In case you aren’t familiar with the Worst-Case Scenario books, they have been around for 10 years. The original book has spawned multiple sequels including: parenting, politics, life, work and more. The books are fun, fact-filled looks at how to handle the worst-case scenario of any situation.

Parenting is divided into three chapters and an appendix. Chapter One: Ages Zero to Three, includes entries such as How to Deal with a Screaming Baby on an Airplane, How to Get your Baby to Sleep and How to Survive Baby Gear Overload. My favorite in this chapter is How to Give your Baby a Bath without a Bathtub. This article lists several containers you could use as a makeshift bathtub; my favorite part is the list of what not to use.

Do Not Use:

• Drive-through car wash (with open car windows)
• Toilet bowl
• Front-loading washing machines
• Outdoor power sprayer
• Dishwasher
• Hot tub

Chapter Two:Three to Twelve includes; How to Remove Chewing Gum from Hair, How to Discipline an Imaginary Friend and How to Rid a Bedroom of Monsters. My favorite in this chapter is How to Remove a Wad of Paper from your Child’s Nose. I found this one interesting for two reasons; first when I taught pre-school I had one little girl who was always putting things up her nose, and second because recently my sister and brother-in-law needed a chapter called ‘How to Remove a Shark’s Tooth from your Son’s Ear’…long story as you can imagine.

Chapter Three: The Teenage Years covers things like: How to Survive Teenage Angst, How to Avoid a Prom Corsage Wound and How to Survive Empty-Nest Syndrome. My favorite though is How to Determine if your Child is Driving your Car-which includes placing an analog watch under the car tire! In the Appendix, they cover Essential Parenting Cliches, the “Birds and the Bees Speech”, an IM/Text lingo decoder and a teen slang glossary.

This is the parenting book for all parents in all stages of parenting. It is funny and helpful at the same time. If you would like to purchase The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Parenting you can do so at their website.

You can win The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Parenting right here from The Mom Maven!

Mandatory 1st Entry: Leave a comment telling me the worst-case parenting scenario you have survived.

Bonus entries:

• Follow both @MomMaven and @WorstCaseBooks on Twitter and leave me a comment with your Twitter name
• Tweet This “Win The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook Parenting from @MomMaven & @worstcasebooks http://bit.ly/HmXxR” and leave a comment with the tweet’s URL
• Become a fan of Worst-case scenarios on Facebook and leave me a comment letting me know you did it.

This giveaway is for US residents only. The drawing will be held August 7, 2009 at 7:00pm. Good Luck!

The post The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Parenting appeared first on The Mom Maven.

from the  Teen Summit on Internet & Wireless Safety presented by Cox Communications

Want to improve the lines of communication with your children? These ten tips will help you get started immediately.

1. Listen

Listen to what your child is expressing and try to understand what’s going on with them internally. Don’t make assumptions.

2. Don’t Interrogate

Ask open-ended questions but avoid excessive questioning. Use general conversation starters like “How is it going?” or “What’s going on?” and then be silent. Most kids will tell you what you want to know if they don’t feel bombarded.

3. Be Honest

Practice honesty and respect. If a child asks something and you don’t know the answer, be honest. Say you don’t know and then find out. Conversely, if you do something inappropriate or make a mistake, be willing to apologize and admit it.

4. Keep Calm

Avoid yelling, making threats or using “labels” to describe your child or their friends.

5. Skip the Lecture

Don’t lecture your child or repeat the same thing constantly. Those tactics usually cause kids to tune you out.

6. Pay Attention

When your teen is talking, give them your complete focus. Stop whatever else you are doing and use eye contact.

7. Be Gentle

Avoid power struggles. You might hold the power, but you lose ultimately when you break your kid’s spirit.

8. No Judgements

Express your opinions without being judgmental. Remember to be concise so your comments don’t turn into a lecture.

9. Use Positive Reinforcement

Don’t dwell on your child’s mistakes. Focus on their accomplishments to demonstrate support and build self-esteem.

10. Take a Walk

Create situations that allow you to communicate with your kids. Whether it’s riding together in the car without playing the radio, running errands together or taking a walk after dinner, this one-on-one time will strengthen your relationship.

If you do not have a good relationship with your teens/tweens that is the place to start. The saying goes “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” is very true. Take some time over the next week to get to know your teen/tween, get on their level. At first don’t talk about the issues that divide you, focus on building them up. Talk about what they like, what they are good at. In my 20+ years of working with youth I see so many parents that don’t even know their kids, and it is sad.  Yes, it takes time, parenting takes time. The benefits of taking the time to get to know and build up your kids are huge.

Spend time with you teen this week. In the next few weeks we will talk about television and the media, cell phones-texting and sexting, social media and more.

The post Communicating with Your Tween or Teen appeared first on The Mom Maven.

I know all of that full well. I walked into junior high very different than I left elementary school. During that summer I got glasses, braces on my teeth…and a backbrace. I had scoliosis, curved spine, and I had to wear a brace that went from my hips to my chin. The brace was worn under my clothes-but it meant I had to buy clothes 2-3 sizes larger than my petite frame required. Most of the first year I wore my brace 23 hours a day. I got one hour off to do physical therapy and take a shower.

In school the boys called me “Weebles” because as I walked down the hall, the neck part of my brace sort of wobbled from side to side. The other nickname was “Nuts and Bolts” because the part of the brace that was visible was all metal and screws, except for a plastic chin plate. Those years were difficult for me, but I had an awesome best friend, Kim, who was there for me every step of the way.

Like each of you, I survived junior high. I discovered my love for acting-because I could escape and be anyone but myself. At junior high graduation, the boys who taunted me for 3 years-presented me with a bag of nuts and bolts. I knew at that moment that everything was ok. I had more than survived junior high, I had grown as a person. My mom always told me, “They only pick on you because they like you.” I don’t think that was 100% true but it did help me get through a very awkward time in my life.

If you have a middle schooler or know a middle schooler-I want to tell you about a great book. Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk Middle School: 101 Stories of Life, Love, and Learning for Younger Teens

In the vein of all of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books, it is a collection of essays written by various authors. This particualr book has some pre-teen and teen authors as well as adults. It is a fun and enlightening collection of stories broken down into categories like: True Friend and New Friends, Mean Girls and Boys, Embarrassing Moments, That’s My Family and Doing What’s Right. The awesome people from Chicken Soup for the soul have given me a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk Middle School: 101 Stories of Life, Love, and Learning for Younger Teens
to give away to one of my Mom Maven readers.

How to Enter:
For your first entry: In your comment tell me 1 thing that made your middle school years awkward or embarrassing. You must also follow or subscribe to this blog and leave a comment here telling me that you have done this Please leave a valid e-mail address or twitter name so that I can notify if you win. **You must do all of this to be entered.

If you would like extra entries you can earn them for doing any or all of the following:

* tweet this contest and post the url of the tweet as a separate comment (you can do this 1x per day each day of the contest-just post each tweet url in a separate comment)
* blog about this contest and link to this post (not just a link to the contest) then leave me a link to your post in a separate comment
* stumble this post with a review and link it here in separate comment

The winner will be chosen on Thursday, March 19th at 10:00pm. Good Luck!!

The post Teens Talk Middle School-Review & Giveaway appeared first on The Mom Maven.