Whatever your situation may be, here’s an idea that I’m happy to share with you that will give your kids at least an hour (and hopefully more) of fun and distraction.

I did this with my 4 year old son and his 6 year old friend, and they had a total blast with it.  Here’s how it went down:

My son found a little jewel-like thingy one day and asked me if it was a treasure.  That gave me the idea to hide it somewhere and let him go on a treasure hunt for it.  So I drew a treasure map for him and his friend (which was just a map of our place) and marked a big X on one part of the map.  I hid the jewel at the corresponding area in our place.

With map in hand, they went on a hunt to find the treasure.  It was really great, because they had to figure out how to read the map and navigate their way to the X.  Once they were in the general area, they looked high and low, above and under, to pinpoint the jewel exactly.

Once they found it, they wanted to do it again right away.  They were so excited about it.  So I hid the jewel again in a different spot, marked an X on the corresponding spot on the map again, gave them the map, and they were off once more!

They loved this game, and pretended to be pirates during part of it too.  We went through about 5 hunts before they stopped.  Each time I made it a little bit more difficult.  I liked that I could hide the jewel and then continue making dinner while they were hunting.

By the time they had enough, dinner was ready, and our young pirate could join us for dinner, fresh off the hunt!

Give this game a try if you haven’t tried it already.  If you are really keen, you can make the map look really special, like a real treasure map, and your child can dress like a pirate while searching for the treasure!

If you have done something like this before, or if you try this out, leave a comment and let us know!

Cheers and happy hunting!

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Pirate Kid photo courtesy of Mike Baird

I took a trip to Science World in Vancouver with the family today (Telus World of Science I should say – and a great place to go with the kids at that), and made the obligatory gift shop stop.  While there, I happily learned that holders of yearly admission passes get a fifteen percent discount on everything in the shop.  With this new found knowledge, I couldn’t leave empty handed.  Come on, how can you pass up 15% off (even if everything in the store is 25% more expensive than any other store, because of the tourist-attraction-factor)?  Lets think of it as an early Christmas present.

We noticed that Smarty Pants was holding a liquid timer, and was totally mesmerized by it.  He had been staring intently at it for the past ten minutes, flipping it over and over, hypnotized.  “Gotta get it!” was the first thought that popped into my noggin.  (Anything that keeps the kids occupied for more than 10 minutes is pretty much a mandatory purchase in my view).

To be brutally honest, we didn’t just buy the liquid timer because Smarty Pants was hypnotized by it.  We were thinking of all the cool applications.  Here are just some ideas, to help get your creative juices (and timer liquid) flowing:

1) Sharing: Picture this – two kids arguing over a toy (I know, it rarely happens, but just play along with me here), you hop in on the scene, armed with your liquid timer, and hand it to one of the kids.  You explain that one of them can watch the timer while the other one plays with the toy… when the timer runs out, they trade toy for timer, flip the timer over, and repeat.  The liquid timer is so mesmerizing, that the kids will be more than happy to comply.  This is much more fun than watching the hands on a clock, or the digital numbers on a digital timer.

2)  Time-outs: Time-outs need not be filled with boredom or screaming any longer.  Hand your kid a liquid timer and tell them that when the liquid runs all the way down, the time-out is over.  The liquid timer is so interesting, that it will break their pattern (from the screaming, or naughtiness, or whatever they were doing), and make the time-out more bearable, for you and the child.  You should also make sure, before the time-out is over, that your child is ready to get back in action again, of course.

3) Brushing Teeth: When your child brushes her teeth, does she do it for about 2.5 seconds before throwing the toothbrush into the sink and declaring victory?  Tonight we sat the liquid timer on the counter and said, “Watch the timer… brush your teeth until the timer runs out.”  Smarty Pants was more than happy to stand there, brushing his teeth, whilst watching the timer go.  It was amazing.

4) Countdowns: Ever find yourself saying, “5 more minutes” or “1 more minute” or “Right Now!!”?  Well, a timer is a great way to make this process a bit less subjective.  A liquid timer is a way to make it fun to boot.  Next time you want the kids to stop playing and come to the table for dinner (or anything of the like), set the timer down, and explain that when the timer runs out, it is time for them to come.  They may get so enthralled with the timer that they’ll forget the reason why they didn’t want to come in the first place.

5) Something fun to watch, and a lesson in science: Our kids are just happy to hold the liquid timer, watch it go, play around with it, and experiment with it.  It is the ultimate toy that isn’t a toy, and it really holds their attention.  I am sure there is some good scientific explanation on the Net about how it works too.  Once I look that up, I’ll have a great lesson in science to share with the kids the next time we pull the timer out.

So there you have it.  Our liquid timer is really our best friend forever.  It provides all the timer functionality we need, and does it in a way that is interesting to the kids.  So far we’ve had a lot of success with it, and our bedtime tonight ran really smoothly with it!  Looking forward to using it more tomorrow!

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This post was paid for by the International Society for the Promotion of Liquid Timers.   Just kidding.

No liquid timers were harmed in the making of this post.

When our kids see what we do (she does) to take care of the Earth and others, they want to do the same (you know, kids always want to be like their parents – until they reach puberty at least – which is why it is good to start when they’re young!).

For example, if our son, Smarty Pants, sees a bottle, or piece of paper or plastic on the ground in the park, he picks it up and throws it in a garbage can.  Without even thinking about it.  It is truly amazing to see.  Sometimes I have to stop him from picking up things that look too dirty or like they shouldn’t be touched!  If only that were the most difficult aspect of parenting!

Here are just a few examples of things my wife does regularly that have had big impact on our kids, on other people, and on the earth.  I hope this list gives you a few ideas of your own:

• If we are going out somewhere for a walk and we know we will pass by homeless people on the way, my wife packs a few extra fruits, like bananas, to give to them to them as we go by.  How great is it for our kids to see us giving food to the less fortunate?  Very good!
• Recycling everything possible… including food composting.  When we moved to Vancouver, we could not sleep until we found an organic garbage bin in our neighbourhood!
• Using cloth diapers and going diaper free.  I never would have had the guts to do these things on my own, but Love Buns showed me the way, and it has saved us a ton of cash, and a landfill a ton of diapers.
• Using rechargeable batteries.  Before I met my wife, the only thing I recharged was myself by sleeping a lot.  Now I recharge batteries and don’t recharge myself nearly enough.
• Using environmentally friendly dishwasher and laundry detergents.  I don’t even know if they can be classified as detergents.  In any case, they are chlorine and phosphate free and are biodegradable.  I am really glad we don’t dump all that crap into our water system anymore, and hope that others follow suit.
• Keeping the parks and streets clean.  Like I hinted at before, if we pass by a piece of garbage that some miscreant has littered the earth with, and it looks okay to touch, my wife and son will do the right thing and put it in the nearest trash can (or recycling bin, if it is something recyclable, of course).

Doing things like this is especially important when you have kids, for two reasons:

1. because we want the Earth to still be in good shape for our kids and grandkids and
2. because we want to set an example for our kids, and hope that by doing so, they will adopt the same habits into their adulthood, and teach their kids the same.

If you are ever in doubt, just remember the old but timeless proverb, “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”

If you have any other tips or ideas, or comments, I’d be happy to hear them here.

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To Force Participation in hobbies, or not to force?

by Keith Wilcox of almightydad.com

Each of my two boys has particular skills that make them good at certain hobbies. My youngest, Alan, is an excellent story teller; his imagination is off the charts, and he’s witty. Someday he could probably be a comedian or an actor if he worked at it.

My older boy, Neil, is a gifted athlete. He walked when he was 7 months old, hit a pitched baseball before he was two, and is currently the youngest person in his pre-team gymnastics class.

These are particular skills that my two kids happen to posses. All parents see abilities in their kids and hope that those abilities will grow into something bigger that will help their kids later in life. It’s parental responsibility to recognize skills and guide children into utilizing them. The question is not whether it’s right to encourage these talents; we’re all supposed to be encouraging. But, what do we do if a talent is obvious yet our kids don’t follow through? Should we force them to use their God given abilities for their own good? Or, should we step back and see what happens and see where they decide to go in life? Who knows? We might have been wrong about their skills all along. They might end up excelling in something completely unexpected. My philosophy on the matter lies somewhere in between being a coach and being a cheerleader. 

(Head Jammer’s note:  just one thing to keep in mind when answering these very valid questions… Roberto Luongo, goalie of the Vancouver Canucks, just signed a contract for $64 million over 12 years… just sayin’).

Flighty and Indecisive

My boy, the gymnast, has in his short life, decided that he wants to be an artist, tennis player, astronaut, writer and a whole bunch of other stuff that I can’t remember. I think all that is great. I also think that once he decides to do something that he needs to see it through, to give it a fair shot. My job is to pay for all the activities he wants to do and to give him exposure. It is also my job to make sure that he sticks with something long enough to at least get my money’s worth out of it.

He chose to do gymnastics; he begged me to do gymnastics. I said, “Fine, you can do gymnastics. But, you’re going to take it for a year and you aren’t going to complain when it gets hard.” Sure enough, he was in the class a week when he decided that doing a handstand was way above his capabilities. He wanted to quit. Well, that’s too bad for him because I wouldn’t let him. It’s been just over a year; and, after roughly two months of complaining, he accepted that I wasn’t letting him out of it. He still can’t do an excellent handstand, but he can do the splits and a hand-spring and some other stuff that I don’t know the names of.

Kids are naturally flighty. They choose some activity and then they quit because they discover it’s difficult. They’ll demand a skate board because they saw Tony Hawk on TV and thought learning would be as easy as the video game. They’ll beg for guitar lessons because they want to be a real life guitar hero. Oops! It takes years to learn? Oh, well, forget it then. Kids will jump into an activity, and when it gets hard, say they don’t enjoy it anymore. What they’re really saying is they think they stink at it and it’s too hard. That’s when it’s our job to prove that it can be done and the reward is worth the effort.

Well Intentioned Jerk

Some parents take being a coach and motivator too far. We’ve all seen it before. There are the football dads, the hockey dads, the spelling bee parents, and the piano moms, who take competition to a whole new level. The stories of abusive parents pushing their kids too hard are difficult to hear. These are parents who can’t accept failure.

It’s bad enough that kids get mistreated, but when all their passion for competition is sucked out of them by over zealous parents, that’s just terrible. My youngest boy might have the talent to act; he does have it. If I put him in an acting class, and then push him too hard, I run the risk of squashing whatever love he might develop for his skill. By trying to make him into Laurence Olivier at age 5 I could actually end up making him into Larry the Cable Guy instead. I

might have all the good intentions in the world when I intend to develop my children’s natural talents, but that doesn’t mean I have the right to get pushy or be a jerk about it.

The Best We can do

The best we can do as parents is to teach our kids the value of hard work, and to teach them that quitting prematurely is no way to go through life. Patience is absolutely necessary. The road to success is built on sweat and hard work. But, it’s all worth it. I’m going to facilitate my kids’ activities, and I’ll push them to pursue what they start and to give their opportunities fair try. Beyond that, I have to let them be. Pushing too hard can lead to a broken kid who doesn’t want to do anything at all.

Too many activities and too much pressure isn’t good for adults, and it’s terrible for kids. My boy might turn out to be a great athlete because I recognized that talent and helped him find what he loves. He will never be great if he thinks his main goal in life is to please me. He’s gotta be proud of himself first.

Have you come home after a tough day at work and taken your stresses and frustrations out on your spouse?  Sure you have.  We all have.  Not intentionally, of course, it just happens.  But it happens because we let it happen, and if we can stop it, we can be one step closer to a long-lasting, happy, marriage.  You may think this will be harder than threading a camel through the eye of a needle, but stick with me here and lets give it a shot.

I know what you’re thinking – how is this going to save my marriage, Mr. Head Jammer?

The answer is this:  It’s all about associations.  Our brain makes associations all the time.

Ever wonder why the smell of a steak on the barbecue reminds you of summertime?  It’s because you usually barbecue in the summer, and your brain has associated the smell of barbecuing with summer.  It’s the same reason why the smell of Tequila makes you nauseous (if you’re anything like me and had some bad Tequila experiences in college).

So when you get home from work and you are stressed, or in a bad mood, and the first thing you see when you walk in the door is your spouse’s face, you start to make an association between your negative feelings about work, and your spouse’s face.  Do this repeatedly, and the association will stick in your brain like Richard Simmons on the oldies.  You’ll get to a point where, you can even be in a good mood coming home one day, and you’ll see your spouse and suddenly feel stressed or in a bad mood, without even knowing why.

It goes without saying that if you start to associate your feelings about work or your boss with your spouse, totally without even knowing it, or totally unintentionally, you can be putting your marriage at risk for no good reason at all.

So my advice to you is this:  If you’ve had a rough day at work, or had a spat with your boss, and are feeling like you want to bang your head against a hard surface, take a few moments to change your state before you march through the door to your home.  Leave your work stresses and feelings about work behind you, and start fresh when you get home.  Try and put yourself in a good mood before you see your spouse.

How the heck do I do that, you ask?

There are many ways.  You can mediate, relax, focus on something other than work, or do some state-changing exercises (using anchoring, for example), if you know how (and if you’ve listened to Personal Power II, you’ll know how).  Have a beer if you have to.  Whatever it takes to get you feeling better.  Doesn’t matter what it is, listen to the wise words of Nike, and just do it.  You’ll thank yourself later.

That’s it really.  Just make sure you don’t associate your bad moods from work, your boss, your idiot colleagues, or that guy that cut you off on your way home, with your loved ones, and you’ll be on your way to a marriage that lives happily ever after.

Just my 200 Yen.  Let me know what you think.

Flickr photo courtesy of millzero.com

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So all along I have been focusing on the first duty, and that’s good, because it’s the most important, but now its time to dedicate a Jam to those three special letters… B.. B.. and Q.  Actually, that’s only two letters, but you catch my drift.

There’s nothing better than grilling some burgers on the ol’BB in the summer, and although your wife my scorn you for the lack of healthiness factor, she’s sure to appreciate not having to cook or do the dishes.  Throw some zucchini and cobs of corn on there to keep her happy while you give your burgers some tender lovin’ care.

I’ll be honest with you.  Not all burgers are created equal.  Or maybe they are created equal and some are more equal than others, but I digress.  You gotta know the secret to a wicked, keep ‘em comin’ back for more burger if you want to have any merit in your neighbourhood, and I’m gonna share that secret with you here.

And the secret can remembered with this easy mneumonic:  SS, S, S, Don’t S, S, S.  Almost too easy, isn’t it?

Okay.  Let me explain:

SS – Sprinkle Seasoning. Get some fresh ground meat from a butcher and keep it icy cold in a large bowl.  Sprinkle your fave seasoning over it until the meat is fully covered.  Don’t be afraid to over season.  Season that baby like there’s no tomorrow.  Then mix it up quickly.  Over-handling the meat can extract the fat and will leave your burger tough and tasteless.  Remember – fatless burger = booo.

S – Shape. Shape those babies into six-ounce balls.  Toss them back and forth between hands to remove air pockets.  Then place them on a plastic-lined cookie sheet a press them into inch-thick patties.  Let them rest for an hour in the freezer — cold burgers hold together better and won’t stick to the grill.  Go have a beer or two while you wait.  Check on your kids while you’re at it too.

S – Sear. Get the grill nice and hot.  500 degrees fahrenheit or so oughta do.  Grab the burgers from the freezer and put them straight on the grill.  You don’t want them to reach room temperature.  The hot grill will sear the burgers and seal all that juicy goodness inside.  After searing, keep cooking them at medium to medium-low temperature for about 5 mins per side or longer, until they are well done.  Partially cooked burger = salmonella = not good = you’re in the doghouse.  So make sure they are well cooked.  You may want to keep the lid open at this stage to douse any flare-ups from dripping fat.   Mmmmm, dripping fat.

Don’t S – Don’t Squish. Resist that biting temptation to squish, poke, cut, or otherwise mutilate those juicy patties of goodness.  Doing so will cause the flavourful juices to make like a tree and leave the vicinity of your precious burgers.  Every time you get the urge to squish, take a sip of beer.

S – Surface Juices. The burgers are done when the surface juices run clear and your mouth starts watering.

S – Styling. Top up those puppies any way you like and toss them in some toasted buns.  When it comes to styling your burger, the sky’s the limit.  Just don’t go overboard on the onions – your wife will thank you (and me) for that tip.

And your good to go.  So go grab your favourite burger recipe and seasoning, fire up the BBQ, and follow these tips, and you’ll be on your way to juicy, flavourful burgers in no time!

Warning – following these tips may cause your neighbours to ask you to barbecue burgers for them the entire summer.  Just remember, give a man a BBQ burger and you feed him for a few minutes, teach a man how to BBQ a burger and you feed him until he gets lazy and comes back asking you to make some for him again, or realizes that you make them better and gives up trying.

Warning number 2 – although it may be tempting, don’t follow these tips every day.  That may make you unhealthy.  Try and have some green stuff more often than you have burgers.  Go read some of my parenting or relationship tips.  You can generally follow those tips every day without inflicting any harm on your body, and they are 100% fat free.  Just sayin’.

Oh yeah, after having BBQ burgers, you may want to do some of this.

Any good ideas for good burger recipes, or any other tips to share?  Add them here as comments!  Thanks!

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Flickr photo courtesy of Chotda.

What does this have to do with parenting?  Everything.  You can use misdirection in every day situations to get your kids through tasks they normally cringe at.   You don’t have to be a magician to use misdirection with your kids, and you can use it for more than pulling rabbits out of hats.

I stumbled across this idea when I was changing Sweet Cheeks’s diaper the other day.  It went like this:

Sweet Cheeks was not keen on having her diaper changed.  She was whining and tossing herself about.  When this happens, I normally try and get through the change quickly, and then pick her up and have it over with.  That is fine, but it is stressful.

So this time, I took my time and got her attention by talking to her and making some funny sounds.  I was directing her attention to me and my face.  Who wouldn’t want to direct their attention there, right?     I got her attention and held it by keeping eye contact with her, talking to her, and making funny sounds.  She laughed and smiled.  She didn’t realise that I was changing her diaper at the same time.  All her focus was on me.  Little leprechauns could have danced on her belly and she wouldn’t have noticed or cared.

The key was that I kept eye contact with her throughout.  Her eyes were on me, and she was focusing where I wanted her to focus.  The hardest part was changing her diaper without actually looking at it.

While you may end up with some crooked or backwards diapers, this trick is worth a try.  I can’t say it will always work – sometimes your baby or child might be in a state where you can’t get their attention or misdirect them in this way, or for a long enough period of time.  If Sweet Cheeks is really upset about something and crying a lot, for example, misdirection does not work.  In those situations, I resort back to getting the deed done ASAP and moving on to something soothing.

Misdirection can be applied to more than babies and diaper changing.  I am sure you have used it in other situations and with toddlers too, perhaps without even knowing it.  As an example, there is a kid’s haircut place I know of that has a TV in front of the barber’s chair.  As kids have their hair cut, they are more focused on the cartoons than on the fact that there are sharp scissors within inches of their heads.  This doesn’t always work either (my toddler, Smarty Pants, won’t have his hair cut there not matter what), but it does work for some.  I don’t condone sitting kids in front of the TV very often, but in this case, it is another example of misdirection in action.

Can you think of any times that you have used misdirection with your kids?  Tell us about it!

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Flickr photo courtesy of The Rocketeer

Our cat got a lot more attention from me before the kids were born, and having small kids around hasn’t been an easy adjustment for her.  For one, Smarty Pants chases her around until she finds a hiding spot.  For two, we have less time to play with her and keep her active.  I’m sure there are other parents out there with cats and dogs that feel the same.

A couple of weeks ago I took our cat to the vet for a check-up, and he noticed that she is slightly overweight.  It didn’t come as a big surprise to me, since the only exercise she gets is running from Smarty Pants to her favorite hiding spot.

I confessed this to the vet.  Luckily he is a reasonable, friendly guy, so he didn’t put me in cat-jail for neglect.  He understood my predicament and gave me a great tip for keeping the cat active when my hands are full.  (That’s not the only thing he gave me — I also walked away the proud owner of some not-so-low-priced diet food — grumble grumble)

What was his tip?
You got it:  A laser.

Yes, a laser.  Okay, well, a laser pointer.

He said we should buy a cheap laser pointer (you can get them these days for less than five bucks), and see if our cat would chase it around.  He explained that about 50% of cats will chase a laser dot endlessly, and the other 50% will chase it for awhile then figure it out and never chase it again.  Our cat falls into the former 50%.  Not sure if that is something I should be proud of or happy about, but I am.

The beauty of using a laser pointer, if you have the “right” cat for it, is that you don’t have to run around the room with it to keep your cat running.  And you never have to pick it up off the ground and throw it (well, you can, but you might break it).  You stand in one spot, and with just a flick of the wrist, move the dot from one end of the room to the other.  You can do it from any distance too.  Back and forth, high and low, round in circles.  Skip to my Lou.

Our cat loves it and chases after it with vigor.  Smarty Pants even plays with her and the laser now.  He points it across the room and watches with bliss as she chases it around.  (Of course we monitor him to make sure he is not misusing it or pointing it in anyone’s eyes, including the cat’s.)

Now if I have Sweet Cheeks in one hand, I can entertain the cat with the other hand, or if I’m reading a book to Smarty Pants, I might have the book in one hand, and move the laser around across the room with the other.  Or I might just hand the laser to Smarty Pants and let it keep him and the cat occupied.

We like our little laser.  For $3.99, both our cat and Smarty Pants have had hours of fun, and the cat got some good activity out of it too.

Have you noticed you have less time for your pets since having kids, and what have you done about it?  Add some comments to this Jam and let us know!

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Flickr photo courtesy of fofurasfelinas

Hence this Jam about being thankful, which is really about being thankful for your kids.

Here’s what you gotta do:  Take a moment to ask yourself what characteristics your kid(s) have that you are thankful for.

This may not be immediately apparent.  We often take the things our kids do well for granted, and focus on the things that they don’t do well.  So lets turn the tables and focus on all the great things your kids do.

Stuck?  Here’s an example…

I was inspired to write about this when Sweet Cheeks, our 5 month old daughter, had a cold about a week ago.

Normally Sweet Cheeks loves taking baths.  You can almost taste her excitement as we approach the bathtub, and she is like me in a chocolate store the whole time she is in there.

When she had her a cold, it was not so.

For those three dark days, the bathtub was like the deepest depths of hell for her.  The way she cried and screamed in there, you would have thought the water was molten lava.  What happened to our little water baby?  Is this going to be a new phase?  Did she have a bad experience that made her afraid of taking a bath?  I didn’t realize what I had, until it was gone.

We could only hope that this drastic turn of events was because of her cold, and that as soon as those antibodies got the better of her bug, the lava would turn to soothing water again.

The cold passed, and just as if those three dreadful days had never existed, she was back to her happy water baby self again.  She will never remember those three days, but they are three days I will never forget.  Especially if this site lasts for the rest of my life.

That experience has made me so thankful that Sweet Cheeks loves taking baths.  Before it happened, I took those happy shower times for granted.  Not anymore.  Now every time she smiles or laughs in that bathtub, I say a little “thank-you” in my head.  I don’t know how I would survive our nightly bedtime routine, which includes that bath, if she didn’t enjoy it.  We would probably have to change the routine completely.

When you start thinking about one thing that you are thankful for, you can’t help thinking of more.  I am thankful that Sweet Cheeks can fall asleep on her own in her crib.  I am thankful that Smarty Pants can do the same.  I am thankful that Smarty Pants loves to eat sushi, and that he loves to read books with me.  These are just a few examples of the many things that I am thankful for.

Take a moment to forget about the terrible twos and the fact that your kid doesn’t eat his brussel sprouts, or that he spilled your coffee on your new hardwood floor.  Think about the things your kid does really well or even fantastically.  The things he does that you would miss if he didn’t do them.

Now close your eyes and say a little “thank-you,” either to yourself, your kid, or your deity of choice.  And write a comment here too to tell us what it is.  Don’t hold out on us, it’s almost Christmas!

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When we moved into our new place, we bought a new mattress to go with it.  It was fairly expensive, but we figured we spend 1/3 of our time on it, so we might as well make that time as comfortable as possible.

All was well in Never Never Land until “that night” that kicked our butts, woke us up, opened our eyes, and called us to action.

Smarty Pants woke up in the middle of the night that night, and we brought him to our bed to sleep it off.  It just so happened that he wet the bed that night too.  Our bed.

He doesn’t wet the bed often.  Rarely in fact.  But when it rains, it pours.  And it poured through our waterphilic mattress pad, seeped on past the pillowtop, and settled comfortably in the foamy core of our new, posh, mattress.

Luckily, the mattress cleaners came over faster than we could utter the words “microbial growth.”  We forked over the hundred bucks and they did their thing, leaving us with a soaking mattress filled with a chemical soup of cleaning agents.  We slept on the pull-out that night, waiting for the mattress to dry.  The spring driving into my back left me awake long enough to ponder the wonders of waterproof mattress pads.

We bought two – one for our bed and one for Smarty Pants’ bed.  They have been invaluable.  We would have had at least three or four more mattress cleanings and one total mattress replacement (for Smarty Pants’ mattress, after a night of diarrhea) without them.  That’s at least a thousand dollars saved right there, and I am sure there will be more liquidy nights to come.

So if you are thinking of getting a waterproof mattress pad for you and/or your kids, or if you have kids and don’t have waterproof mattress pads yet, I say go for it.  They are not so expensive and they save you lots of money and nights on the pull-out in the long run.

We bought ours from Sleep Clean and are very satisfied.  Sleep Clean is based in Canada – that link will take you to the Canadian part of their page, but they also sell and ship for free to U.S. customers, and their U.S. homepage is here.  Nobody is paying me to write this, I am just passing on the word about them because their waterproof mattress pads have served us well.

Our waterproof mattress pads look and feel like any other mattress pads.  They are comfortable to sleep on and really are completely waterproof.  For us, they have survived all of the following, without letting a drop of wet-stuff through to our mattress:

• breast milk overflows
• diaper leakages
• projectile-poos
• spit-up episodes
• bed wettings
• diarrhea (yeah, I wasn’t too pleased by it either)

You know if you have kids you will experience one or all of the above, and if you’re like me, you’ll experience them all at least once on a bed.  A waterproof mattress pad sounds almost too obvious, but it wasn’t for us until that fateful night.

So if you haven’t thought about getting a waterproof mattress pad yet, you might want to start thinking about one now… I can honestly say that it works, and I am sure it will increase the life your mattress by a year or two.

Flickr photo courtesy of soundfromwayout

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