I don’t doubt, just questions things. Last night around 8.30 or so I got a call from my mom in Toronto, she sounded in a bit of a panic. My mom is one of the coolest people I know and hardly ever shows emotions (my entire family is like that), unless it’s something sad. In her typical “Trini” accent she started off… “Son you have rice?” Where was she going with this? They had just come back from the grocery store and she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Across the board the prices were sky-high and in some cases you couldn’t get some items. I’m not sure if this is typical to our Caribbean heritage or not, but we eat a lot of rice, flour and we do find a way to cook just about everything with oil.

So I promised my mom last night that I would go out and get stocked-up on the items I mentioned above (ones she said that the prices were high). I just came back from driving around from grocery store to grocery store like a freaking mad-man. Rice - We usually get the 8kg package of long grain brown rice which usually cost about $7-$8. It took me 4 stores to finally secure some (most stores the shelves were bare) and the price was close to $14 a bag when - I finally got 2 bags. Oil - the crappy stuff that we never buy, that usually sells for under $3 L were being listed at $7.48 and above. Hopefully when we go to Costso in an hour they’ll still have the good stuff (low in saturated fats and cholesterol) at a descent price. The small bottle were over $7 for a 500ml bottle at the grocery stores. Flour - Yikes.. if you could find it, the bags we usually purchase were up from $5.50 all the way to $13.00.

I’m telling you.. it was kinda apocalyptic out there this morning when all I was seeing were bare shelves and double and triple the normal prices for food stuff. Looking over one of the receipts from this morning I noticed I paid over $4.00 for a package of hamburger buns that normally cost less that 2 bucks! Note to self - better learn to bake bread with the expensive flour you just purchased.
How the $%#$ are we supposed to survive with these HIGH food prices and food shortages? Yea… driving around from store to store will also cost me. Gas is listed at $1.25 and above per Liter. That’s about $4.72 a gallon for my American friends.

Time to buckle up people! I didn’t doubt my mom last night, I just questioned what she was telling me since only last week I didn’t notice any difference in prices at the grocers.

Importance of making time for your family emerges from the fundamental goal of life-peace and happiness. In our pursuit for a successful business we normally overlook the need for making time for the family. But the fact is that time spent with the family help us to succeed in business as well. Surprising? But it is true.

Family Time Helps Business

In today’s busy world one gets stressed easily. Projects to be completed, deadlines to be met, stringent time schedule all add up to one’s stress. Do you know that time spent with family is a great stress buster. When you play around with your kids for some time you feel relieved and happy. Your state of mind becomes fresh and active. This helps you to perform better. So, if you wish to achieve more spend some quality time with your family

Family Time Ensures Health

By making time for your family you ensure that you are free from anxiety and stress. Precious time that you spend with your family guarantees your physical health and mental well-being. Family time helps you to ward off stress related health problems like blood pressure etc.

Family Time Betters Bonding

Importance of making time for your family cannot be over emphasized, as it is very essential for harmonious human relationships. Time devoted to family assures proper communication among family members. It gives a chance to understand each other better and the situation on the whole. If you let your family members know about your plans they can support you easily. Such support you get and the secure feeling you have from strong relationships help you achieve your goals.

Time spent together by the family members is very valuable as it helps grow love, mutual support, understanding, long lasting relationships and happiness.

Family Time Makes Better Parents

Remember your childhood days? How eagerly you waited for your dad to come to your birthday party? How desperately you wanted your mother do be there for you during a problem? So, please ensure that your business does not come in the way between you and your kids. Young souls need the support and guidance of the elders very badly. It is the duty of responsible parents to see that their kids learn good behavior and acquire skills to face life.

Parents should dedicate a share of their time to their kids. Good parenting callas for helping their kids with their lessons. Growing children need that secure feeling more than anything else. It is important on parents’ part to assure that.

The importance of making time for your family when you operate a business can be clearly understood from the following facts.

- Precious family time helps marriages survive

- Time spent with the family improves your performance; you get peace and happiness
- Kids get the support they need and they grow into good human beings
- Happy families result in a happier you and a successful you

What are you waiting for you then? Make time for your family and get the taste of peace, success, happiness and contentment.

For the readers who celebrate/observe Easter, I wanted to wish you all the best as you spend time enjoying whatever your traditions are. I saw that John Chow did a charity drive to raise funds to help feed some less fortunate… wish I had seen his drive earlier so I could contribute. I guess I don’t need an event to contribute, so I’ll donate something to the local food bank. If you’re having family and friends over for dinner this weekend as the norm with many in Canada and the US, cherish the time. Not many of us are given that opportunity… but that’s family politics for ya! (I’ll never fully understand the North American understanding of family) 

As we end a great week at Obzokee.com, which saw us discuss many areas of working from home and making money on the internet… I’d like to remind you to leave us a comment if you have any questions, suggestions or would like to contribute to this wonderful community we’re trying to develop.

Before I go I’d like to take a moment to say a couple happy birthdays to… Our daughter Kieana turned 15 yesterday and Caron will be one year closer to her pension cheque tomorrow. All the best ladies, here’s a little something for you…

Kids these days!

As a kid, I used to love to sit at family dinner with one foot on the chair, my knee visible just above the table’s edge. “Who invited you?” my mom would casually ask it. Eventually, I stopped bringing my uninvited knee to dinner.

People tend to say that kids today have no manners. Truth is, they’ve never had any to begin with — only parents to gently teach them. If anything, it’s the gentle teaching part that seems to have fallen by the wayside.

In her new book Generation Me, about an entitled group born in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, psychologist and social commentator Jean M. Twenge argues there has been a decline in manners and politeness as people care less and less what others think.

“Because we no longer believe there is one right way of doing things,” she writes, “most of us were never taught the rules of etiquette.” She also points out parents have a harder time these days getting their message across in a popular culture filled with questionable role models preaching disrespect.

But Louise Fox, the Toronto owner of Etiquette Ladies, likes to look on the bright side. She says today’s kids may have “McManners,” but they are more advanced and perceptive in other ways. About two years ago the graduate of the Protocol School of Washington, who got her start by teaching etiquette to people in the business world, began to teach etiquette to children. For three weeks now, she’s been offering two-hour, in-home group manners parties for $30 to $40 per child.

The half-dozen parents who have hosted so far, she explains, do not seem the slightest bit embarrassed to admit their kids have fallen behind on the whole “please” and “thank-you” thing. “If I tell any parent what I do, they go, ‘Oh my kids need that,’” says Fox.

“Everyone knows how busy parents are. Parents are focusing on other things and they’re saying ‘Wow, this has skipped us by.’ ” Fox says her services are in demand for a number of other reasons, too. Some parents today were raised in the 1960s and ’70s environments devoted to avoiding pretension, and don’t know how to teach manners to their children.

And a growing number of parents from other countries and cultures want their children schooled in the North American way of eating and interacting.

Not only does Fox focus on dinner table etiquette, like keeping elbows in and mouths closed at the table, she goes over other basics, like how kids should introduce themselves and answer their parents’ phone.

Fox points out she has one keen advantage over parents who are trying to reinforce manners at home — a clean slate with kids tired of hearing from their parents.

“You have to keep it positive. Then kids are responsive to it,” she said. “Because what kids hate about manners is they’re in this situation their mothers are saying ‘Don’t do that! Don’t do that! Don’t do that!’ It’s correcting, correcting, nagging, nitpicking. Show them beforehand what they do.”

This article was written by Ann Marie McQueen and can be found at: http://lifewise.canoe.ca/Style/Trends/2007/03/27/3845156-sun.html

With 3 children (teen and pre-teen) we’ve heard it all. Here’s an article I came across this morning I thought I’d share with you..

The 6 most annoying things kids say — and the best ways to respond
By Melody Warnick Parenting.com

Snuggling under her blankets at bedtime, Ella, 3, gazed up at me and announced longingly, “I want a new mommy.” Not even four years into my tenure as Mom and I was already being edged out of the job. Even worse, Ella started announcing “I want a new mom” frequently, like whenever I failed to buy her a ring pop at the grocery-store checkout. Some days, it was all I could do not to retort, “Yeah? Well, I want a new kid!”

Developing the knack to verbally push your buttons is just part of your child’s linguistic and behavioral development. The challenge is to teach her to be courteous while allowing her to assert herself ? and do it without responding like you’re 3 years old. What to say (and what to skip) in response to these gems:

“Mine!”

Whatever 18-month-old Weston Congdon has, his 3-year-old brother, Addison, wants, even if it’s something that’s collected dust in the toy box for the past six months. “What drives me crazy is that usually it’s a baby toy, like a teething ring,” says their mom, Sarah, of Ames, Iowa. “I think, ‘What are you gonna do with it other than take it away from your brother?’” Now Weston, a beginning talker, walks around the house repeating “Mine, mine, mine” ad nauseam. His frustrated mom has been known to retort, “Well, then, the couch is mine and you can’t sit on it.”

A better way to respond: As tempting as it is to give little ones a dose of their own medicine, it won’t help them see the error of their ways, and it may confuse them. Yet keeping your cool in the face of “Mine!” can tax even the most Zen-minded mom. “Ignoring the behavior is best, but even as a clinical psychologist, I can’t,” admits Ray Levy, Ph.D., a dad of one and the coauthor of “Try and Make Me!” “I’d rather have something to say in response that I can depend on.” His solution: Toss out a “brain-dead phrase” — a short-and-sweet sound bite that lets a persistent child know he won’t get his way. With a child who insists that everything is his, simply keep repeating, “Sorry” or “It’s nice to want things.” End of story. Even if the empty phrase doesn’t completely shut down the whining, having something — anything — to say will keep you from saying something that you shouldn’t.

“It’s not fair.”

Attempts to pry her 4-year-old son away from one last episode of his favorite show usually turn into major bedtime battles for Anne Eide of Columbus, Mississippi. “William will say, ‘But it’s not fair!’ Then he’ll cross his arms and stomp down the hall, come back again, and repeat, ‘Mom, it’s not fair.’” That’s when Eide sometimes can’t help but let loose with “Listen here, Mister, you either turn off the TV now or you won’t watch it for a week!”

A better way to respond: On nights when she’s a tad more patient, Eide uses a kid-friendly example to explain why he doesn’t always get his way. “I say, ‘Daddy doesn’t want to be in school all the time, but right now he needs to.’” Translation: Even adults don’t get everything they want. The approach usually works. “He looks at me kind of like, ‘Oookay.’ Then he goes and gets ready for bed,” says Eide. Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, a mom of two and author of “Kids, Parents, and Power Struggles,” recommends asking your child to start over and try again with less irritating words, such as “Can we please talk about this?” or “Mom, I don’t like that rule.” Next time he complains that something’s not fair, you can say, “Remember, we talked about this before. What words are you supposed to use instead?” Giving your child new ways to express himself makes him more likely to abandon the annoying ones.

“You’re not the boss of me.”

Eleanor Petersen of St. Louis, Missouri, wants to do everything herself. So when her mom, Amy, was in a rush and buckled the car seat for her, Eleanor, 3, declared, “You’re not the boss of me.” Petersen had to bite her tongue to keep from answering, “You wanna bet?”

A better way to respond: “As a mom, you have to try not to get caught up in the words and instead connect with the feeling underneath them,” says Kurcinka. “You can ask, ‘What’s going on here? What’s the need she’s trying to express, and how can I help her do it more appropriately?’” In a calmer moment, Petersen realized that what her daughter really wanted was control. When her mom gave her options (like “Do you want to do the top buckle or the bottom buckle?”), Eleanor was far more likely to cooperate. You can even head off “You’re not the boss of me” by teaching your child to say, “I’d like a choice,” instead.

“I want it now!” As I was starting to make dinner, my daughter asked for a cookie, and when I said she could have one for dessert, she launched a major whinefest. “But I want a cookie right now!” Ella demanded. None of my attempts at reason dissuaded her. She just kept insisting again and again and again. Desperate for the “I want it now!” noise to stop, I broke down and gave her the cookie.

A better way to respond: Though I usually stand my ground, giving in once can set you back light-years when it comes to nagging, says Paul Coleman, a dad of three and author of “How to Say It to Your Kids.” “That’s how slot machines work: Every tenth pull you get a reward. It’s not a big reward, but it’s enough to keep you putting more money in the machine.” Instead, he says, I should tell my daughter no once or twice, then ignore future requests and get her mind on something else, like a silly dance or a knock-knock joke. The good news: Such dogged persistence can be a plus in the real world. “You can step back and say, ‘When they grow up, at least they’re not going to be pushovers,’” says Coleman.

“You never let me do anything.”

Carl Mowry, 10, has been known to whine that he never gets to do what he wants. His mom, Carla, has a take-no-prisoners response: “You know what?” says the Omaha, Nebraska, mom. “You’re right! I will leave your life alone. But I want $800 for the house payment, $200 for food….” Carl gets a full list, and he has to write it all down.

A better way to respond: Lecturing may shut down the grumbling, but it doesn’t get at the problem. Find out what’s behind the whine by saying, “Is something wrong? I get the feeling you’re upset about more than just not getting to play at Brad’s house.” Whether or not your child wants to confide in you, at least you’re opening the door to the conversation — on his level.

“I don’t like you.”

I’m certainly not the only mom whose feelings have been bruised by a kid who demands a mom swap or says, “I hate you!” Greyson Kreis, 6, of Fairfax Station, Virginia, put in a request for a new mom when his mother, Kim, made him drop the latest Captain Underpants book to clean up his room and turn in early. Unlike me, she had a quick comeback. “I told him that he had better enjoy that night in his bed because the next day I would find him a new mom, and he could go live in her house — but without his toys,” she says.

A better way to respond: The unanimous chorus from experts: Don’t take it personally. Kids say these things when they’re frustrated or angry. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad parent. Of course, distancing yourself when your kid seems to be dissing your mothering skills isn’t easy, but letting your child think that you’re all too happy to get rid of him — or worse, that you hate him, too — isn’t okay. Since the under-9 set are literal thinkers, they won’t detect the reverse psychology at work, and you might end up undermining your child’s trust.

To stay calm, try to pinpoint the real reason your kid is lashing out: For 7-year-old Shaun Herock of De Pere, Wisconsin, it was frustration and fatigue. He snapped, “I don’t like you! You’re not my friend!” when his mom, Mia, refused to grab hamburgers on the way home from a two-hour football practice. Her measured response: “That’s fine. You’re entitled to feel that way.” Shaun stewed for a while, but by the time they got home, the whole thing had blown over. Herock recognized that her son only said “I don’t like you” when he was overtired, and that helped her keep her temper. Easier said than done, of course, but if you’re upset, wait until you’ve calmed down to say anything. “When you get emotional, you lose 50 IQ points,” says Ray Levy. “But later on you can say, ‘It hurts my feelings when you tell me you hate me.’ Usually when kids are calm, they’re pretty remorseful.”

My daughter’s requests for a new mom have died down recently, but now she likes to say, “You hurt my feelings,” when I refuse yet another visit to her bedroom at night. While most of the time I manage a response like, “Thanks for sharing,” I’m not always as calm as I’d like. “We all lose it and say the wrong thing,” says Levy. “But it’s good for parents to apologize or change their behavior, instead of thinking they have to be right or perfect all the time.” In other words, it’s always okay to say “I’m sorry” to your kids.

Melody Warnick is expecting her second daughter, who will no doubt want a new mom someday, too.