I’ve been thinking lately about how many different parenting styles can lead to successful children.  I don’t want this blog to come across as a how-to manual. I don’t want to give the impression that this is the “right” or only way, and I definitely don’t want to sound like if you do things this way, parenting will be easy or your kids will be perfect.  My hope in writing this blog was to give some structure to your parenting, to have some principles to fall back on when things get hard and when you feel like you don’t know what to do. But many times, there is no right answer.  This is a painful situation for parents, but sitting with that discomfort is part of being an emotionally mature adult. Also, there are many times when any number of responses will be fine. If your overall approach is calm and kind, the details don’t matter as much.

As I think over my parenting career, I can identify three times when I had strong feelings about a parenting principle, but because of certain circumstances I chose to do something else. I thought I would write about them as an example of flexible parenting. We can have principles and beliefs about how to parent, but when those get in the way of our children’s needs, they are no longer serving us well.

Two of these changes had to do with my children’s eating habits. My kids are picky eaters to varying degrees. If they don’t like what we serve they won’t eat. Also, if they don’t have the energy to make a lunch, they would go without lunch. My philosophy regarding this was: they will learn eventually that they need to eat dinners they don’t like, or they’ll be hungry all night; or, they will learn eventually that they need to take the time to pack a lunch, so they won’t be hungry at school.

My husband and I parented according to this logic for quite a while, but finally we decided this wasn’t working for our particular kids. We elected to try something different.  We decided that our children needed more from us so that they could eat and be healthy, happy, and full! We changed our stance on two issues: dessert after dinner and pack your own lunch.

As a general rule, I don’t believe in offering dessert as a reward for eating dinner.  I have very strong feelings that this gives food too much power and infuses it with too much emotion. You demonize one food (I’m looking at you, broccoli) and glorify another (ice cream!).  All food should just be food; some you like, some you don’t.  You shouldn’t have to eat one to get the other. I believe that the promise of dessert after cleaning your plate gives the child food issues such as a dislike of the “have to” healthy food and an extreme desire for the reward food.  My theory was that if you were going to have dessert, offer it to everyone with no conditions attached.

But one of our daughters was so stubborn.  She would not eat dinner.  At first there were some conflicts as we tried to get her to eat.  Eventually we realized it was better to be calm and kind about it.  We explained that she doesn’t have to eat (because you can’t force a child to eat), but she does have to have a small amount of all the foods on her plate and she has to sit at the dinner table with us. On a typical night she would sit at the table for the requisite few minutes, then pick up her plate and take it over to the sink and go back to her room or to the couch.  There was no drama or begging (she was well trained) but there was also no eating!  Sometimes she would complain later of being hungry or ask to eat, but mostly she was (is) a strong-willed and stoic child who didn’t make a big deal of things (but also wouldn’t bend to our ways).

I don’t know how long this went on; it seems like the better part of a year.  Finally, we were worried enough about it and about her that my husband and I sat down to discuss it.  Even though we were totally against the idea of using dessert as an eat-your-dinner bribe, it seemed like the right plan for her.  But we knew that if we gave her this option, it had to be available to the whole family.  Every night.  That was another hard pill to swallow, but we decided to try it.  We told all the kids that for a while we were going to have dessert available every night, and if you ate what was on your plate you would get dessert.

Even now I feel like a hypocrite writing this. Requiring children to eat what’s on their plate! Offering sweets as a reward! Dessert every night! All those things are completely against what I had read and learned about raising children without food issues. But, we felt it was the right thing to do.

We swallowed our pride and put our plan into action.  I would not recommend this plan to anyone without careful consideration. But…it worked. That child gagged down the dinner food every night (even throwing up mushrooms once!) so that she could get dessert. It was the perfect motivation for her.  She ate more “real food” in the coming weeks and months than she had in past years. She would come down to dinner and ask, “What’s for dessert?” and most nights she deemed the trade-off satisfactory. It was worth it to her to eat dinner so she could have dessert.

The other children ate their dinners with more gusto and also enjoyed the desserts. And I have to admit, the plan worked. That stubborn child became a really good eater.  Four years later when she asked us to take her to a sushi restaurant, we almost fell off our chairs! She still loves desserts, but she loves “regular” food also. The other kids are pretty good eaters as well.  Having this system of dessert rewards didn’t “ruin” them and make them focused on sweets. In fact, our youngest daughter doesn’t care much for desserts. My initial parenting rules surrounding food turned out to be the wrong method for this child. I’m thankful that I could be aware of their needs and flexible enough to change my plans.

Another thing I feel strongly about (and even wrote an article on for Powerofmoms.com) is that children should pack their own lunches. I wanted my girls to get themselves up in the morning, pack their own lunches (starting around 4^th grade), and be responsible for getting their homework done (without a lot of micromanaging from me). I succeeded at two of these three things (wake up by themselves and manage their homework). For a while they packed their own lunches.  But when they got to their high school years and had to get up earlier, they often got lazy about packing a lunch.  Nothing sounded good and they didn’t have time.  They underestimated their lunch hunger in the morning and only took a small amount of food.  Even though they were suffering the consequences of being hungry, they never got in a habit of packing a lunch.

I had an epiphany about this one day when my third daughter was in middle school.  As I drove her home, she told me how she hadn’t taken anything for lunch, but some of her friends gave her some food.  She’d eaten a bag of chips and some broccoli. What?! Raw broccoli? I was shocked.  But then it dawned on me: when you’re hungry at lunchtime you might eat whatever is in front of you! If we send vegetables in their lunch, they may or may not eat them, but if we don’t send any vegetables, they for sure won’t eat them! From that point on we changed our ways.  We packaged fruit and vegetables every night and told our girls that they had to take those two things and then they could add whatever else they wanted to it.  We offered to help them gather and pack a lunch every day.  We hoped they would still become independent adults even though we did this for them!

There is another family dynamic that led us to change our lunch-packing ways. Our oldest daughter didn’t eat lunch very often or packed only a little food (we didn’t pack anything for her because we wanted her to be independent), and she ended up having food problems.  She was underweight and when she was stressed, she tended to eat even less.  She spent a lot of time not feeling good and trying to get herself to eat more.

Our third daughter has a lot of similarities to our oldest daughter, and we didn’t want her to have the same experience.  We decided it was worth it to possibly enable their lunch laziness and help them pack food. As soon as I thought of doing this (after the broccoli conversation), I immediately knew it was the right thing to do. I can understand why the girls don’t take the time to pack good lunches (or any lunch). It’s a pain and a hassle to get that stuff ready and not something that is high on the priority list of busy high schoolers.  We knew we were doing the right thing for our family by helping them prepare their lunches.

The last change I made in the way I parent is the hardest and easiest for me to admit.  It has to do with time children spend watching TV.  When I was a young parent, I read a lot about children and TV (this was before there were so many other electronic entertainment options). I became convinced that the less TV children watched the better.  I realized quickly that when kids watch any TV they want more (it’s never enough) and so no TV is actually easier than a little TV. So that’s what we did with our first three children: virtually no TV when they were young. The first three girls were very good at self-entertaining.  We read a lot of books and played together.  When they were older, they read to themselves and played on their own. It was peaceful and relatively easy.

And then came the fourth child. She did not self-entertain very well.  She always needed more attention than the others, and she was way more social.  She continually asked to play with friends and couldn’t find anything to do if she wasn’t with friends. She didn’t love to listen to our reading as much as the other girls, and when she learned to read on her own, she didn’t enjoy it as much.  Also, she begged to watch TV more often than all three other girls combined. I guess by then the older girls were watching a little TV and maybe she was more exposed to it at a younger age than they were. Whatever the reason, she was hard to keep happy.

I felt strongly about the negative effects of TV, but I was also far enough into my parenting career to know that sometimes things have to give. Also, some things aren’t as important as you once thought they were.

*sigh* I have given in on TV.  Where the other kids rarely watched one episode of a show a week, the last child watches more than one a day, a lot more. If there is a friend to play with, she’s happy to do that, but if not, she can’t think of anything to do besides watch TV. She doesn’t like reading as much as the others, as I mentioned, but she also doesn’t like coloring or playing dolls or many other quiet play-by-yourself activities.

During this time, I read a cute book called MWF Seeks BFF. The author, Rachel Bertche, is trying to make friends in a new city. She talks about how much she loves TV and how that was an important criterion for her in a new friend.  This gave me a different perspective. Maybe TV can be a bonding topic between friends. And maybe people who watch a lot of TV in their youth can become successful (published authors!) adults. I know that sounds extreme, but the articles I read convinced me that TV had so many detrimental effects and no positive ones. Reading Bertche’s book gave me the wake-up moment that I needed, the reminder that it’s all going to be okay.

All of us have these moments where we think we’re going to parent in a particular way and then reality sets in. Children aren’t perfect, and they also aren’t automatons who can be put into certain categories and parented in a specified manner.  We need to be aware of their individual needs and quirks and adjust our parenting accordingly. If we are willing to do this, and willing to trust ourselves that we know what is best for our children, it will benefit our children and it will bring us more peace.

Before I write this article, I want to give a disclaimer: I have never had a child who loves video games.  I have four daughters, and none of them play games on any sort of electronic device. But I’ve heard a lot of parents talk about this problem, and I wanted to add a few thoughts to the discussion. It’s possible that having an objective point of view gives me a different perspective.

There are three basic parenting principles that you probably already know but maybe haven’t applied to the video game situation: listen when children talk, be into whatever they are into, and accept them for who they are.

1. Listen to Your Child

If your child is excited to tell you about something, view that as a gift! There will be a time (ahem, teenage years) when you will long to hear more from your child.  Whatever topic he wants to discuss, listen and try to give him your full attention. I know this is difficult when his speech is halting, he exhibits flight of ideas, and the story is really long. But listening to your child shows that you care about what he cares about. If your child believes this, he will continue to tell you things as he gets older. Listening now paves the way for good communication later.

I’m sure you’re familiar with this concept, but let’s apply it to video games. You may think that if you listen with enthusiasm to your child’s chatter about video games you will encourage his excitement. I have watched some moms ignore or attempt to shut down any discussion of video games or related activities they didn’t approve of (Pokémon cards, fidget spinners, etc.).  These moms try to dampen the child’s interest in these things, hoping that he will find something else to do. But that rarely happens. The only message the child receives is that what he’s excited about is not worth your time and attention. The child feels a sense of disapproval and feels bad about his interests. Over time he will stop telling you about his activities and ideas, and your connection (and therefore your influence) will be weakened.

My advice is listen to your child talk about video games for as long as he wants to talk about them. Ask questions and act interested. Get to know the characters and the various aspects of the game. Be excited for your child’s video game accomplishments! Make your child feel valuable and loved by giving him your attention, even if you dislike his interest in the activity. This leads me to the next parenting principle:

2. Be into Whatever Your Child Is into

If your child was involved in dance or the tuba or baking, you would probably learn all about that activity. You would attend rehearsals and performances with your child and spend time and money helping him prepare. It’s good parenting practice to be into whatever your child is into.  If you are naturally interested in his activity, it is obviously much easier. If his hobby is something you enjoy, it can even seem better or more suitable to you than other pastimes. But part of parenting is embracing new pursuits that you’re unfamiliar with or even disinterested in.

If your child really likes video games, that’s what you need to be into also. This means sitting down by him, learning about the different games and gaming systems and which ones he prefers. As already mentioned, listen and be interested in what he has to say about the games. Maybe play a few rounds with him so you can really understand how it works.

When my girls were young, they always wanted me to play Barbies or Polly Pockets with them.  This was not my first choice of activity. I felt I never “had time” to actually sit and play, so I decided to build it into my schedule.  I assigned an hour a week (for example, Thursdays at 10 am) to play with my daughter, whatever activity or game she chose.  If moms played an hour a week of video games, it could be a great bonding activity. Doesn’t it sound more fun to be excited about what your child is telling you? If you’ve played the game with him, you will have some knowledge of it and his descriptions will make more sense to you. Be into what your child is into.

3. Accept Your Child for Who He Is

The first two concepts naturally culminate into this last one. The longer I parent the more I believe that one of the keys to raising successful children is accepting them for who they are. We want our children to like the same activities we like, have the same values we have, and behave in a similar way to us. When they do, they seem familiar and somehow “right” to us. But as we know, children come with their own DNA.  They have their own likes and dislikes and personality quirks.  Sometimes we’re not even sure they came from us!

One way our children may be different from us is their love of video games. Most adult women aren’t fond of video games and have a hard time understanding the attraction. They seem annoying or like a waste of time to us, but there must be something fun about video games or our children wouldn’t love them so much! Here are some possible enticements: feeling good at something/mastering new skills; winning—the brain receives similar endorphins which create positive feelings whether you won a marathon or aced a math test or leveled up on a video game; belonging—there is a comradery among teammates, especially when they need you to do a certain part of the game.

These aspects of the game don’t appeal to moms, and we might be embarrassed by our children’s interest in video games. But no matter how much we’d like our children to not play video games and enjoy some other pastime instead, wishing that were true is not going to make it true. If they like video games, no amount of disapproval from you will change that. The more disapproval you show (whether outwardly or inwardly), the farther away you are driving your child.  Your child wants your approval and love and can feel when you are withholding it. The joys of playing the game may outweigh their desire for your approval in the short run, but as that parent-child bond gets chipped away the relationship starts to sour.

Instead of imagining a child that you don’t have, celebrate the child you do have. Get to know him, enjoy what he enjoys, talk to him frequently about his video games and any other topic. Find lots of ways to approve of him.  When we don’t allow children to be enthusiastic about something they love, they sense our disapproval and feel bad about themselves.

There are many things our children do that aren’t necessarily right or wrong but just different. It’s important that we let our children be different from us and still give them our approval. When we accept our children for who they are, they feel a sense of belonging in our family unit. There’s less tension and more love and positive feelings in the home, which is beneficial to all members of the family.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about anxiety in children.  It seems that every third parent I meet or talk to has a child who struggles with anxiety (and I have some of my own).  I wish I (or anyone) knew the cause of this new trend.  If it’s occurring more often now, something must have changed. Is it environmental or biological or is it a change in our parenting? No one knows for sure, but I have an inkling that our helicopter parenting is possibly part of the problem, or, at best it’s not helping the situation.

In her book, The Gardener and the Carpenter, Alison Gopnik compares parenting to these two professions. If we parent like a carpenter, we have a blueprint-type plan, and we expect and envision our children to turn out exactly according to that plan.  We see parenting as a goal-oriented endeavor intended to create a particular kind of child and therefore a particular kind of adult.  In contrast, parenting like a gardener means we create a secure, loving environment and allow children to grow and develop in their own way.  We have a general expectation of how they might turn out, but we know that many factors are out of our control, so the end result might be a surprise. “Children are designed to be messy and unpredictable, playful and imaginative, and to be very different both from their parents and from each other.  The variability and flexibility of childhood lets them innovate, create, and survive in an unpredictable world.” (Goodreads description).

I love this analogy.  It is useful to keep this concept in mind as we try to guide our children. It might keep us from putting too much pressure on them or forcing them into certain activities or characteristics. We are just the gardeners, here to provide a safe and caring place for children try out life. Gopnik also points out that we don’t use our relationship to a person as a verb in any other context.  We don’t “wife” our husbands or “sister” our siblings! Modern culture has made parenting into an avocation or even a career.  This idea makes us feel negligent if we aren’t “doing something” with or for our children.  It’s possible that we “parent” more than we should. It’s not enough for our children just to be, to explore, to try new things, to not have a purpose for a while.  We feel that every activity they do must have a defined objective. Even the packaging of toys reinforces this:  Your child can’t just play with a toy for fun. The toy has to “stimulate brain development” or “encourage social connections.”

We would probably do well to give our kids a little less structure and let them roam free a bit more.  I have been thinking about two other ways to decrease helicopter parenting and reduce the emphasis we put on children to perform in a certain way.

The first is: Don’t correct unless necessary.

We feel it is our duty to teach our children how to do things and how to do them the right way. Under the guise of teaching we constantly correct our children, instructing them exactly how to perform all their tasks.  But this barrage of directives can wear on a child. He might start to think he doesn’t do anything right.  He also starts to believe there is a right way to do everything, and this can lead to anxiety.  It is absolutely untrue that there is a right way to perform every task, and our children would be better off if we gave them this wisdom: there are many ways to get a thing done.  If you can think of a way different than mine, all the better!

There are some tasks that must be done a certain way for safety, but many of the instructions we give our children are arbitrary and unnecessary. If your daughter puts a diaper on the baby and it’s not perfect, just let it go.  If you’re cooking with your son and he’s messy or doesn’t fill the measuring cup just right, just let it go.  Even if your child puts her shoes on the wrong feet, you could leave it be.  In every situation ask yourself, what is it going to hurt if she does it this way? The majority of the time the answer is it won’t hurt anything.  Would you want someone standing over you all the time, telling you you’re not doing it right? Everyone wants to try new things and gain mastery over novel challenges.  Give your child that opportunity without commenting on the correctness of the technique.

In general, try to make your home one where mistakes are accepted, or even applauded (because at least they tried).  Give your children the feeling that they can try new things and won’t be told they’re not doing it right. When you punish a child for trying, they are less likely to try new things. You can see how this could lead to anxiety in new situations. The best way children learn is to try things themselves, and that means they will make mistakes.  Making your own mistakes leads to mastery much faster than having someone stop you before the mistake and explain the correct procedure.

Whenever my children make mistakes (big or small) I try to say, “It’s ok. You are allowed to make mistakes.” We talk about what could have been done to avoid the mistake, but I really want them to know that mistakes are okay.  This is the key message I want to give, even more than learning how to act next time.  Fear of failure is definitely a cause of anxiety. In our family, we like to quote Hannah Montana: “Everybody makes mistakes; Everybody has those days; Everybody knows what, what I’m talkin’ ‘bout; Everybody gets that way.” (The song is “Nobody’s Perfect”; you should definitely play it for your children).

My second piece of advice to reduce the chance of anxious children is: Don’t help unless asked.

This one is related to “don’t correct unless necessary” but slightly different. When I was first going through my major parenting learning curve, I read a book called Smart Love.  The authors talked about how to help your child develop primary happiness, and one way to do that was to encourage mastery of developmentally appropriate tasks.  They gave the following example: if your baby is just to the stage where she can reach for a ball (while on her stomach or sitting up), don’t hand it to her when she reaches for it. Let her struggle and try. She might get frustrated but that might lead her to trying new approaches and eventually succeeding. The act of trying is pleasurable, and if you take that away from her, you are taking away a valuable life experience.

This idea was completely surprising to me.  I would have thought that a good parent would see her baby’s needs and help her.  If she were reaching for the ball, it would be my role to help her get it.  That’s what parents are for, right, to help their children? But it turns out there is the right kind of help and the wrong kind of help.  And unsolicited help is often the wrong kind. When you help a child do something they are attempting, you unwittingly give her the impression that she can’t do it herself.  This is the opposite of the message we want to give! We want to encourage our children that they can do many things themselves and the list is growing every day.  This will help them become independent, emotionally strong adults.

Just as in correcting, there are obviously times to help your child.  If safety is an issue, by all means jump in and rescue.  And when he or she asks you for help, it may be appropriate to help (it also may not be, and that gets a little tricky). But look for ways to not help.  Be on the lookout for things they can do themselves, even if it is taking effort or causing frustration.  Frustration is not a bad thing.  It can lead to more effort, more ideas, or more collaboration with others.  And when they eventually succeed, they will feel that much more confident and accomplished.  We’ve all seen the joy on a child’s face when she announces, “I did it myself!”

We may need to teach children (by modeling and by instruction) how to deal with frustration and make it work for them instead of against them, but please don’t give the impression that the fact of frustration itself is bad or wrong.  That can lead to giving up quickly, lack of self-confidence, and depression or anxiety.

Let children try things their own way, and even if they give up on a task, don’t rush in to help them and teach them the “right” way.  This takes a sort of purposeful neglect. You might need to leave the room or the situation if you can’t stop yourself from correcting! Just let them be, let them try things on their own. Mastering various tasks gives children great confidence.

Parenting is complicated. It’s hard to know when to correct or help and when to let children try things on their own.  Each parent’s line for intervening might be different.  However, we would be wise to consider holding back a little more.  Let children do things their way and let them keep trying even if they are not succeeding.  Parenting in this way takes patience and sometimes might look like avoidance, but the more children can do on their own, the more confidence and emotional strength they will have.

Disclaimer: This article is not exactly about parenting. I will understand if you are not interested and want to skip this post!

We recently moved to a new city and my husband started a new job.  Previously he worked at the same place for 14 years, and we did not realize how many “adult” tasks would be involved in this move. It has been quite overwhelming, like a part-time job for me for the last four months.  I started to feel so burdened and stressed out by these tasks, which I do not enjoy very much, that I decided I needed a reframe.  I told myself that I was taking a class, Moving 101. Taking this class requires a lot of time, but I tell myself I chose to take the class because I wanted to learn more about all these varied grown-up situations. This class has been very hands-on! It required a lot of research and real-world experiences such as filling out forms, making difficult decisions, calling mortgage brokers, insurance agents and the like, initiating relationships, and sometimes breaking off those relationships later.

This class has been frustrating at times (and I’ve wondered why I signed up for it!) but I’ve learned so much. I am so much more knowledgeable and well-rounded. I decided to write about all that I have learned because it helps me appreciate the knowledge that I’ve gained and realize there’s a reason it’s been so hard.  Writing and sharing this article also helps me feel like my work can benefit others, and that makes it more worth it. This is my “term paper” for Moving 101.

In this class I have researched, learned about, and talked to professionals about the following topics, and I’d like to share my hard-earned knowledge with you. What follows is a short explanation about many aspects of adulting.  It is not intended to be comprehensive but more of a jumping off point.  When you have to call a professional about a certain topic (say, health insurance), it’s nice to know a few things about the topic and know what questions to ask.  Hopefully something here will be helpful as you “adult” throughout your life.

GETTING A REALTOR

Finding a realtor is simple with a google search. Browse the websites and find companies or individuals that appeal to you. Contact a few and see which get back to you.  I think it’s a good sign if they get back to you right away; this means they are available and responsive.

Before you can talk to a realtor about what’s important to you in a house, you have to do some introspection to figure that out.  Do you want to be close to work? in a family-oriented neighborhood? do you want lots of kids running around for your kids to be friends with? Do you like new developments or older neighborhoods? A fixer-upper house with charm or something newer? Once you know what you want you can talk with your realtor about those preferences and the area you’re moving to.  It’s best to find a realtor who lives in or knows your desired area as closely as possible.

BUILDING A HOUSE

I could do a whole post about building a house, but I just want to add a few notes. Most builders won’t carry the construction loan, you have to get that on your own.  Sometimes if a whole subdivision is being built the builder will let you put a certain amount down instead of having a construction loan, but that is not common.  When you find a lot you want to build on, make an offer on it and contact a bank to get a loan for that and the cost of building the house.  You have to have the house plans drawn up before getting approved for the loan, so the bank knows what they’re lending money for.

When you create the house plans with the builder, it’s good to specify whether this is a “cost-plus” or “contract” type of agreement.  In a cost-plus situation, the builder gets a percentage of whatever you spend, whether the costs go up or down.  You get an allowance for cabinets, flooring, etc., and if you go over the allowance you pay the extra plus the builder’s percentage.  This makes sense because you chose something more expensive.  But it gets trickier when certain aspects of building go over budget, like excavation or framing, things that you didn’t choose.  Those type of expenses can go up if the subcontractor has raised their prices or there is more work than they expected.  It’s good to discuss these situations with your builder in advance so you know who will be responsible for those costs.

As your house is being built you will be making decisions regarding counters, cabinets, flooring, etc.  You don’t want your decision making to hold up the building process, so be sure to look into these things and make timely decisions.  Our builder had an in-house designer that helped us choose colors and styles, which was very nice.  If your builder doesn’t have that it can be a little more overwhelming.

It’s not uncommon for builders to be behind schedule, and it’s not always their fault.  Weather and subcontractor delays can be frustrating, but if you’ve told yourself they will happen (prepare yourself mentally!) then you can stay calm.

A few mistakes we made and lessons we learned: on the bid from the flooring company, be sure each line item includes labor.  On ours, the carpet and wood included labor, but not the tile.  I thought I was within budget for the total flooring until months later when I found out that all tile labor costs would be on top of that bid!

It’s hard to think of every detail, and inevitably your house is going to have some shortcomings when you move in.  It’s common to notice the problems and imperfections more than the good, so give yourself some time to get used to the new house. Your enjoyment and appreciation of it will grow over time.  I think this is true of any new house.

Two items we overlooked and would have mentioned earlier if we could do it again are exterior lights and solid doors.  We assumed there would be lights under the eaves of the roofing, like so many homes of our size that we’d seen.  But it was never specified and when we moved in we realized they were missing.  There are some exterior lights, but not as many as we would have preferred.  Also, our designer talked us into hollow doors to save a little money, but we really wish we’d done solid core doors because they feel sturdier and nicer.  Other than that, we were very happy with how our house turned out!

CALL THOSE WORKERS BACK

Here’s another thing I learned from building a house that applies in many areas: don’t hesitate to have workers come back.  When we first moved in our air conditioning was coming out harder in some areas of the house than others and continued blowing below the set temperature.  I called the HVAC people and they came back to take a look.  The worker said that many things were set up wrong.  He spent about 2 hours fixing it and got everything straightened out.  Plus, he gave me a tutorial on the iPad-like tablet where we control the thermostat.  What if I hadn’t had him come back?!

After a few weeks of living in the house our wifi was giving us problems.  It was spotty and sometimes not existent.  We called Xfinity and they sent a worker over.  The same thing happened: he found multiple problems and spent a good while getting everything in order.  The wifi worked much better after that.

The tile in our shower had streaks of grout in various places.  It wasn’t totally noticeable because the grout was the same color as the tile, but as I was showering I would count the places that needed to be cleaned off (there were a lot).  Finally, we got our builder to send in a tile worker and he was able to get it all cleaned and perfect, like you would expect it should have been done the first time.

Lastly, we had a sprinkler system installed and it ran for a few weeks to water the sod.  When the weather turned cold and it came time turn them off, Bryan couldn’t quite remember how the landscape guy had explained to do that.  He tried a few things and ended up calling the guy.  It turned out that there was this very large tool needed to turn off the sprinklers beneath the ground.  The guy had forgotten to leave that tool and show Bryan how it worked!  Moral of the story: always call and ask or have the workers come back!

HEALTH INSURANCE

When you go to the doctor, you hand them your health insurance card and they copy down the information and bill your insurance.  You don’t really know what any of the costs are going to be until you get an “explanation of benefits,” either in paper or electronic form.  This form explains the different charges and what is covered by insurance and what is your responsibility.  Later (sometimes a month or more later) you will get the actual bill for your portion of the costs.  It seems like a lot of paperwork, but there is a reason for each document.

Here are some health insurance terms:

Premium: the amount you or your employer pays every month to continue your insurance.  Many professional jobs pay this premium as one of their benefits.

Deductible: the amount you pay out of pocket before the insurance pays for anything.  This amount can be very high, around $5,000 in many cases.  This means that every doctor visit or lab test will be paid by you until you reach that $5,000.  There are individual deductible limits and family limits as well.

Health Savings Account (HSA): an account where you can put pre-tax dollars to pay for any health care costs.  This money rolls over year to year, so it’s never lost.  It’s a great way to save on taxes and have money set aside for health costs.  You have to talk to you benefits administrator to set it up.

Copay: after your deductible is met, you still have to pay a portion of your office visit or hospital stay costs.  The amount is usually around $25 for an office visit and 20% of your costs for a hospital stay.

Out of pocket maximum: this is just what it sounds like, there is a maximum amount that you have to pay and once that is met the insurance company pays for everything else.  This is in addition to your deductible.  This would apply in situations of very serious accidents or disease with extended hospital stays.  If you have to pay 20% of all those costs it could bankrupt you.  So there is a maximum amount.

Knowing these terms gives you an idea of how health insurance works and what costs to expect.  When you talk to human resources or your benefits administrator, you’ll know what questions to ask and you’ll be able to understand the conversation better.

DENTAL INSURANCE

Most health insurance plans do not cover dental care.  But many professional jobs will include dental insurance as well as health insurance.  Dental insurance works the same as health insurance.

FINDING A DENTIST OR DOCTOR

When you have insurance, you have to go to a doctor or dentist that is approved by your insurance company.  This list is also known as the insurance “panel.” You can search on the insurance company’s website to find doctors and dentists who are on the panel.

FINANCIAL PLANNER

Whether or not to hire a financial planner can be a difficult and personal decision.  Here are some things to think about when making that decision.

If you have a lot of debt and you’re not sure the best way to pay it off or if you have trouble keeping track of your money or budget, it might be worth it to hire a financial planner. However, in my opinion, if you understand the basics of investing (start with pretax options—401k, IRA and HSA—and invest in index funds after that) and you can manage your own money adequately (meaning short term savings, budgeting, etc.), it might not be the best use of time and money to hire a financial planner. If and when you have substantial additional wealth to invest, beyond funding your 401k and IRA accounts, that would be the time to consider professional help to guide you through the options and decisions.

There are many different types of financial planners and different ways they are compensated.  I don’t know everything about the industry, but I can recommend one thing: be sure you know how they are paid. Here are some examples:

If they are paid every time you buy a product like life insurance or annuities, then they will be very enthusiastic about your need to buy those products!

If they are paid every time they move around your investments, then they will move them around more often.

If they are paid a flat fee no matter what happens to your stocks, they might be less motivated for your stocks to do well.

Some brokers and fund managers make money when they meet a quarterly goal.  Their decisions in regard to this goal may or may not be in your best interest.

Of course, you want to find an adviser that you trust and feel comfortable with, but any way they are paid comes with hidden incentives.  These incentives will always be there, but it’s important for you to know what and where they are.

Many financial advisers will take their fee directly out of your money that they manage.  But you should still know how much that is and when they take it out.

To read more about how financial planners are compensated, click here.

There are so many problems with this industry and many laws and regulations have been passed to try to protect consumers. You want to find an adviser that has a fiduciary obligation to you.  This means they are obligated by law to do what is in your favor (not theirs).  Other advisers are monitored by agencies such as FINRA or government entities, but those agencies are not able to control and govern every adviser.

One reason people want an adviser is to find out how much they will have in retirement according to the rate they are saving.  The calculations to estimate this are not too complex, but it’s nice to have someone sit down with you and say, “If you save at this same rate until you retire, and then take out this much a year, here’s how much you’ll have and how long it will last.”

You can find an adviser who will accept a flat fee or hourly rate to have this type of meeting.  Alternatively, if you have your retirement account with an investment firm (such as Fidelity), they have advisers who will meet with you once a year or so for free.  They will go over all your accounts and give you those types of estimates.  They may even give advice on how much and where else to invest in order to boost your savings.

Another place you can get this type of advice is from an accountant. If you hire an accountant to do your annual taxes, you can ask if they will also give advice on retirement savings and tax-advantageous ways to invest beyond retirement.

As you can see, it is a complicated industry.  Hopefully this advice will give you a head start in contemplating your need for a professional financial planner.

LIFE INSURANCE

One of the financial advisors we initially met with turned out to be basically an insurance salesman.  Because of his insistence that we needed whole (or permanent) life insurance, I looked into life insurance options quite a bit.

Whole (or permanent) life insurance

From my reading, the consensus is that whole life insurance is a good option IF you have funded all other retirement and some investment options AND you want to leave money to your children when you die. This is a good option for very wealthy people who need to utilize many more investment vehicles than most of us ever think about. We did not fall in that category.

Term life insurance

Term life insurance is the kind where you pay a fee every month and when you die your beneficiaries get the payout.  The fee increases as you get older and you should probably consider discontinuing it at some point.  As you get closer to retirement you need this life insurance less because your children are grown, and/or your spouse relies on your income less, and/or you have a lot of savings and money in retirement accounts (hopefully!).  So pay the term life insurance premiums monthly and stop when it makes sense to stop.  You may lose all that money you spent on premiums, but that means you lived a long life! It’s like car insurance: you may never use it, but you keep it for the peace of mind.

MORTGAGES

I don’t have any great advice on mortgages because I feel like we did everything the hard way.  We went with a large, established credit union (UCCU) for our construction loan, but the lady we worked with was flaky and unresponsive, so we had to look for other options.  Everyone had a suggestion for a lender, but it’s a pain to start these relationships, discuss your situation and turn over all your financial information.

When you call a mortgage broker they can tell you a little about what the options are, including their current rates, but to get a real quote you have to fill out an application and then upload an extensive number of documents (taxes, paystubs, bank account statements, retirement account statements, explanations for certain expenditures or credit checks, etc.), and often get an appraisal. It’s a lot of work, and we did that for three different banks/firms. We felt like it was very difficult to get accurate and reliable information (i.e., the people we were speaking with were confusing and said different things at different times).

One thing I do know is the process is much easier if you have 20% down.  Anything less than that requires special permission and a lot of, “we’ll see.”  Building a house makes things much more complicated.  We didn’t know if we’d for sure have 20% down because we didn’t know what the final cost of the house was (literally until about a month after we’d moved in!). Also, we had an additional appraisal after the house was built, and the value of the house had gone up, giving us instant equity.  We had no idea how much we’d need to bring to the closing until those two numbers were finalized.

We could move in before doing our final mortgage because our construction loan lasted for 12 months.  It was cheaper to just pay the interest on that construction loan anyway, so we continued with that while we moved in and waited for those numbers to come through.  Then we started talking to two different mortgage companies and finding out what they could offer.  It’s really hard to know if you’re getting a good deal or making the right decision. One difficult choice is between a 30-year fixed loan and an ARM (adjustable rate mortgage). The ARM was a lower interest rate, but it has some risk because after a certain number of years (7 in our case), the rate can be adjusted.  It’s a good idea to refinance before the 7 years is up, maybe getting into a 30-year fixed mortgage at that point, or even a 15-year fixed (which has great interest rates).  When you refinance you have to pay closing costs again, and you take the risk of higher rates. But, for us, the 7-year ARM made sense because it gave us a good rate right now and in 7 years our financial situation will be very different.  Bryan’s practice will be up and running and most of our kids will be out of the house.  So, we can afford the closing costs at that time, and we are hoping that rates stay the same or at least don’t go too crazy!

LUMP SUM PENSION ROLLOVER

Not many companies offer pensions anymore.  Pensions are also known as “defined benefit” retirement plans.  This means that you get a defined amount from the company when you retire, monthly until you die, as part of your benefit package.  The reason these went out of favor is because too many companies went bankrupt or mismanaged their pension funds and so retirees ended up not getting the promised money.

It is more common for companies to offer a “defined contribution” retirement plan, which means that you can contribute to a 401k (or 403b if you work for a nonprofit) which will hold and grow your own money. Your company may also contribute to the account, as part of your benefits.  If the company goes out of business, you still have your money, and if you move, you can take the money with you.

We had a pension at Mayo. When we left we were given the choice to keep it and acquire the money when Bryan retired, or roll it over into an IRA (Individual Retirement Account) and let it grow.  We consulted a few different professional opinions, and everyone agreed: it is more advantageous to roll it over to the IRA and let it grow with the market.  We were overwhelmed by this decision and process at the time, but now I realize it was not that big of a deal.  The decision was clear, and since Bryan already had an IRA account (through Vanguard), we just had to fill out the form with that account number.  We went through two different financial planners in part because we weren’t sure what and how to do this step.  The meetings with the planners were laborious, time consuming and stressful.  We ended up not going with either of them (for reasons outlined above), and just figured out the pension rollover on our own.

DISABILITY INSURANCE

For many professions, disability insurance is not necessary or warranted. It is expensive, and many jobs can still be done with a physical disability.  But most physicians have disability insurance because they make a high salary and any tremor or slight problem with their hands means they cannot do their job.  Here are some terms to get you started when you are considering disability insurance.

When you talk to an insurance agent he will ask questions about your income and your health, and then he will give you some options. You can ask right away that he send you an “illustration.” This is an 8-10-page document that explains all the policy features and optional riders (see below). It’s very helpful to see this illustration to start to get a sense of what is standard in disability policies and what is extra. After reviewing the illustration, you can speak with your agent again, ask him/her to explain the features more in depth, and fine tune which features you want to keep and which you want to discard.

Just for reference, disability insurance can range from $500-1000/month, depending on your age, health, and the chosen features.

Premium: same as in health insurance, the amount you pay per month for the insurance policy.  Often there is a discount if you pay for a whole year at once.

Elimination period: amount of time between the event that caused the disability and when the insurance payments start coming to you.  The shorter the elimination period, the more expensive the premiums for the insurance.

Total monthly benefit: the amount the insurance will pay you per month if you are disabled.

Own true occupation: a type of disability insurance that will pay you if you can’t do your own specialty, even if you could do another job.  Many disability insurances have small print that says if you can do any other job (consulting or teaching biology, for example) or you make money doing something totally different (start a business, write a book), then you won’t get the payments. If you get the “own true occupation” policy then this won’t happen.

Rider: an add-on provision to a basic insurance policy that provides additional benefits (usually at additional costs).

LICENSE PLATES/DRIVERS LICENSE

For some reason, finding out how to switch over our license plates and drivers licenses in Utah was very difficult. The online information was inadequate and it’s confusing to know which department and location to go to.  I finally figured out where to go and what to bring.  Here are some of the things I learned:

To get a license plate in a new state you have to take the title of your car and proof of registration in the old state.  If the car is leased, you also have to have a letter from the leasing company stating that you can register this car in a new state (sometimes this is a power of attorney letter). If the car is to be registered in your and your spouse’s names, you need both of your drivers license numbers. If you have a loan on the car, you might need other documentation, I’m not sure.

To get a new drivers licenses, most states require a test, but it is usually an open book test.  The lines at the DMV are shorter earlier in the day, so that’s when I’d recommend going. You have to take your old license and a piece of mail at your new (local) address.  You might as well bring your social security card, also, because you never know what they’ll need or ask for! And of course, there’s a fee, so bring your wallet.

There are some helpful parenting ideas that I heard about after my kids were too old to implement them. I wanted to explain them here in a quick post as an aid to other parents.

1.Give each child a certain amount of money to spend on each vacation you go on. The amount could vary, obviously, with the age of your children, the nature of the trip, and your personal finances. I spent way too much time on vacations negotiating with my children in gift shops, trying to convince them they didn’t need whatever trinket or stuffed animal they had encountered and set their heart on. I also agonized over what treats to buy them and when. If I’d given them their own money, I could have saved myself a lot of emotional strain and relationship contention.

I also like this idea because it’s another way (besides weekly allowance) to allow children to learn about money, what it buys and how it feels to spend it, and what the value/worth is of the items to be purchased. When they are asking for a $20 stuffed animal, they don’t have a relative idea of how much that is. But if they were given a certain amount each trip, those prices would start to mean a lot more.  There are many advantages to this trip souvenir strategy; I wish I’d heard of it sooner!

2.The second concept I learned about too late also relates to family travel. When you have many young children, you are obviously packing for all of them when you go on vacation. Instead of packing a suitcase or portion of a suitcase for each child with swimwear, church clothes, coats, etc., think of packing for specific events.  For example, church clothes for all the children should go together.  All their swimwear, all their hiking shoes, all their warm layers, and so on, could be packed together.  Then when you get to that part of the trip you don’t have to look through four suitcases to find that specific apparel item.  They will be all packed in one place.  I got this idea from Saren Loosli’s post about family road trips.  If you want to read the rest of her suggestions, click here.

3.The last suggestion is to have assign a child as a “kitchen helper” on a rotating basis. I did hear of this idea when my kids were young, but I dismissed it as too inconvenient. Chores tend to go slower, not faster, when moms have helpers! But, my girls ended up being somewhat picky eaters and that’s also inconvenient. I can’t say for sure that doing this would have helped their pickiness, but I had an experience that made me think it could have helped.

When my daughter Brooke was about ten years old I had her help me make dinner one night. Her task was to slice mushrooms and put them in a pan to sauté. They were then added to a sauce of some kind. Before this she hated mushrooms, gagging when we strongly encouraged her to eat them. That night she decided to try the sauce and said, “These mushrooms aren’t bad!” And she proceeded to eat the rest of what was on her plate. That occurrence helped me see the power of children helping in the kitchen. When they help prepare the food, they get to see it and interact with it in a different way and they have more of a desire to try something they made themselves.  It’s difficult to continuously have kitchen helpers and keep track of the rotation, but if I could do it again I would make more of an effort to do have kids help on a regular basis.

4.One thing that I did do, and I would highly encourage other parents to do, is work with your children instead of telling them what chores to do and checking on it later. The second approach usually ends with the parent getting angry with the child for not doing the chore or doing it wrong. It takes a long time for children to learn to be independent cleaners (somewhere around age 10) so don’t expect too much of them too soon. Make sure you teach them how to do the chore and explain your expectations. Working alongside your child reduces tension, provides a good example, and can even be a source of bonding. See Go Clean Your Room! for more on this.

 

In the next few weeks I will be transitioning this blog into more of a website format.  It will have a static landing page with links to different topics, and a list of all the blog posts.  I always knew this blog was going to be more like a book (that ends) than a magazine (that has continuing editions).  I had a finite number of things I wanted to write, topics I’d been thinking about for years, and I didn’t plan on posting forever. I have come to the end of those ideas.  I may post more in the future if I think of other topics or as my children get older and I have more knowledge about teen years, transitioning to adult children, etc.

Hopefully you will continue to use and refer to this blog even though there are not new posts.  You can use it as a reference for future problems.  When you are struggling, review the posts and try to apply the general principles to that specific problem.  There are always areas for improvement as parents, and reviewing the content can help remind you of skills to work on.  The Basic Principles page has links to the main parenting ideas.  It’s always good to go back to the basics!

Feel free to contact me if you have questions or ideas. Click on the Comment button or email me at betterwayparenting@yahoo.com

If you want another blog with continual posts, check out www.ahaparenting.com/blog.  I have read some of her posts, and her philosophies and advice are right in line with mine.

Thanks for reading!