Mom's Minute # 2 --Amanda

I saw this type of feature on a few other blogs and absolutely loved the idea of celebrating Moms.   I know that we are very busy being mom and we sometimes forget about ourselves. So, I would like to take the opportunity to honor you as a woman & as a mother.

I created Mom's Minute to introduce the world to the woman behind it all. Because you are an amazing person, not just a mom.

So it is my pleasure to introduce...Amanda

Tell us a little about yourself.

      I'm a single mom of a 4-year-old boy, a full-time online college student, and a blogger of course. I love kids, animals, and the outdoors. I also love to sharee anything that I find helpful, informative, entertaining, or otherwise of interest. I am very opinionated, and while I'm not too extreme on my blog, there are a few posts that my opinion comes out more than others, lol.

What is your favorite food?

        I absolutely love a nice, hearty chicken salad. 

How would you describe your clothing style

       Pretty simple. I usually wear polo style shirts in the summer, and in the winter when I can find long sleeve ones but those are a bit harder, and plain shorts or pants. I also like turtle necks during the winter. I only wear things like dresses and skirts on very special occasions, and absolutely nothing provocative or with a lot of extras like lace and sequins. Never spaghetti straps!

What was one thing you did regularly before having children?

         I used to play a lot of multiplayer text-based games called MUDs. Most had a medieval setting but there were a variety of others as well. Those required a lot of time though, which I don’t really have anymore. 

Describe your parenting Style...ie strict, structured, laid back, easy going
       I’m pretty easy going, but I will not allow my son to cross the line, and always make sure he knows where it is drawn. I try to practice peaceful parenting, and am entirely opposed to spanking as a discipline method. I don’t really believe in helicopter parenting or free-range parenting, and am somewhere in between. I think parents should typically be a bit more helicopter when kids are young, and free range when they are older, but always with the ability to remove that priviledge if abused. When it 
comes to discipline and responsibility, I teach my son much like the real world. If you go above and beyond the requirements of what you’re supposed to do, you may get a bonus, but I don’t believe in allowance. He’d simply get the odd bonus when he does well, and it would be unexpected. With grounding, for example, which I haven’t used since he is so young, he might get off early for good behavior the first time, but 
not for repeat incidents, just like an adult only generally gets out early once. I model the adult world for my son so it helps prepare him for adult life.

           

Tell us about a proud mommy moment.

        

      I would say one of the biggest was potty training. My son was a late potty trainer, and actually is not yet nighttime trained, but he took a long time to daytime train. However, he would pee on the toilet if I told him to go but for a long time wouldn’t tell me, and then eventually did but still wouldn’t poop there. He always waited until he had a pull-up on. However, I got extremely excited when he went poop on the toilet the first time, and ever since then he’s had no poop accidents, Woohoo! He had a cute potty song to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star that I can share and he loved it. I think it helped him. I’ll share both the before peeing version and the after peeing version.

Before peeing
Tinkle, tinkle, Little Man
Make a drip drip if you can.
When you hear that dripping sound,
You’ll have made Mommy so proud.
Tinkle, tinkle, Little Man
Make a drip drip if you can.

After Peeing
Tinkle, Tinkle, Little Man
You made a drip drip, like I know you can
When you heard that dripping sound,
You made your Mommy so proud
Tinkle, tinkle, Little Man
You made a drip drip like I know you can.

What is the hardest thing about being a mom?

       The hardest thing isn’t just being a Mom alone, but being a single mom and a full-time college student, all while maintaining my blog. It’s a real juggle but I love it. It keeps me busy but there is never a dull moment.

What is something that you have learned from your children?

      Adults often take the little things for granted, and don’t bother to take time to observe things around them. It’s like we’ve seen it before so it doesn’t really matter. My son is fascinated when he sees an airplane or an animal, especially cats and birds, or certain types of cars, and he always points them out! We, as adults, should really take a few minutes a day at least to see the world through our children’s eyes. We filter out so much daily that we fail to appreciate the true beauty of the world.

Thank you so much Amanda for sharing with us. It sounds like your little boy is wonderful!  I am sure so many mom's can relate.


If you would like to learn more about Amanda check out her blog Crafty Frugal Mom. You can chat with her on Facebook and Twitter or follow her on Pinterest.

I would love to celebrate you,  so if you are interested in being featured on Mom's Minute please Contact me or tweet me @MrsSheetsandCo to find out more! 

XOXO
Randi