite into 2019?

So we have made it to the first full week of the New Year. The kids are back in school, we are back to work and our life is suppose to just fall back into normal right?

Well it doesn’t usually feel that way for me. Besides the fact that we homeschool, and my hubby is back at work, the transition from the Winter Holidays into the let’s face it, the often disgusting next few months is a hard one.

We live in Maine, so there is snow coming, and this year we have had snow and cold weather since before Thanksgiving, so I don’t know about you but I am feel the end of February, beginning of March tiredness of winter, and we are still just getting ready for a lot more.

The house feels like it needs another deep cleaning even though I did one before the holidays, now that we have all spent over a week here, it feels like a lot of pick up needs to happen again, AND there are new things to put away and organize from gift giving.

So how do we do all this and not get depressed or feel put upon? How do we even begin to think about New Year’s Resolutions (and in my opinion the top of our lists as mothers should simply be GETTING MORE SLEEP – and to hell with anything else)? I mean are you even on board with packing lunches and resuming all the kid activities?

Did you get any dreaming time during the holidays?

Did you get any time to process 2018 and think about what you might want to invite into 2019?

Nope?

I mean we are mothers right, and unless you designed some time (and maybe even if you did) it didn’t happen and now here it is the 8th of January and what the hell?

So here is my invitation to you. Have your favorite drink. Coffee, tea, water, wine, beer I don’t care, but grab something that tastes good to drink and if you need to go lock yourself in the bathroom to do this I am certainly not one to judge!

But take a few moments to just breathe. Don’t do anything. Don’t rush or think about the next thing. And if you can’t keep your mind from racing then grab pen and paper or the note feature on your phone and just jot down everything going on in your brain until you can let it all go.

Now listen. Can you hear anything? If you are lucky enough to have silence, just soak it in. And if you can hear the kids watching TV in the next room that’s fine too.

Now if there is something you want to bring into 2019 it might make itself known now. And if it doesn’t then let’s just repeat this again tomorrow.

A few minutes alone. It can be in the bathroom or while taking a shower, or hiding in the car or pretending to still be asleep. But try and grab a few minutes every day and see what happens.

I think that’s a big enough resolution for us. What about you?

Chase Young is the founder of The Mommy Rebellion a place for judgment-free parenting.  She’s created a place to get tips, tools and support for what it is truly like to be a mother, stories from the trenches that show you you’re not alone.  Tips that real mothers use.  Tools to give to yourself and to your parenting friends to feel more focused, have more patience and energy, and feel less tired and snappy .  
You can follow Chase here on this blog, sign up for her newsletter here and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

When The Right Decision Makes You Sad

by | Dec 20, 2018 | Parenting, Self-Care, Truth-Telling

Today Carol Burris shares her journey on how she has learned to take time and enjoy this season, without being overwhelmed with your to-do list. 

As I took my predawn walk this morning, it started to flurry. Single, widely spaced snowflakes danced and sparkled in the street lights and I though of the joy and excitement of my granddaughters when the snow starts to fly. Which reminded me that once again I wasn’t there with them to share and bask in their delight. Which led my thought to Christmas, another moment I would miss. Most of the time I’m okay with the distance between us. After all, a few years ago when my husband retired, we cut that distance by more than half. When our children were growing up we lived much further away from their grandparents and only had “bigger than nuclear family” Thanksgivings and/or Christmases a handful of times. So this is my family’s normal, right? Between the distance, the uncertainty of winter weather and overbooked holiday travel times, we have chosen to play it safe and stay home. It’s an expensive time to travel and not something in either of our budgets. To say nothing of the logistics involved – our two elderly dogs who can’t be boarded, a husband who doesn’t like to leave the house empty especially in the winter, their four girls, two cats, three piglets and 25 – I think – ducks. No easy answers here. For us, it is the right decision. But this morning, just for a little while, I found myself longing for the situation to be different. I know I have thought about it more in the last several years because of the community in which I live. Here, high school homecoming is a Big Deal and is more for the alumni than for the current students. People grow up here and, if they leave, they eventually come back. At my church, there are two, three and even four generations of families sitting together in the pews every week. My little nuclear family feels so small sometimes. A week or so has passed since I began this piece. Thanksgiving has come and gone, along with two ER visits (one with my son and one following a fall for me) and Christmas is staring me in the face. But at least at this moment, I am at peace with having only phone or Skype calls with the girls on Christmas. Each family is different. Sometimes each year is different. But all of those different choices are valid as long as they work for (most of) the people involved. Nothing ever says this is how it must always be. I hope you take time and enjoy this season, without being overwhelmed with your to-do list. I hope you find the right way to celebrate with your family that works for you.

Carol Burris is a wife, mother, grandmother, reader, quilter, knitter, breast cancer survivor, and volunteer. She unschooled two children and continues to unschool herself. She’s managing an impossible schedule with only the shopping almost done and nothing else prepared for Christmas!

 

Kim Calichio, owner of The Connected Chef, releases a new blog series!

by | Dec 13, 2018 | Cooking, Parenting

Kim Calichio, owner of The Connected Chef is offering a new blog series where each month she will dive into a new technique of cooking. By the end of the series you will have the knowledge and confidence to begin to cook with your senses and without a recipe.

We want to tell you a little bit about a new blog series that we’re going to start here at the Connected Chef. Click here to watch the video! 


We have started a really wonderful way to run classes where we don’t just follow recipes – we are learning to cook with our senses. 

What does that mean? It means at the end of the day you’re able to use your intuition and senses to cook a delicious meal without a recipe. 
 
You need to know methods and techniques of cooking. That is what we teach in our classes! Cooking with your senses helps you understand why certain things happen and don’t happen. 

You will have the skills you need to troubleshoot. 

You will be able to easily cook within your budget. 

You will know how to cook with low cost, seasonal ingredients. 

Your meal planning will be easier. Your food shopping will go smoother. 

Our new blog series is going to help give you the tools you need to do these things! Everyone needs to know this information – and that is why every month we’ll be rolling out a new technique or method. Searing, braising…you will finally know and understand all of the methods you need to cook with your senses! 

I’m so exited to be sharing this opportunity with you!
The Connected Chef works with families to use food as a way to connect with one another. Our children’s gardening and cooking classes and individual family programs both allow us to work with clients to problem solve the struggles of parenthood and food. The results: Kids who feel empowered to make independent & healthy food choices and develop a natural respect for their environment and community; Parents who are able to take a breath and connect with their kids instead of engaging in the ever-present struggle of mealtime. Join our community and stay connected by following us on Facebook and Instagram.

Do You Talk to Your Partner Enough?

by | Dec 11, 2018 | Parenting, Truth-Telling

Do you feel like you talk to your partner enough? 

I know from experience that when I don’t make time for my relationship with my hubby, everything goes to shit.  Literally and figuratively. 

I am not about to tell you what is going to work for you and your partner.  But I know from experience that when I don’t make time for my relationship with my hubby, everything goes to shit.  Literally and Figuratively.

And it can be so easy to just let things slide.  To not take turns sharing how your day went, to letting the kids needs and schedules come before your own.  To not go out on a date or ask for what you need or turn the TV off with enough time to spare to actually say hi to this person who is on this journey with you.

I have felt just as selfish asking for  time and money to go on a date with my spouse as I have felt about spending time and money on myself.  If you have signed up for my newsletter than you have read some of the creative ways my hubby and I have come up with to go on “dates” without actually having to leave our kids or get a babysitter.

Lately reading aloud a shared book at night has created a good connection between the two of us and is a great way to wind down and get ready to sleep.

But it is not easy.  It is not easy to keep showing up with our vulnerable heart in our hands and share.

Esther Perel has helped.  Brene Brown has helped more than she can imagine.  Friends have helped by watching our kids and letting us sneak away or being a safe ear when we have needed to work things out.

We had a wonderful marriage counselor in a time of crisis.  We have kept our parents out of our relationship by and large because that has worked for us.  We regularly make time to be just us.

But it is hard.  Sometimes I don’t want to have another uncomfortable conversation.  I don’t want to have to share how I am feeling, I just want to be pissed off, mad, etc.  I certainly don’t always want to be the first to apologize.

But I do.  We both do.  Because at the end of the day the kids will all have left home and it will just be us.  As we tell our daughters all the time about their relationships with each other, at the end of the day it will just be them and it will just be us and you have to make sure those relationships stay strong.  

Is this something we always have worked out?  Hell No. It’s like parenting, just when we think we have it figured out the rules change.  The situation change, we change. But would I want to take this ride with anyone else?

No.  Which is why my relationship with my partner comes first.  Right after my relationship with myself and right before my relationship with all of my girls.  

Do you feel like you talk to your partner enough?

Chase Young is the founder of The Mommy Rebellion a place for judgment-free parenting.  She’s created a place to get tips, tools and support for what it is truly like to be a mother, stories from the trenches that show you you’re not alone.  Tips that real mothers use.  Tools to give to yourself and to your parenting friends to feel more focused, have more patience and energy, and feel less tired and snappy .  
You can follow Chase here on this blog, sign up for her newsletter here and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Intentional Holidays

by | Dec 4, 2018 | Parenting

How can you take the stress out of the holiday season?

It’s that time of year again. When our kids go slightly crazy in anticipation of the big day, of getting presents galore, of time off from school of spending time with you. Doing all the holiday things, and whatever that means to your family, whether it be parties, decorating trees, caroling, watching football games, whatever the holiday season means to you and yours.

But it also feels like a super easy recipe for disaster with sugar at every corner and therefore the temptation to overindulge, both for us and our cute little kids that then suddenly turn into brats. It is a bit like the holiday parade I was part of this year as a Girl Scout leader. Almost all of my troop was there, a total of 7 girls only two of which were mine. We were all riding on a float that they had helped decorated with 37 other girls from other troops in the area. What made it a leader’s nightmare was the pick up as in this particular parade it just stops on Main Street and the parents all come to the float and want to take their kids, and as you can image 44 girls getting picked up at once on a multi-sided float can make leaders who need to see parents eyeballs super antsy.

It worked out well this year as there was a single exit from the float and I had prepped all the parents and the girls that I had to see their eyeballs before they could walk away with their girls. And as near as I could tell all the other leaders had similar experiences with their parents. Because we prepared them and the girls ahead of time for what we expected to have happened at the float.

But what about the craziness of the holidays? Can you prepare your family in advance to have a smoother time? Can you prepare self-care for yourself around it so that you can be vigilant (like when there are 44 girls on a float that need to stay seated while you cruise down Main Street) when you need to be but also get some time to relax and enjoy the holidays too?

How can you do this? Well here are some things that I have done in the past and am trying out this year to help navigate through this season of light.

Every year my kids and I sit down and come up with a list of activities we want to do usually from Thanksgiving through Christmas. You can see my post about it last year here. What is great about this is that I get a chance to find out what each of my kids want to do and what is important to them, so if say nobody wants to go see the Nutcracker again (this year) we don’t have to go and do that and instead of time to try some other things, like going to a historical 19th century Christmas celebration, and going to see Christmas in Arendelle that a library we have never been to is hosting. I like to put the list on post-it notes and then we can move them around on the calendar as it works, as sledding in the snow is weather contingent and we have already watched a Christmas movie as a family this year.

So step one is being really conscious of what we say yes to schedule wise. Right now I have all the Saturdays between now and Christmas scheduled with an activity, and we know the approximate date we are going to go and get our Christmas tree. Any additional invites will be filtered through the already busy Saturdays and it can be easier to say no that we already have plans than sometimes just saying no.

But I do try and keep us busy just before Christmas, because that countdown to Christmas morning can be so frenzied and that’s just my 5 and 6 year old. That is the one weekend where we currently have an event on Saturday and a party on Sunday. With Christmas being a Tuesday this year I am hoping my hubby can work from home on Christmas Eve and if the weather is good I can keep the kids outside most of the time.

I also have the ability to take the week before Christmas off, so I am not working after December 14th until the 2nd of January because it’s just too crazy with little ones, and frankly in 5 years they will be old enough that I could work then if I wanted too. I want to enjoy the delight of Christmas while I still can before they are too old to care.

I also try and take care of Christmas cards and the like early. We make a holiday calendar for family and I usually build that on Thanksgiving weekend so that it is ready to be ordered when the sale is good and then they get mailed out as soon as I have them. I often also write the Christmas letter and cards and order the photos around Thanksgiving too. This year for Thanksgiving we were super tired so I didn’t worry about working on that and instead just really focused on rest and relaxation with my family. But I will get the cards out early so that they are done. I totally think my friend that did New Years Cards last year had it great as well she didn’t even try and get them out for Christmas and that took a lot of pressure off.

I have also been working on Christmas gift shopping since probably July. My kids know that they have to me know what they want from Santa by Halloween so the elves have time to make what they want. None of this last minute request stuff. Because I use Swagbucks to pay for a lot of Christmas, not quite everything is in the house yet, but most of is and I know how much is left to order at the beginning of December.

That just leaves some food shopping and maybe a few things for stockings. But I have even already been talking to the family about what we want for Christmas dinner and have gotten a few of the things for the relish tray type idea for lunch already squirreled away in the cupboard. By working ahead I can spread the cost as well as feel less stressed and I can just focus on doing what the kids want to do as we wait for the day.

How are you preparing for the season? Have you thought about what you are going to say to any rude relatives or acquaintances? Have you thought about how much space you really have in your schedule that you can hold social events? Have you gotten the teacher/scout leaders/postal worker gifts sorted or at least have ideas? I like to get my kids involved in the making of those things so we can work on them together and they are also part of the gift giving process.

How can you take the stress out of the holiday season?

Chase Young is the founder of The Mommy Rebellion a place for judgment-free parenting.  She’s created a place to get tips, tools and support for what it is truly like to be a mother, stories from the trenches that show you you’re not alone.  Tips that real mothers use.  Tools to give to yourself and to your parenting friends to feel more focused, have more patience and energy, and feel less tired and snappy .  
You can follow Chase here on this blog, sign up for her newsletter here and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Empathic Mastery With Jennifer Moore

by | Nov 29, 2018 | Affirmations, Grounding, Parenting, Teenagers, Tips and Techniques, Truth-Telling

Jenn Moore of Modern Medicine Lady joins us today for a special video to help a dear friend overcome the pain and emotions around getting braces.

While not technically a mom herself, Jen has been a fairy godmother to many, including many members of the Mommy Rebellion.

As an Intuitive Mentor, EFT Trainer, and author of upcoming book Empathic Mastery, Jennifer Moore works with highly sensitive and empathic moms (and their kids) who get flooded with the thoughts, feelings, and energy of the world around them. Jen teaches them to manage their sensitivities and filter the emotional noise they absorb. Often told they’re overreacting or to “suck it up”, Jen supports women to recognize what’s actually theirs and what they can return to sender.
Instead of feeling overwhelmed and stuck, Jen helps women to feel safe, calm and confident so they can use their abilities to make a difference about what matters to them.

FMI visit http://modernmedicinelady.com

In the Blink of an Eye

by | Nov 13, 2018 | Parenting

Now this person that we have known their whole lives is someone else entirely and they didn’t ask us we didn’t give our permission it just happened in what felt like a blink of an eye.

Years go by

In the blink of an eye

We don’t always notice

the little things that change

because we are too busy cleaning up the muck

and gross bodily fluids of being a grown up

caring for these small little people

so they too can become a grown up

and clean up the muck of the

messes we make in our lives

Starting with birth

and then just going from there

We all have to wipe our own butts

at least once a day

Life is messy

and tiring

But we all know that being

exhausted at the end of the day

is often a recipe for sleep

And sleep is a good thing

that surrendering

to the unknown

the letting go

of everything

and just being in a state of not being

Often as parents

the only time we can fully relax

and breathe a sigh

is when our kids have abandoned

themselves to sleep

From sleeping babies

To snoring teenagers

we can often begin to rest easy

to unwind

to congratulate ourselves

On keeping everyone alive

Truly alive

for another day

another day to grow and play

Another day to just be

But in those minute days

where we play and pick up and clean up

we sometimes miss the changes

the length of the limbs as they grow out

How the brain upgrades

usually, while we are asleep

and now this person that we have

known their whole lives

Is someone else entirely

And they didn’t ask us

we didn’t give our permission

it just happened in what felt like

a blink of an eye

and soon we will be holding

the next generation in our arms

in our hearts

and facing our own

mortality and the

legacies we hope

we are leaving behind

and it all happens in the

blink of an eye

and the small moments

of mess cleaning up.

Chase Young is the founder of The Mommy Rebellion a place for judgment-free parenting.  She’s created a place to get tips, tools and support for what it is truly like to be a mother, stories from the trenches that show you you’re not alone.  Tips that real mothers use.  Tools to give to yourself and to your parenting friends to feel more focused, have more patience and energy, and feel less tired and snappy .  
You can follow Chase here on this blog, sign up for her newsletter here and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Low Grade Fevers

by | Nov 6, 2018 | Parenting

As adults when we get a low grade fever and we are no longer surrounded by doting parents what do we do??

Kids get them all the time. From the time they are babies and teething until I don’t know early teens? My eldest is only 12 and she still gets them every now and then.

As adults by the time, we get a low grade fever and we are no longer surrounded by doting parents, we often have to muscle through whatever we have on our schedule anyway. We still have obligations we have to meet, homes we have to take care of, pets, children and partners to feed.

Sometimes we can call it all in and call it a day. Sometimes we can tell our invisible assistant to cancel all of our appointments and reschedule. Sometimes we can feel the fever coming and clear our schedule ahead of time. Those are the good times.

Often though we can’t see a way around what we have planned to do. Or if we do decide to call out for pizza for dinner we feel like a failure afterward (because let’s face it pizza is not going to help us heal from this stupid fever). Or that we are being judged.

Because the moment we don’t feel well we start to feel like everyone is looking at us (even though with the exception of our children probably no one is looking at us). It is frustrating. But it is real and it happens and we get under the weather.

And then what. How often do we keep going, keep pushing, trying to find ways to still get everything done with time that is slipping away too fast because everything is taking longer because we just can’t think straight. We just can’t wrap our heads around what is going on and would everyone please just shut up and turn all that noise off?

Maybe we ignored the first signs. Maybe we barreled through
them and now it’s near the end of the day and we still have to drive home and we are oh, so very tired.

Maybe people are counting on us. Maybe we were actually feeling good a few minutes ago. Maybe that last crying session of our kids was what threw us over the edge. Maybe that comment on social media that was meant to be nice just stings so much.

So what can you do? Now you are here and you don’t feel well but you usually can’t drop all of your balls yet. What do you do?

I try to stop and take a deep breath and look at what absolutely has to happen. I need to be in a safe mind space to drive everyone home. Does that mean I need to get a drink/pee/buy a coffee/get some food? Do I need to listen to uplifting music or an audiobook or silence on this drive home?

Can I ask hubby to make dinner, can I pull something out of the freezer? Is it really a good time to bring home something easy for dinner (minus the pizza as that usually just makes me feel sicker, your mileage may vary). Does dinner just need to be cold cereal and milk for the kids and maybe a hot cocoa for me? Can I go to bed early or take a nap for a few minutes between obligations today?

How can my partner support me? Let’s double up on some vitamins, that can’t make this situation any worse right? Can I take a bath after the kids go to bed, or while they watch tv? Is there a friend who can take my kids for a while?

There are almost always ways to clear your plate at least a little. Can you sleep in for a few extra minutes tomorrow morning? Going to bed early is almost always an option. Can you get someone else to go to that meeting? Can you lean on another parent and carpool to that after school activity? Can you get some other kids to come over and play with your kids? I swear that usually takes less energy than my having to entertain my own kids.

And most importantly what can you put in place for the next time this happens? Because there will be a next time. You will get under the weather again. What can you put in place (including actually getting that assistant who can clear your schedule), so that next time it will be easier and you can just let it go and
take care of yourself.

I guarantee you will feel better faster.

If you just surrender. And maybe eat some bone broth.

Chase Young is the founder of The Mommy Rebellion a place for judgment-free parenting.  She’s created a place to get tips, tools and support for what it is truly like to be a mother, stories from the trenches that show you you’re not alone.  Tips that real mothers use.  Tools to give to yourself and to your parenting friends to feel more focused, have more patience and energy, and feel less tired and snappy .  
You can follow Chase here on this blog, sign up for her newsletter here and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Halloween Costumes Might Just Kill Me

by | Oct 30, 2018 | Parenting, Truth-Telling

Halloween costumes. They just might do me in. I think I should just hide and declare Halloween over. Here’s a bunch of candy, go get the child’s version of a hangover and I’ll see you tomorrow morning.

It is that time of year again. Immediately upon taking down all the back to school shit (and sometimes even before that) they put up all the Halloween costumes. I think it is supposed to coincide with pumpkin lattes being released originally but now it just seems to be whenever the company that owns the store decides to rotate stock.

Then it becomes even more impossible to shop with your kids. It’s a bit like a prequel to Christmas where you kids always want to go down the Christmas aisles to see all the ornaments and you feel like the mothers in A Miracle on 34th Street, where they really do not want to stand in line to see Santa Claus or buy any more presents.

Halloween costumes are like the prequel to that. To get you ready for all the commercialism of Christmas. And it seems to start with the candy. And early. I was in Sam’s Club in August and they had big jugs of Halloween Pretzels to pass out to trick-or-treaters. With pretzels shaped as Jack-o-Lanterns and Bats. I had to buy them of course on the off chance that we actually get some trick-or-treaters in the new house, and on the even better chance that my kids will eat them as snacks when we need to take car trips.

But beyond the candy, and how that either all gets eaten in one night or sticks around for the rest of the year, and seeing sugar everywhere, there are the costumes.

Oh my gawd the costumes. Thank goodness my kids don’t go to school and really do not have a lot of opportunity to share notes with other kids. Because here’s the thing. I am one crafty mama. I could totally Pinterest up the stuff I make, but frankly, my house is never that clean and the lighting is usually dark because it is after the kids go to bed. So it just doesn’t happen.

But here is the problem with being a crafty mama. I have four kids. That could mean four unique handmade costumes every fucking year that they are only going to wear for a couple of hours at most right? Because yes my girls do love to play dress up, but no they would much rather put on bigger people’s clothes than wear actually costumes that anyone took any time to make. Seriously.

So I have the skills. But I do not have the interest or the time. And since my kiddos got some theater grade costume hand me downs years ago, I decided I am not doing costumes. You have plenty of costumes already taking up floor space around the house, you are creative, you can figure this out. I am willing to be a sounding board and help you think about how you can do things, but I am not, no way going to help you. You’ve got that yourself.

This has worked for years. My eldest is 12 after all. Beyond occasionally dressing up myself (and only if I absolutely have to) I have been uninvolved in costuming. And it’s been great.

But then my youngest announced about six months before Halloween that she wanted to dress up as Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter. And she is perfect for it with the long blond hair that can be swept back, and she has the personality of a Slytherin to a tee. But we do not have any cloaks and Harry Potter type costume stuff because my kids have never shown an interest before.

So I talked to her about making a Slytherin scarf to go with her costume. I even found a free pattern on the web and my mother offered to start it while she was visiting this summer. And she probably got about 18 inches of the scarf done. But here’s the thing. I hate knitting scarves. And I have other handwork projects
going on right now. And that same child had her first birthday party this year as she turned 5 and the guest list was small enough that I made all the kids either unicorn headbands or bear headbands depending on the gender. So there is no way in hell that scarf is getting down by Halloween (well actually before because it’s a Wednesday this year so Halloween takes place the Saturday before in most cases), especially when I discovered that Target had a better one complete with fringe and the actual Slytherin coat of arms for $7. So I ordered that instead to go with the Slytherin shirt we bought her months ago for her birthday.

And of course being 5 after months of saying she was going to be Draco Malfoy for Halloween the closer we get to it the less she seems to want to be willing to dress up as Draco. It is enough to drive a parent insane.

Meanwhile my 10 year old didn’t get a cool headband for the birthday party because I was doing the birthday girl and guest first. So she needs me to finish up gray cat ears for her before I leave in 36 hours to be gone for 72 hours because she might be going to a Halloween party while I am gone. I have already made fox ears for the 6 year old. Thank goodness the 12 year old seems unimpressed. I am unimpressed. How did I manage to get roped into helping with costumes this year?

How can I make it stop?

Because they just might kill me. Halloween costumes. They just might do me in. Hearing about all my crafty and non crafty friends making them for their kids. And not wanting to spend my money on buying them the cheap nasty costumes in the store (because you know how I feel about shopping with my kids period). I think I should just hide and declare Halloween over. Here’s a bunch of candy, go get the child’s version of a hangover and I’ll see you tomorrow morning.

Yep, that sounds like a great idea!

Chase Young is the founder of The Mommy Rebellion a place for judgment-free parenting.  She’s created a place to get tips, tools and support for what it is truly like to be a mother, stories from the trenches that show you you’re not alone.  Tips that real mothers use.  Tools to give to yourself and to your parenting friends to feel more focused, have more patience and energy, and feel less tired and snappy .  
You can follow Chase here on this blog, sign up for her newsletter here and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.