Plastic Bag Butterflies

One activity that little hands enjoy is cutting paper up. In fact, you may find tiny pieces of paper all over your home if your child gets their hands on a pair of scissors. Why not take that love of cutting and put it to good use?

Get some colourful paper that your child can cut up. They can also use tissue paper, color cellophane, or shiny wrapping paper. Put some of the scraps into a plastic sandwich bag, but don’t overfill it. Gather the bag in the middle and fold a pipe cleaner in half and twist it. This is the body of your butterfly. Twist the ends to create antenna.

Felt Springtime Banners

Springtime banners are a great craft for little hands. Purchase 12 inch by 12 inch felt in springtime colors, cut in half. You will also need glue, scissors, yarn, scrap pieces of felt, and other accessories. Leave the banner as a rectangle or trim one end to create a point - the choice is theirs.

Cut a 12 inch piece of yarn and tie a knot in it. Place that at the square end of the fabric. Fold the felt over the yarn and glue it down. When dried, turn it over and glue scraps of felt or other accessories to the front of the banner. Let them make flowers, butterflies, or whatever else their little hands can produce.

Do You Suffer From Working Mom Guilt?

It’s not uncommon for women who work outside of the home to feel guilty about spending time away from their children. They want to know how to deal with working mommy guilt and yet still be able to make a financial contribution to the family budget.

Guilt is a common emotion that can be uncomfortable to deal with. It can also make you less productive both at home and at work. Here are some ways that you can deal with working mommy guilt if you’re facing this problem.

• Set your priorities to what works for you and your family.  Say for example, your child has an important activity that you’d like to attend and your boss asks you to stay late, don’t be afraid to tell them “no” if this is a top priority for you.  It may help to discuss with your boss early on what is and isn’t suitable for you both this way there are no surprises for anyone involved.
• Write down the reasons why you work outside of the home. You may need to work to help keep your home, you may love your job, or you may have started working when your children all started school. If your reasons for working have changed, don’t be afraid to make changes to your schedule or stop working altogether.
• Realize that you’re not Superwoman. It’s impractical to think that you can continue to do all of the things you did before you began working outside of the home as well as take care of your home. Working too hard will only result in your becoming burned out. Delegate what you can and then do what is left.
• Give yourself a break. Your house doesn’t have to be spotless. Reduce your standards a little bit and you’ll be able to breathe a little easier.
• Take care of yourself. This may seem like a strange statement when you already feel guilty, but if you don’t take care of yourself you can’t take care of others or do the things you need to do.
• When you start to feel guilty, look at your circumstances and identify what the real problem is. What is it that’s causing you to feel guilty? After you’ve identified the problem you can decide how to best handle it.

If you’re beginning to feel guilty about the amount of time you’re spending away from your children, try to fit in some quality time together.  Quality time is more important than simply spending lots of time together.  And you don’t have to do anything fancy either, your children may simply want to snuggle and read books all day – keep in mind that sometimes quality time is more important than the quantity of time you spend together.  We all struggle with mommy guilt from time to time but ultimately you want the best for your children and keeping this in mind will help you positively deal with this guilt.

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