Category: Parenting

Raising children can be expensive, and the costs add up even more as they grow older. Whether it be the rising cost of college, funding extracurricular activities, or paying for sentimental moments like prom, class trips, and more, it can be intimidating to think about paying for their future endeavors.

However, no matter what your financial situation is, it’s possible to strategically save up and plan ahead for your children. Here are five creative ways to start.

1. Use a 529 College Savings Plan

If your biggest concern about your children’s future is paying for college, you should consider opening up a 529 College Savings Plan. This is a smart decision to save for the cost of college as this account is designed specifically for higher education.

This plan is beneficial as it usually has low fees, and any gains and withdrawals are exempt from federal income tax as long as they’re spent on qualified educational expenses. Friends and family can also contribute to these accounts, which can help relieve pressure to save for your children’s college by yourself. Instead of having people buy your children toys or other items they might grow out of, it might be a better use of their money to contribute to this account for birthdays or holidays.

Another great feature of a 529 plan is that you can easily change the account’s beneficiaries, which is especially helpful if you have multiple children. This way, in case one child gets a full ride to college or decides not to attend college at all, you can dedicate the money toward someone else. If you’re unsure your children want to go to college, some of these accounts also allow you to use this money for private K-12 schools as well. Keep in mind that 529 plans function on a state level rather than a federal level, so some benefits may vary based on what state’s plan you choose.

2. Tap Into Your Home Equity

If you’re a homeowner, you can take advantage of your home equity to save for your children’s future. This is a resource some homeowners might not realize they can financially benefit from, and it can be a budget-friendly way to fund different goals or projects.

With this type of loan, you’re able to borrow against how much equity you have in your home, so it’s important to make sure you’ve paid off a decent amount on your house before you pursue this option. This loan is ideal for saving and paying for your children’s future as there are no restrictions on what you can use the money for—you can save for your children’s college tuition, save for a pricey class trip, or even support a new hobby they want to take up.

Additionally, you’ll receive the payment in one lump sum with fixed interest rates, so you don’t have to wait to start saving and planning ahead. Just make sure to adjust your budget to account for monthly payments as your home acts as collateral for this loan.

3. Start a Side Hustle

If your current budget doesn’t give you much room to save money for your children, starting a side hustle can help you earn some passive income.

Think about any hobbies you already enjoy doing and try to monetize them so your side hustle doesn’t feel like a burden. You could sell homemade art, crafts, or offer a service like home cleaning or dog walking. The options are endless, so choose something you’re passionate about.

Another popular side hustle idea is purchasing a rental property for passive income. This can give you a significant amount of money to save for your children’s future, and after your kids grow up, you can use the profit for other expenses or goals. If you really want to plan ahead, you can buy a home where your child is attending college and use this property as their college housing. The rent from their friends and roommates can cover your mortgage payment, and you can save money from campus housing.

Depending on your side hustle, you can also get your children involved to give them the opportunity to contribute to their future expenses. This can serve as a fun, bonding experience and can be a useful opportunity to teach them more about money and running a business.

4. Open a Children’s Savings Account

Just because you’re the parent doesn’t mean you have to do all of the heavy lifting when it comes to saving. Encourage your children to also contribute money toward their futures by starting a children’s savings account.

Parents co-own the account, so this is a safe and effective way to promote financial wellness among your children early on and can help teach them to save their money rather than spend it. For instance, if your children earn money from a lemonade stand or other activities, motivate them to allot some of that money for their savings. You can also put a portion of their allowance or any monetary gifts in this account to help them save up quickly.

5. Sell Unused Items

Children grow up faster than you realize, which also means they grow out of a lot of things you buy them. As their hobbies, interests, and needs change, try to capitalize on unused items rather than letting them go to waste.

Instead of donating or throwing these items away, try to sell them to make some extra money you can reinvest into your children’s future. For instance, if your kids have played baseball for years and now want to try lacrosse, sell their old equipment and use that money to buy the new materials they’ll need.

Reselling items has become popular and there are several online apps and websites created specifically for this. You might even find some gently used items you can buy for your kids at a discounted price. If online platforms aren’t for you, you can also try selling directly to consignment stores or even holding a garage sale.  Sell used college books that may be in the house from older family members that have finished college.

Saving for your children’s future can seem daunting, but there are effective ways to plan ahead and afford their dreams. Seek creative ways to invest and save your money, and you’ll be financially prepared to face future expenses.

Raising teenagers can be both rewarding and challenging, especially as they enter the complexities of  adolescence. During this time, teens face significant emotional and psychological shifts, which can sometimes make it difficult for parents to recognize when their child is struggling.

A teen can develop similar mental health conditions as an adult, yet their symptoms may be different. Mental illness in adolescents can be difficult for parents to notice. Therefore, many teens who can benefit from teen mental health treatment often don’t receive the help they need.

Parenting is a challenging job and parenting teens is quite tricky. Teenagers face many changes as they approach adulthood and the struggles that come with it. Peer pressure, bullying, body shaming, and negative self-perception all fall under the list of troubled teen issues. As a parent, you want to ensure your teen is mentally, emotionally, and physically active.

What are the signs of mental illness in teens? What can parents do to help?   We’ll seek to answer these questions.

What is Mental Illness?

Mental health is defined as the overall mental wellness of a individual and how they think, regulate their feelings and behavior. Mental illness or a mental health condition can be defined as patterns or changes in thinking, feeling, or behaving that result in distress in a person’s ability to function.

In teens, mental health disorders are delays or disruptions in developing age-related thinking, behavior, social skills, or managing emotions. These issues are distressing to teens and can disturb their ability to function at school, home, or other social conditions.

Common Mental Health Disorders in Teens:

Mental health issues in teens or developmental disorders that mental health professionals address can include the following;

• Anxiety issues

Anxiety disorder in a teen involves feelings of endless fears and worries that disturb their ability to participate in school activities. Parents will notice anxiety when they see social stress, generalized anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorders.

• Attention- deficit or hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

When comparing most teens of the same age, teens with ADHD have difficulty paying attention, impulsive behavior and hyperactivity.  They experience these issues at the same time in varying degrees.

• Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

Autism spectrum disorder is a sensory condition that appears in early childhood, generally before age three. The severity of ASD’s situation can vary.  A child with this disorder has difficulty interacting and communicating with others.

• Depression and other mood disorders

Depression is a continued feeling of sadness and loss of interest that upsets an adolescent’s ability to perform and interact with others. Bipolar disorder additionally brings about outrageous emotional episodes, as well as rapid mood swings that can range from from melancholy to overly enthusiastic. The latter might be risky or even dangerous.

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

PTSD is extended emotional stress, nervousness, anxiety, upsetting memories, bad dreams, and problematic behaviors in response to traumatic events. These events may include past or present abuse, violence, and injury.

Read how art therapy has been helping kids transition from negative experiences to positive emotions related to various psychological, developmental and social issues.

Reason Teen Can Develop Mental Health Problems:

Though there can be various reasons and circumstances contributing to a teen’s mental health condition, some of the primary causes can be the following;

• Hormones

Changes in hormones and brain development can put your teen at risk of mental health problems. Research has shown that when all the parts of the neural system don’t develop at the correct ratio, a teen may experience changes in thinking, mood, and behavior.

• Environmental issues

Environmental issues can also be a factor that can contribute to a teen’s state of mental health. Any traumatic incidents like the history of any abuse can also increase a teen’s risk.

• Stress

Stress can be a common factor in bringing on mental illness in teenagers. If your teen is being threatened at school or is a victim of cyberbullying or he or she is undergoing a lot of pressure, they may be more prone to mental health issues.

Warning Signs to Look for Teenage Mental Illness:

Mental illness symptoms can be different in teens, but some common warning signs include these behaviors;

• Changes in sleeping habits

Your teenager may say they are having trouble sleeping, or they begin taking multiple or daily short naps at school. In the event that your child feels the need to remain in bed the entire day or wants to stay up throughout the night, this can be a warning sign of mental illness advancing in the teens life.

• Lost interest in regular activities

In the event that your teens wants to withdraw from their favorite activity or indicates they no longer want to hang out with family or friends, then they might be going through a mental issue.

• A changes in school performance

Mental health conditions frequently lead to dramatic changes in motivation to start or finish school work.  A loss of interest in school overall or a sudden decrease in school grades could very well be an indication of mental issues.

• Changes in appetite or weight

Skipping out on meals, hoarding food, and quick weight changes could be a sign of an eating disorder.

• Extreme agitation

Unusual resentment, unexpected emotional responses such as crying, and high degrees of irritability can be a sign of mental illness.

• Increased isolation

A strong desire to stay distant from others or being very secretive might be an indication of a problem.

How to Help Teen to Deal with Mental Illness?

 Parents can play a crucial part in supporting their teen’s mental treatment. Here are few vital points that can help a parent to support their teen’s mental health treatment;

• Take time to research and learn about your teen’s mental illness.
• Seek family counseling that includes all individuals as partners in the treatment plan.
• If you do not have a family pet, consider the benefits of animal therapy and which pet may be the most beneficial.
• Ask your teenager’s mental health professional for counsel on responding to your teen and dealing with their conduct.
• Take part in parent training programs, particularly those created for parents of teenagers with mental issues.
• Engage in activities to unwind and have fun with your teen.
• Study stress management techniques to assist you in responding to situations calmly.
• Express appreciation for your teens strengths and abilities.

Explore professional support options for dealing with mental health challenges. A modern teen mental health treatment center such as Visions Treatment Centers can provide tailored programmes that cater specifically to adolescents. These centres focus on developing coping strategies and therapeutic techniques that empower teens to navigate their mental health journey effectively.

Mental illness is like any other illness.  It takes professional attention to help the person who is mentally ill to improve and manage their health moving forward. Beware of the signs and be ready to learn and provide appropriate solutions.  Get to know your kids and learn how to make them mentally strong for the challenges they will face as they grow.

Got the Winter Blues? Maybe It’s SAD

Have you been feeling down lately? Moody? You can’t seem to concentrate? Want to lay around all the time? You could be SAD. We’re not talking about having the blues; SAD stands for Seasonal Affective Disorder.  And it’s ok.  You are not abnormal and you are certainly not alone.

Seasonal Affective Disorder is a medically-recognized condition.  The symptoms are similar to being depressed. People with SAD can’t concentrate, have less energy, are moody and can have problems sleeping.

Researchers think that SAD is caused by three main factors:

• Biological clocks. Your body is used to seeing the sun for a certain time and being in the dark for a certain time. Winter means shorter day, which confuses your internal clock.

• Serotonin levels. Serotonin is a mood booster that your body makes naturally. Sunlight helps your body make serotonin, so when cold weather keeps you inside and out of the sun, you could have very low serotonin levels. This could make you feel sad or tired and even more hungry.

• Melatonin levels. Your body makes melatonin naturally, but when days get short, your body makes less. This makes it harder to sleep.

SAD is also believed to effect younger people more than older people. That’s why you need to be aware of SAD. When you see a friend is posting dark or depressing messages, maybe he or she is suffering from SAD.

If you are feeling low and find that your mood is effecting your schoolwork or relationships, you should mention this to your parents. You could be suffering from SAD and need to see a medical doctor for help.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Most of the time, SAD is just a natural response to a long stretch of cold and dark days. If it’s an issue with mental illness, seek out resources and help from a professional about your specific issues.  In either case, there are steps you can take to help relieve symptoms.

The first and easiest thing you can do is get more sunlight. Bundle up and walk to school if you can. Or grab some friends for an outdoor game.

Being active is another way to treat SAD. Exercise increases serotonin levels, helping make up for the serotonin you lose during winter. This could be playing basketball in school or following an exercise video online. By getting your exercise outside when the sun is shining, you get twice the benefit.

You’ve probably heard the phrase “Talk is cheap”.  But in the case of the winter blues, talk is with more than gold!  The phrase “talk is cheap” is about when people talk about doing something good, but never do it.  What they say doesn’t have real value because it produces no action.  But when you’re feel down, it’s so important to express your feelings.  Talk to your friends and family about it.  Just the act of talking will most certainly make you feel a bit better.  And talking can also bring solutions of fun things to do to help you snap out of the doldrums.

Think about SAD when you check your social media. When you see a friend making posts that sound depressed or moody, pick up your phone and invite him or her out to do something fun.

You aren’t a doctor, but you can still help fight Seasonal Affective Disorder.

As parents, we do get alarmed when our children fail to respond to their names. That’s because this could be a sign of autism and other developmental delays we don’t want our little ones going through. Needless to say, children also develop at their own pace, and what you might take as a sign of autism could simply be your youngster operating on their own timeline.

That said, remaining in the dark and hoping for the best is hardly a space that parents want to occupy when it comes to their children. And while we can never be one-hundred percent sure of the answer until we see understanding reflected in our child’s eyes, it does help when we know the signs are mostly pointing toward a positive outcome.

So, do babies recognize their names all the time? No, they don’t. But this shouldn’t be an immediate cause for concern unless your little one is way past this milestone. Besides, you can help speed things up on your end by employing the speech-enhancing tips we’ll be sharing today.

Getting Your Children To Respond To Their Name More Often

For some children, it takes a while to have full recognition of their name. Sometimes, they’ll respond to it right away; other times, they’ll ignore it completely. If an intellectual disability is not the reason behind this, you can get your child to acknowledge their name with the help of the following:

Response in Isolation

There’s no question that children get distracted easily. They might know you’re calling their name yet fail to respond because their attention is on something or someone else. That is why you should first teach name recognition in isolation.

Teach your child to recognize his or her name when there are little to no distractions. Your bedroom or the kitchen could be a good area to start since it doesn’t have any toys lying around or any fun things taking place.

Once in this isolated environment, sit your child down and start the name-recognition process. To do things correctly, you must prepare something your child likes as a reward. It could be their favorite food, toy, or gesture from you.

Wait for a specific time when they’re looking away before you call out their name. If they look your way, hand over a reward. If they don’t respond, call their name out again louder, accompanied by some sort of commotion, like clapping, waving, or tapping on the table.

Whenever you present a reward, make sure your little one knows what it’s for. Do this repeatedly, using just their first name and only use waving and clapping when they fail to respond the first time.

Response in a Structured Setting

Now, it’s time to dial up the distraction levels and see how your child fares. After all, distractions are a reality your youngster eventually has to deal with. Your child should learn to recognize their name with distractions present.

To do this, take your child to a room where an appliance or two is running. It could be the television or radio or some toys lying on the floor. Repeat what you did in the previous method and call out your child’s name to see if they respond. If they do, reward them. If not, say their name again louder, accompanied by some tapping and clapping.

Of course, the presence of distractions means it might be a bit harder for your little one to focus on what you’re actually saying. Thus, give them a little more time to respond. You just have to keep calling out their name until they eventually look your way. Keep on practicing this method until you’re satisfied with your child’s level of response.

Response in an Unstructured Setting

You could be feeling a little bit better about the situation once your child nails the second method. However, things aren’t quite done just yet.

The third lesson involves getting your child to react to their name with any or all distractions present. So, in this case, you might want to bring them to a room that has all their favorite toys, people, and things to do.

Unleash them into the room before you call their name out. Make sure to stand close to them when you do and wait a moment for a response. If they recognize their name, proceed to hand over the reward and let them know what it’s for.

Though keep in mind that your child might not look your way all the time. What’s important is that he or she responds enough times for you to know that he or she absolutely recognizes the name you gave them.

Children and Their Unique Timelines

While a child has milestones you expect them to reach at a certain age, delays can often happen. Your child might not talk, respond, or act like their peers, and that could be perfectly okay and normal. Your child might simply be biding their time and will catch up eventually.

Though we also understand how this might keep you from getting some sleep. And in that event, you’d do well to get in touch with a speech language pathologist to help address the situation you suspect your child is in.

Expecting a baby? Explore tips on how to prepare before your baby arrives.

When you are looking to raise a happy family, you automatically need a property that can handle the demands of life with children. For many, an ideal home would be one with a big backyard for children to play, in a location where children can walk to school, and one that is near amenities such as a hospital or park.

While the thought of finding such a perfect family home is exciting, it is a challenging endeavor. If you are confronted with this dilemma, here are tips that you can leverage to find a family-friendly property:

1. Security

When house hunting, the safety of your family needs to be at the top of your mind. You are likely to find more affordable homes in neighborhoods that are more volatile.

It is vital to perform thorough research on the area that you wish to settle.

This ensures you provide a safe place for your family to live a happy and healthy life. It’s best to check what safety measures are in place in your prospective area; things to consider are their neighborhood watch programs, nearby police stations, etc.

Lastly, you can also ask your future neighbors for information regarding that area. This will ensure you have a complete picture before taking the plunge in purchasing your dream home.

2. Work with a real estate company or home builder

It is essential to be flexible in looking to buy established real estate. There will always be some compromise. Connecting with a knowledgeable real estate agent can be a great first step, as they can assist you in finding your dream home. While your mind may be fixated on the number of bedrooms or the square footage, a real estate advisor knows what issues to check on a property, such as mold, insect infestation, roofing issues, furnace problems, and leaks. This can help save you thousands of dollars.

Alternatively, if you want to ensure you get everything you are after in a dream home, you could consider a new home build by exploring land for sale nearby.  There are a myriad of builders who can assist you in building a new home. A great place to start is researching online, utilizing platforms such as Lotmix’s – house and land platform they can help you find the perfect builder. You may be surprised to find it is more affordable to start from scratch than to buy established!

3. Location near school and amenities

You can change the look and feel of a property, but there is nothing that you can do about its location!

When looking for a home, location is one of the significant considerations that you have to consider, particularly when you have young children.

An ideal location for a family home will take additional research to ensure it is near a quality school where you wish to take your children. If security is not an issue in your new neighborhood yours may even be able to walk to school.  At the very least your won’t have to struggle with a daily long commute.

Another factor to consider is whether or not your home is close enough to vital services, such as medical practices and hospitals. Use search tools like the eXp property search website to find a desireable property near the amenties you desire.

4. The house itself

In case you are not looking to build a new house, that means that you may be in search of an already built property. A house in poor condition can break the deal no matter how great its location. It would help if you got someone to inspect the home to find any critical defects.

Another thing to consider is the size of the lot. If you are buying a house that may need some work, it’s always best to keep the option open to potentially demolishing it in the future. You never know when your desires and needs in a home may change.

Checking what is and what isn’t allowed on a property is essential before making your big purchase—heritage overlays, for example, may prevent you from demolishing the house may be a deal-breaker.

Conclusion

Even after you have found a place and given your offer, you should continue looking for other places as you wait for a seller to accept your offer, as new properties are coming up for sale every day. Balancing work and family also has a lot to do with how far your job will be from your new home.  Often, the farther you live from work the less you will pay for your property.

A Longer commute means less time at home during the week.  As your kids get older, they will be facing the same issues when they find their first job as a teen or they decide to live at home while going to college. This means you may want to being those discussions about college with your kids sooner than later.  Remember to be open to making a few compromises along the way as you decide where to settle down.