Finding care for kids during the winter holidays can be a real mind-bender! Our usual sources of great care are unavailable and we need to be a little more creative.  In the middle of all the shopping and decorating, take a few  moments to think about what your care planning needs are during the winter break, since they are likely to be a little bit different than your regular needs. You may have holiday parties to attend (without the kids), travel plans, and other seasonal needs to contend with—so take stock of your child care options and get started with your planning.

Babysitters:
Even babysitters go on vacation, so get your requests in early. Know when your holiday office party is? Don’t wait another second to call your sitter. Don’t know when your office party is? Talk to your sitter and see what holiday plans are on her radar. Some babysitters come home from college and it is good to reach out to them earlier. Let her know what’s coming up on yours, so neither of you will be caught by surprise. Some sitters might even hold a tentative date for you until you can confirm your plans! Ask early and remember that your care takers want to make holiday plans too. You can also go to Care.com to post a job today. Many of our members have success in finding babysitters when they post a job ahead of time.

Friends:
During winter break, you’ll find many more friends at home. Organizing play dates can actually be much easier than during the school year when you have to navigate all kinds of appointments and lessons and activities. If you need to arrange kid coverage so you can get to work or have a few hours for yourself, talk to your friends. Many parents find themselves at home with the kids and wish they had play dates to liven things up. Call or email your network of friends now—organize a group play date—or find out if anyone can trade off some time with you. It works just great and the kids love it. Finally, don’t forget to check in with your friends who have older kids home on college break. They might love to baby sit to make extra money.

Family:
If you’re lucky enough to have family that lives nearby, check in with them about helping with the kids during winter break. Even if it’s not something you can usually arrange during the year, grandma and grandpa, or aunts and uncles might have more flexible schedules during the holidays. It’s extra special when kids can spend time with family. They can have a local adventure together to see a movie, go to the library or do crafts at home (which you will have already prepped for such an occasion). See my blog post on holiday activities if you need some tips.

Camps:
If you need regular child care throughout the holidays, check your local town listings for special winter break camps. Most town recreation departments offer vacation camp for kids ages 5-12. Check your town’s website and see what’s available now. Camps like this fill up quickly, so now is the time to check it out. Your hometown is not the only source for camps and activities though—check your local museums, libraries, YMCA’s, gyms, and colleges. You’ll find a wide variety of winter break classes and activities for kids of all ages. The key is not to wait, if possible!

Cheers,
Sheila

This holiday season, it can be hard not to feel bored and restless while cooped up in the house. But even if you don’t have travel plans, there’s plenty you can do to make your holidays just as memorable. And, when (and if) the weather gives you a break, you can venture outdoors for activities or day trips that will excite the whole family—especially if everyone is involved in the planning.

If you’re staying home…

• Try a new recipe. Whether it’s a whole meal or just a holiday treat, take the opportunity to bond in the kitchen by cooking together as a family. Check out MomsMenu.com for some great ideas.

• Plan and have a holiday party. This can be for friends, family, or both. Choose a date, and get the kids involved in making invitations and decorations. A party will be a fun (and convenient) way to see loved ones who will also be staying close to home this holiday season. iVillage has some great ideas for those on a budget.

• Relax and watch a movie. While this may not seem like a memorable activity, sometimes we get so busy during the holidays that carving out relaxation time is exactly what everyone needs. It’s important to just be able to enjoy each other’s company. Check out MSN’s 13 favorite holiday movies for ideas that the whole family will enjoy.

If you’re itching to get out of the house…

• Have cold weather in your local area? Round up the kids to go snowshoeing, sledding, or have a snowman building contest. Or, get in the car and go to a local ski hill (if you aren’t skiers, be adventurous and take a lesson together)!

• Have warm weather where you live? Get outside with the family and check your local trails for hiking. Your local sporting goods stores, such as EMS, are great resources for hiking and camping information.

• Try visiting a museum! It’s a great family activity. Some parents are hesitant about taking kids to a museum, but there are so many options now for kid-friendly programs that this shouldn’t be a concern. If you don’t have a museum nearby that caters to families with young children, you can still bring your little ones. Kids love visual art. If they’re young, just visit the museum for 30 minutes—take a stroll through one gallery. Point out colors and recognizable images and maybe have a snack in the museum café. You’ll all have a good time without the kids getting tuckered out from an overlong museum visit.

• You can also “play tourist” in your own town. Use this time to check out some of the local places you’ve always meant to see, but never had time visit.

There are so many things to do; gather the family together and start making a list!

Cheers,
Sheila

Thanksgiving is one of our favorite holidays! We love gathering with our extended family to celebrate—grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Here are a few ideas to help keep the clan busy!

Playing outside

While the kids are waiting for dinner, playing games outside helps pass the time and keep them occupied. Activities such as soccer, badminton, knee tackle football, or any other game you can think of, weather permitting—are fun, will use up some of the kids’ energy and also help them sit more happily through the holiday meal.

If playing outside is not appealing or the weather is frightful, you may want to gather the children to create Thanksgiving crafts together. You can use the crafts to decorate your holiday table! Having one adult who is the designated crafts person is a great idea—so is getting your supplies in advance. If you have loads of kids in attendance, a little "crafty" planning will go a long way. Here are some craft links for you to explore:

• Turkey Crafts
• Craft and Photo Tips

Holiday stories

Another option is to go around the room with each person adding to a made-up holiday story. One person could start with "A long time ago a family was gathering for Thanksgiving." Then the next person could add to it, going around the room… Or, you could read the children holiday stories. If you haven’t found anything helpful in the library, here is an online site that offers some Thanksgiving-themed stories:

• Thanksgiving Stories

Board games or Charades

Many families enjoy playing board games such as Monopoly or Scrabble when they gather. Others prefer Charades or similar games. The advantage of Charades is that usually young children can think up something in their lives that they can act out, and so it often works (with a little coaching) for the whole family.

Watching football on TV

Watching football games on TV is popular with some families, and something that people might look forward to doing together. If the family divides up between those who like to watch football and those who don’t, then having the crafts or board games available might make everyone happy.

Telling true family stories

Other families like to take advantage of a family gathering to tell and record family history. They have the older adults share family stories of why and how the first members of the family came to the United States, and what happened once they arrived. Some people then videotape the event, others tape record them, and others just listen.

Enjoy and count your blessings

Whatever you choose to do that day, or in preparation for the big day, we hope you’ll enjoy your family gathering and remember to count your blessings!

Cheers,
Sheila

With the holidays just around the corner, you're probably starting to rack your brain for the perfect gift for everyone on your shopping list. And, since that list can get long—including everyone from parents to kids to cousins to pets—I understand it's hard not to feel overwhelmed. Consider shopping online, as more and more web sites are offering personalized, unique, and practical (and even cheap!) presents all in one place that will leave everyone asking where you found them. Another way to ease the stress is to search for gifts the whole family can enjoy. Not only will this make your list more manageable, but I've found that it can create great bonding experiences—which is just what the holidays should be about!

At RedEnvelope.com you can buy chocolate gourmet gift towers, digital photo key chains, and beaded snowflake coasters. For something family-friendly, consider the personalized photo growth chart. Your kids will have fun tracking their growth, and everyone can help decorate the chart with photos and numbers. Tabblo.com is also great for those who like to have fun with pictures. The photo-sharing site allows you to make your own template of photos and words and share it with other members of the Tabblo community. You can also print your creation, which is an easy and enjoyable way to create holiday cards for friends and neighbors.

SmartBargains and Etsy.com are great for helping you stay within your budget. SmartBargains offers brand-name clothing, home and kitchen, and bed and bath items at affordable prices you probably won't find elsewhere. Etsy is an online marketplace for all things handmade, including furniture, art, clothing, pet toys, jewelry, and unique gadgets and toys. This is a fun site to browse through— you really never know what you might find!

Here are some of my other favorite online retailers:

L.L.Bean

Lands' End

The Children's Place

Magic Beans

Charitable Gift Giving

Whether it's by supporting conservation through “adopting” an animal (you don’t really get the animal, but you do get a photo and name of your “pet”), or donating money in exchange for holiday cards (check your local children’s museum for wonderful cards), charitable gift giving is a great way to make a difference. No matter how you choose to go about it, giving to an organization of your choice is a decision both you (and the recipient of your gift) should feel good about.

Take the opportunity to get the whole family involved in charitable donations during the holiday season. Sit down together and brainstorm about what issues are important to you, and find out what the charities or organizations are that support them. There are so many worthy causes out there, but here are a few to get you started:

Word Wildlife Fund

World Wildlife Foundation

Susan G. Komen Foundation Holiday Cards

Holiday Cards for Charity

Toys for Tots

Project RED (The Global Fund)

Lastly, as excited you may be to put your plan into action, proceed with care when making your donation—it's important to ensure that the organization is valuable and worth your efforts. Susan G. Komen for the Cure suggests five questions to ask to make sure your money is going where it should. And once you find an organization you feel confident with, think about making this the start of an ongoing relationship. Your charity can become a holiday tradition, or you can even continue to donate throughout the year.

I hope these tips gave you some gift ideas that are both unique and meaningful. If you have your own thoughts on holiday shopping, please share them with the Care.com community by posting a comment!

Cheers,
Sheila

We dread it. We know they'll hate it. But do we have an alternative?

Holiday shopping with kids is the pits. When we are actually shopping for them, rather than for the other family and friends on our list, taking them to Toys R Us or similar places just means they will be exposed to tons of toys they won’t be getting for Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa. Although we're shopping in order to be generous to them, we'll either end up feeling like Scrooge for saying “no” to many toys they're dying to have, or else we'll bust our budget and spend the rest of the year scrimping.

Are there any alternatives to this horror of a day, which of course includes crowds everywhere, parking miles from the store, and losing something along the way, whether it's your child's favorite blankie, your credit card, or your older son's jacket, which “I just put down for one minute…”

The best solution is to hire a babysitter to care for our children while we shop. Care.com’s babysitter listings are just what you need to save your sanity.

You can always consider some of the more desperate solutions other moms have invented. They're expensive and silly, but they have worked for some. One mom had her hubbie watch the kids for the day, and then checked into a motel right next to the mall. She spent the day shopping without enduring any whining; returned to the motel, wrapped and labeled the gifts; and returned home at midnight to hide the presents while the kids were fast asleep. It was, she said, the most perfect shopping experience she had ever had. Her hubbie of course had a different opinion.

Another friend, desperate to have her kids visit Santa at the mall without waiting in line for hours, which in the past had ruined the experience for all of them, actually took them out of school for a morning so that they could be the first ones to visit Santa. This then kept the kids in a good enough mood for her to do a small bit of shopping, without crowds. It was a strategy born of need, but should only be used as a very last resort measure. She feels guilty to this day, I'm sure.

Other options? Be realistic.

Carol Tibaldi recommends the following in her article Christmas Shopping with the Kids

• only shopping with well-rested children
• taking frequent breaks—for snacks and play time
• bringing small toys for your kids to play with while you’re shopping

But the general consensus is that this is one experience it is best to avoid if at all possible. Hire a sitter and give yourself a break. Get to Care.com now and you can get your shopping done at an enjoyable pace and feel confident the kids are safe and having a great time while you stock up on their holiday gifts. And, by the way, many a babysitter has been known to help with wrapping presents—always good for an extra tip!

Cheers,
Sheila

Pets are family members too, so we can’t forget their health needs. This is the time of year when thoughts turn to flu vaccines and boosters for kids and elders. But, what about our pets? We don't want them left out in the cold. Aside from finding great pet care in general, being in-the-know about your pets' immunization needs is equally important.

Core Vaccinations and Non-Core Vaccinations

Current ideas about pet vaccinations suggest there are Core Vaccinations (recommended for all dogs and pups/kittens with unknown immunization history) and Non-Core Vaccinations (for high risk pets in certain geographical locations), according to the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. It's important to remember that even though our pets must be immunized against disease, they do not have the same needs and requirements as our human family members.

Here is a quick list of Core and Non-Core vaccinations for dogs and cats, listed by the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. As always, please check with your veterinarian when determining the vaccination needs of your pet.

Dogs: Core Vaccines (for high risk groups only, check with your vet)

• Canine Parvovirus, Distemper Virus, and Adenovirus-2 Vaccines
• Canine Rabies Virus Vaccines

Dogs: Non-Core Vaccines

• Canine Parainfluenza Virus and Bordetella
• Canine Distemper-Measles Combination Vaccine
• Canine Leptospira Vaccines
• Canine Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme) Vaccine

Cats (Felines): Core Vaccinations

• Feline Herpesvirus 1, Feline Calicivirus and Feline Panleukopenia Virus Vaccines
• Feline Rabies Virus Vaccines

Cats (Felines): Non-Core Vaccinations (for high risk groups only, check with your vet)

• Feline Leukemia Virus Vaccine
• Feline Immunodeficiency Virus Vaccine
• Feline Infectious Peritonitis Vaccine
• Chlamydophila felis Vaccine
• Feline Bordetella bronchiseptica Vaccine
• Feline Giardia Vaccine

There are a wide range of common dog and puppy diseases you should discuss with your veterinarian to help determine which vaccinations are right for your pet. Some of them are:

• Distemper
• Hepatitis
• Leptospirosis
• Para influenza
• Parvovirus
• Coronavirus
• Rabies
• Bordatella
• Gastric Torsion
• Giardia
• Coccidia
• Tapeworms
• Roundworms
• Hookworms
• Heartworms

Care.com will soon feature a new Pet Breed Directory to help you with care-taking requirements for your pet. We're very excited about it. Take care of yourself, your family, and your pets this winter season.

Cheers,
Sheila

Most pediatricians agree that the benefits of vaccines outweigh the risks and that they prevent horrible diseases like polio, diphtheria, and tetanus, as well as serious illnesses like measles, mumps, rubella, and whooping cough. As a public health matter, they say, vaccinating all children prevents any of these diseases from emerging in a country.

What Critics of Vaccines for Kids Say

Nevertheless, critics do make some disturbing points. One is that vaccines contain toxins. While the vaccines do prevent the illness they are intended for, critics contend, they simultaneously may be contributing to other problems in your child—such as autism, allergies and learning and/or autoimmune disorders—either through the toxins that accompany the vaccine, or through the live vaccine. Except for two vaccines, the vaccines your child receives are made with non-live bacteria, but two of them contain live (but weakened) vaccines. Critics fear that these live vaccines then live on in your child's body and may produce reactions.

It is important to point out that none of the allegations made by critics of vaccines has been proved. However, it does seem that some children who had been progressing normally developed autism soon after being vaccinated. Was this a coincidence, and would they have developed the autism even without the vaccine? At this point, the answer is not known.

Other critics contend that vaccines prevent the body from fighting diseases and developing its own natural defenses against contracting them in the future. They say that vaccines do cause a small but certain number of deaths each year, and that taking the chance that your child wouldn't develop the illness if not vaccinated may be a safer bet.

What Do You Say?

Each parent must make her own decision, weighing things like family history against the viewpoints of each side in the dispute. But keep in mind that pediatricians are nearly unanimous in agreeing that vaccinating your child is the wisest choice.

For further reading on the controversy over vaccines for kids go to:

Infant Vaccination Controversy

Shirley's Wellness Cafe

About.com: Making Sense of the Autism/Vaccine Controversy

National Vaccine Information Center

Wikipedia: Vaccine Controversy

Wikipedia: Thiomersal Controversy

The Senior Vaccine Controversy:

Why Some Believe Vaccines for Seniors May Not Be Worth It

The flu vaccine is recommended for all adults over the age of 60 because people over that age have a weaker immune system and hence a reduced ability to cope with the flu. More importantly, having the flu reduces the ability to fight other diseases, such as bacterial pneumonia.

However, some contend that precisely because seniors' immune systems are weaker, the effectiveness of the vaccine will be weaker, as the vaccine works by stimulating the immune system to fight the flu. Since the immune system is so weak to begin with, the degree of ability to fight the disease may not be high. These critics contend that any claims to the effectiveness of the flu vaccine are biased due to the inclusion in the studies of the many healthy people who are vaccinated—people who would have fought off the flu even without the vaccine.

What Should You Do?

Discuss the issue with your doctor. Even though the vaccine may not be as effective as claimed, it seems to be a safe vaccine that won't endanger you.

For more information on seniors and vaccines, and on other recommended vaccines for seniors, go to:

SAGE: The Science of Aging Research

BC Health Files: Why Seniors Should Get the Influenza Vaccine

Medical News Today

Consumer Affairs: Do Flu Shots Really Help Seniors?

MedHelp: Immunization and Vaccine Forum

Wellness is something we all strive for.

Educating yourselves about vaccines, and discussing your questions with your doctor, should help you make the right decision.

Cheers,
Sheila