Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Christmas Lights

According to history,  17th century  was the inception of Christmas lights.  It is part of Christian traditions that has strongly withstood time.  The custom goes back to when Christmas trees were decorated with candles.  The candles  symbolized Christ as the  light of the world.  The Christmas trees that were  displayed publicly and illuminated with electric lights became popular in the early 20th century.  Then the  display of Christmas decorations with lights progressed from then on.  We can see  different beautiful  displays outdoors every Christmas.  



Outdoor Christmas light displays on houses was stemmed from the trend of lighting up Christmas trees during the Christmas season.   It is one of our favorite thing to do during Christmas, we take our children  for a drive around the neighborhood and enjoy the different   Christmas lights displayed by homeowners.  There's even a Winter Festival of Lights in Ogle Bay in Wheeling West Virginia, it's a beautiful display to witness.  
 My husband  gave me an early Christmas gift, a Canon Rebel T6 camera set and thought it would be great to try it outside  and capture some photos of the outdoor Christmas lights.
 Our theme  with our lights  this year was red, white, and blue. 
 We bought  most of these lights during the  end of season sale last year. 
 I think it turned out  beautifully. 
 The nativity scene was the new addition to our  outdoor display. 
 Our neighbor's yard was all lit up too.

 I always love the  maikn display of lights in our small city of Weirton. 
 Downtown posts has snowflakes and angels light displays.
I always enjoy decorating for Christmas.  We always start doing it early in November.  You might think that's overboard but  I  do that so we can enjoy the displays longer.  Putting out the decorations takes a lot of time so  I want to enjoy it as long as I can.  We have one more week left before we take down  all the decors.  Taking down the outdoor  lights would be a bit harder since the weather is getting frigid!

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Here is how to Desist from Parental Burnout this Holiday Season

“Mom’s don’t enjoy, they give joy”. These words highlight how parenting culture has shifted, focusing more on mothering than motherhood. Because of this change, today’s parents view successful child-rearing as a task. This means we can do more for our kids and families. And if there’s one time of year when we feel responsible to provide happiness for everyone, it’s the holiday season.
There’s nothing like the holidays to highlight not only our children’s manners but also our family values.
Every Christmas, parents strive to make holiday season memorable for their children. They start shopping after Halloween. Before Thanksgiving, they organize festive activities for the holiday season. Yet, in the middle of “giving joy”, holidays become stressful. Because like many mothers, taking care of everything and everyone leaves them exhausted.

As mothers, it can be difficult to manage everything from self-care to family responsibilities. And as research backs it, the mothers can face burnout. Burnout can affect one’s emotional and physical well-being, causing feelings of inadequacy, resent and detachment from family and work life. In this situation, children suffer the most.

How can parents avoid burnout during the holidays?

The holiday season can be intense for parents because of the added workload. To take care of the extra duties, cellphone parentalmonitoring software can help them relieve the stress they have due to their children’s responsibilities. Following are the ways this app can help you lessen some of the holiday burnout:

·         Know where your kids are heading – During holidays, your school going children meet kids with all sorts of different ideas about the holidays. You can encourage them to talk to their friends and learn about their practices. Then help them to figure out your family values and traditions. You can do all this without even being around them. The app will help you track your kid’s location. It will give you real-time location of where they are heading to.

A research by Parenting Research Centre says that more than a quarter of parents of teens said they were not aware of where their children were at all times. This is worrying especially during the holiday season, but the app can give you complete location history of your kid’s musings even if you have been busy all day.

During all the busyness of holidays, you do not want to be preoccupied with your kid’s every move yet you cannot allow your teens to visit certain places that can be harmful to them. For this, the cellphone parental monitoring software allows you to monitor specific locations through its ‘Geofencing’ feature. This allows you to set boundaries around certain locations and you are instantly notified if your kid enters any restricted location.

·         Limit their screen time: According to a Parenting Research Centre survey, another challenging issue for 70 percent of parents of teenagers is the time their children spend on devices. Children spend too much of their time on games and other applications. No wonder you would be planning to gift a new smartphone to your teen this Christmas Eve, but these devices come with their downsides.

Holidays are meant to be spent with family and closed ones. Even if your kid is spending the time to find Christmas gifts online or downloading new games, you need to check it as they squander this beautiful time of being together. So  cellphone parental monitoring software allows you to see a complete list of the apps being used by your children. You can remotely lock their cell phone if you find them wasting their time on games or apps. This will spare that valuable time and you would be able to enjoy memorable moments.
·         Monitor their online activity: Experts warn that as children return home for holidays, parents should be on the lookout for what their children do when using the internet. The number of young children misusing internet is growing with the increase in technological advancements. During holidays, there are many fake offers on the internet and even strangers can trick your child with a veiled offer. Your kid may end up ruining his/her holidays due to a malicious online add. The cellphone parental monitoring software allows you to monitor their emails. You can see all the sent and received emails. You can see which sites are they visiting and how many times have they visited a site. Besides, you can see their chats on the Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype, Tinder, and Kik messenger. Keeping their use in mind, you can block any app remotely using the app.

In the end, be mindful:

In the midst of the holiday chaos, it’s easy to overlook how stress affects children. But getting distracted, running around frantically and neglecting self-care may communicate to kids that celebrations are burdensome and make us miserable. The cellphone parental monitoring software relieves this stress during the holiday season.


Sometimes, imagining setting limits around how much we do and spend during the season causes our guilt to arise. We may feel like saying no, believing we’re ruining our children’s fun. But letting go of holiday outcomes by adopting a mindful mindset, focusing on moment-to-moment awareness, can help us remain grounded.

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