You made it! Winter break is over and the kids are back in school, and hopefully back into a routine. While everyone is adjusting to normal again, take a few minutes to see our collection of the funniest tweets on Twitter this week. You won’t be disappointed!
1. Picky eater probs.
9yo: What can I have for lunch? Me: What do you want? 9yo: What are my options? Me: You literally eat 5 things.
If someone asked you, “How much sugar does your kid eat?”—do you think you’d know the real answer? According to new research, you might not. A recent study shows that parents aren’t always adept at knowing how much sugar is in the foods that their kids eat.
Sugar consumption is believed to be one of the leading factors of childhood obesity, which is why in 2015 the World Health Organization recommended that everyone—kids and adults—should limit their daily sugar intake to less than 10 percent of all calories consumed. For kids this equates to about 45 grams of sugar a day. However, it isn’t always easy to determine how much sugar is in the food we eat.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin surveyed 305 German families with at least one child between the ages of 6 and 12. They measured the body mass index of the kids and had parents complete a quiz asking them to estimate sugar content in specific foods.
According to the study published in theInternational Journal of Obesity, parents often underestimate how much sugar is in certain foods that kids regularly eat that they don’t automatically equate with sweets, like pizza and ketchup. About three quarters of the parents underestimated the sugar content, with seemingly healthier foods being more highly underestimated.
The sugar content of yogurt, for example, was underestimated by 92 percent of parents—by 21 grams on average. The highest BMI measurements in the kids was associated with the parents who underestimated sugar content the most, suggesting that sugar intake could be related to weight gain.
The study’s authors believe the “findings suggest that providing easily accessible and practicable knowledge about sugar content through, for instance, nutritional labeling may improve parents’ intuition about sugar.”
Not sure about how much sugar might be hiding in your food? This chart from 9Round.com breaks down all the surprising amounts of sugar are in everyday foods—even those you might not realize have sugar in them:
It’s time to get cooking but wait..you need a few (dozen) ingredients to make your masterpiece. And you’ve got to bring the kids. How to keep them busy at the grocery store when trips are frequent and carts loaded? We’re hoping these tips and tricks will work like a charm. Scroll down before your next shopping trip!
Jomjakkapat Parrueng/Unsplash
1. Speed through your list with a supermarket race.
Take your list and divide it up among the family members. If it’s just you and the kid(s)—and you think it’s safe— give them ten items on the list to find on their own and time them. If you’ve got enough to form teams, do it! Each team has the same amount or near amount of items and races to get them all and get to the check out line first. Parse the list on purpose so items are near each other and you just saved yourself at least 20 minutes, mama. Score! Even if your child is really young, give them an item or two to grab in the same aisle you are in.
2. Play find and seek as you shop.
Before you head to the store, create a checklist of things kids can easily spot in the grocery store—and a few tricky items—and hand it to the kids once you arrive. Include produce, people, and even scenarios. You can also adapt this DIY farmer’s market bingo set to your grocery store or this checklist of pantry essentials you’re likely to spot in the store.
Canva
3. Let the kids hatch a meal plan and then shop the ingredients.
Let them pick a recipe and then draw or write up a list of the ingredients they will need. They can shop and later help prep, so double bonus!
4. Tell them to wear a costume.
Nobody says you need to wear sensible clothes to the grocery store! Bust out a cape, a crown, a ballgown or last year’s Halloween ensemble. Give them “control” over the situation want. n by allowing them to dress in whatever wild outfit they want.
Prep for your mission at home (see above, re: costume) and lay out the plot on the way to the store. You are spies seeking the missing can of beans that no one knows was gone. Or you are master chefs preparing a meal for the Queen. Or maybe you just landed on Earth from another planet and are amazed at this magical place full of foodstuffs.
6. Allow them to be part of the decision making by letting them pick out special items.
In addition to letting the kids cross goods off the list, allow them to pick out a few special things. They can be for school lunches, or for someone they love—i.e. Grandpa’s fave cookies, a treat for their best friend, a new dishtowel just for the kids to use. It doesn’t need to be sweet (but hey, we’re not above bribery) or expensive, and it could be something you need anyway. “We’re going to get this jam for your cousins when they visit!” might just be the well-timed, enthusiastic sway you need to avoid a meltdown.
7. Do a dry run.
No, we are not suggesting you go Thanksgiving shopping and not buy anything. Try a dry run at the store here and there, when you are just grabbing one item or you don’t really need something that badly. When you are there, point out exciting things at the store like the beautiful produce or the yummy samples. Then, the next time you need to go you can invoke the power of memory, “We’re going to the store with the free cookie! Yay!”
What would it have been like to attend a certain school of magic while a certain bespectacled student was there stealing the limelight? Move over Gryffindor, this is the story of The Puffs — the seemingly dud house at Hogwarts where the students’ loftiest ambition is to take home third prize, if they’re lucky. (It’s an HP-inspired show. Here’s our review!)
Hogwarts on its Head
The play originally opened for a grown-up audience at New York’s Peoples Improv Theater and had an extended midtown run before its latest open-ended production at New World Stages. The weekend performances are billed as appropriate for all ages — but we’re suggesting 8 and up. (Turns out puberty can be just as awkward in wizard school as grade school!)
The play races through an edited version of the seven Harry Potter books but it’s another orphaned wizard, Wayne, raised by his uncle in New Mexico, who is the central character of Puffs. Geeky and paunchy, Wayne has to come to terms with his own failures in magic school in order to find out where the real power is: in friendship.
Know Your Potter
If the Potter fans in your life have devoured the entire Hogwarts feast in book or movie form and know the difference between a house elf and a hurling hex, you are ready for Puffs (you can get away without having seen The Cursed Child).
If you can’t remember where Sirius fits in or if Slytherin’s a character or not, you might be better off booking the Gazillion Bubble Show on Stage 2 on the floor above.
The belly laughs come when the Potter story we already know surfaces in the lives of Wayne and his friends, although kids will love some of the physical and visual comedy in the form of spells that don’t work and Mr. Voldy’s mishaps with his megaphone.
Quick Fire Jokes and Costume Changes
With Harry’s triumvirate reduced to a mop and a wig, Wayne and his closest friends — a goth and a math nerd — are given the chance to shine and they nicely mirror the famous trio.
A series of lightning quick on and off-stage costume changes enable the 11 cast members to play the full range of students, teachers, beasts, ghosts and baddies from JK Rowling’s imagination and with a fast paced wit, bring to life seven years of being an underdog Puff while the overachievers win the prizes. Wayne and his team find themselves battling their own demons and, in sticking up for one another, learn some life lessons of their own.
True to the Last
Towards the end, the play teeters comically into a place that threatens to rewrite the original story, but the creators know their Potter audience too well, and while the show spins off the Hogwart’s world, it doesn’t offer an alternative ending. Wayne ends up back where he belongs, firmly in Harry’s shadow, but all the more powerful for discovering love is the greatest magic of all. (Awww.)
Need to Know
The show is an hour and 45 minutes without an intermission and does contain some strobe lighting, darkness, and dry ice effects, but it’s all about getting the laughs so there’s always some humor juxtaposed with anything eerie. (And if you know your Potter, you’ll know where the plot is headed.)
New World Stages is made up of five theatres and Puffs plays in an intimate setting on Stage 5. You can take drinks into the auditorium and the lounge is set up with Hogwarts style mirror frames for some pre-show photo ops.
PUFFS or: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic & Magic
Tickets: $67 – $87
New World Stages,
340 West 50th St.
Midtown West 646-871-1730
Family-friendly performances: Sat 2 p. m. and 8 p. m. Sun 3 p. m and 7.30 p. m.
Online: puffstheplay.com
Have you seen Puffs: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
What’s in a name? There are a series of questions everyone asks you when you are pregnant. When are you due? Do you know what you’re having? Do you have a name? This last question is usually followed by a few suggestions. Choosing a name feels like such a daunting task if you haven’t had the perfect name picked out for the past 10-15 years like some of my friends.
With my first pregnancy, we had a list of names and a few top contenders, but we weren’t going to pick one until we met her. We wanted to make sure the name fits the baby. Towards the end of the pregnancy, our top choice changed. We had mentioned to our friends and family the top picks when they asked, always noting they are the current faves but we want to meet her. We will regret this always. I remember reading something suggesting not sharing the name, and I wish I had taken the advice. I highly recommend just saying you “haven’t decided” when people ask, and if you are forward enough, follow up with “we aren’t taking suggestions” because a whole list of names will pour out like a flood. A few people got way too attached to our original top pick, and when we would mention that our top pick has changed, they ignored it completely. What seemed playful to them, was annoying and disrespectful.
When choosing a name, we took 8 things into consideration
Will she get made fun of?
Yes. Every child will get made fun of in school for one reason or another. Kids can be quite creative. Any name can be used as teasing material.
People we’ve known with that name.
It is inevitable that you or your partner will have known, or currently know someone with the same name. While you don’t want your child to remind you of someone/something unpleasant from the past, you should just accept it and move on. If you like the name for your kid, use it.
Children she’ll share that name with.
I guarantee you know someone, or will meet someone, who has a child with that name or knows someone with a child with that name. I’m not sure why this is big deal to this generation. Growing up all my friends had the same names. Katie, Jen, Erin, Jessica, Lyndsey, etc. It was not frowned upon to use a common name. Now it’s a challenge to come up with a “unique” name. If you like the name, use it.
What type of personality does the name fit?
Personally, for a girl, I loved the long princess’s names. My husband liked the short and sweet names. While most names can go many ways, especially depending on the nickname, some names are just too proper, or too eccentric for your family and lifestyle.
Does the name fit a professional setting?
I feel like this is the one often overlooked, especially for girls. I love names like Coco, Apple, and Bambi. They make great little girl names. However, when I envision my girl all grown up, and in the workforce, I don’t see her being taken very seriously with such a playful name. Personally, I’d pick a name that could support that as a nickname while young, then she can go by the given name when she decides.
Are the spelling and pronunciation simple enough?
First I think about when she is little. Will this be a hard name for her to learn to spell? Will her little friends be able to say her name? Then as she gets bigger, will the teacher be able to pronounce her name? Will her birthday party invitations be spelled correctly? As she grows up, will she have to spell her name multiple times to ensure it’s correct? Having a common name with a unique spelling sounds great in theory, but as you grow, it gets old when no one spells your name right. Living in LA, I’ve also seen a few families name their kids a name the elders can’t pronounce because they have such a thick accent.
What will the monogram look like?
I take into consideration the monogram. Making sure you don’t spell something silly in the initials. No one wants to get something monogrammed ASS, or BAT.
What will it sound like when I’m calling her?
You will most likely be screaming this name across the playground, so make sure it’s something that sounds good and rolls off the tongue. You also want to make sure it flows with the middle name if you plan on using it with your stern voice.
After all the things to take into consideration we named our girl Cora. This happens to be the name of one of my dear friend’s Mom and turns out another couple from high school had named their daughter Cora too. We thought we had the perfectly feminine, simple, and unique name. The next year it ended up on the top 10 girl name list. Apparently, this is a name of a character on a popular tv series we didn’t watch. I love my daughter’s name though, and I think it fits her perfectly! Now, if only I could come up with a name for her baby sister…
UPDATE: Lil sister’s name is Bexley.
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I'm Southern California SAHM turned mommy blogger. I have 2 toddler girls. I believe when you look better, you feel better, and you do better. Hoping to inspire mamas everywhere to look and feel their best. I write about all things fashion, beauty, mom life and munchies.
If you have a little monkey that never met a tree they didn’t want to climb, a wall they didn’t want to scale, or a giant red Target ball they didn’t want to ninja-kick off of, it may be time to introduce them to the thrills of a zip line. Don’t worry, we’re not suggesting you strap them in and send them soaring with their feet skimming the treetops — click through our album for seven local kid-approved zips that’ll keep them mere feet from the ground.
Harvester Park
This stunning park recently received a facelift but a favorite component, the zip line, remained intact. One of the newest additions is a custom-made fiberglass tree nicknamed Tree of Life with a hollowed out center for climbing, peep holes for spying on siblings and a mesh top designed to allow growth of ivy to mimic a real tree. Not only will the body get a workout with play structures and a splash pad, but the mind will as well when the kids encounter a stream with locks and dams for directing water to three different areas and an unconventional sandbox with a conveyor belt and Archimedes Screw.
Nearby Stevens Park (8555 Walredon) in Burr Ridge also features a 100-foot zip line, a large climbing rock and tree fort.
15W400 Harvester Dr.
Burr Ridge
630-920-1969
Online: brparks.org
What is your favorite local playground? Let us know in the Comments!
