The parent help thread

[Chingas]

Thank you to all for the suggestions. As it turns out the wife saved the day and
Took care of it. Looks like a crafty bracelet set thingamabob and small hatchimals for the win today.

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Originally Posted by Slava

I might be alone in this, but I prefer not to buy kids gift cards. I think it's way better to give them an actual gift to open, and while I'm at it, gift bags are lame. Spend like 2 minutes and wrap the gift up.

What you might be alone in is doing any of that. Gifts and wrapping are way above my pay grade in the household pecking order.

[GGG]

That crafty bracelet set sucks to receive as a gift.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Bend it like Bourgeois

What you might be alone in is doing any of that. Gifts and wrapping are way above my pay grade in the household pecking order.

Haha, I get sent out to grab a last minute gift mostly because my wife doesn't want to. It's not prestigious!

[OutOfTheCube]

Mastermind Toys does free gift wrapping on the spot for purchases, can be very helpful.

[GordonBlue]

what is the going rate for a baby sitter nowadays?

[mikephoen]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

what is the going rate for a baby sitter nowadays?

I think Netflix is $8.99 a month or so.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by GGG

That crafty bracelet set sucks to receive as a gift.

Just curious, why is that? Parental involvement in the production? I have younger boys, but would have thought that seemed like a nice gift.

[shotinthebacklund]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

what is the going rate for a baby sitter nowadays?

we pay 15hr awake 10hr sleeping. seems good value to me. in my travels as a parent those rates are pretty common. 10/hr is lower then some other we pay.



How to manage child care with one parent shift work? thats our new issue of the month. advise?

[CliffFletcher]

My kids were totally into crafts at 7-9. They liked finishing tactile projects and getting a sense of accomplishment.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Just curious, why is that? Parental involvement in the production? I have younger boys, but would have thought that seemed like a nice gift.

The kits have horrible instructions, and the level of skill required is higher than I think the average kid compared to the age on the box or Parent who isn't crafty. It's not something I was able to set up and then let the kids do.

If you compare it to a lego set it just doesn't have the same quality. I also have girls so they get two at each party

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

what is the going rate for a baby sitter nowadays?

Junior-high age babysitters in my neighbourhood ask for about $7-8/hr, presumably it goes up as they get older. I usually pay a bit more.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by GGG

The kits have horrible instructions, and the level of skill required is higher than I think the average kid compared to the age on the box or Parent who isn't crafty. It's not something I was able to set up and then let the kids do.

If you compare it to a lego set it just doesn't have the same quality. I also have girls so they get two at each party

Fair enough. My kids are too little for complicated beads anyway (2 and 4) but if you compare toys quality-wise to lego, you might end up with only Lego toys*. We have a metric crap ton of toys in our basement, and the Lego is easily the the highest quality.

*This may not be a bad thing...

[ma-skis.com]

A friend gave us a great idea which we planted into all of our kids friends.

He gave us the 5 and 5 party. $5 goes to the birthday kid to do what he wants, $5 goes to a charity of the birthday kids choice. Most of his friends who were invited started doing the same thing which made birthdays so much easier on me.

It worked great for us, but we had to get the ball rolling.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by Ashartus

Junior-high age babysitters in my neighbourhood ask for about $7-8/hr, presumably it goes up as they get older. I usually pay a bit more.

my wife was on one of the online mommy boards and it seems a lot of people are paying around minimum wage.

just thinking that would make for an expensive night out.
I'm jealous of people who have family and grandparents to help.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by GordonBlue

my wife was on one of the online mommy boards and it seems a lot of people are paying around minimum wage.



just thinking that would make for an expensive night out.

I'm jealous of people who have family and grandparents to help.

Just teach your kids to stay put on the CTrain - $10.50 transit day pass for the win.

[Izzle]

Probably the best place to ask this (didn't want to start up a new thread)

My sister is visiting from the USA with her 3 year old son for a short week long vacation. I don't have a car seat and was wondering if there was a place where I could rent a car seat for my nephew? Is such a thing even possible?

[MacDaddy77]

Send me a PM If your in Deep South I have one you can borrow

[snootchiebootchies]

Originally Posted by Izzle

Probably the best place to ask this (didn't want to start up a new thread)

My sister is visiting from the USA with her 3 year old son for a short week long vacation. I don't have a car seat and was wondering if there was a place where I could rent a car seat for my nephew? Is such a thing even possible?

You can buy cheap car seats on kijiji. We just sold one for $20. It was a great car seat but our kids are moving into booster seats now and the car seat only had 8 months left before its expiry date. I would imagine you can find used car seats on kijiji at really good prices that are also nearing their expiry dates.

[Fuzz]

Car seats expire? TIL.