The Shaker of Salt

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If you own a house you often like to upgrade so it feels like a home, or perhaps because you want to sell it later on. You might be wondering how you would go about upgrading your home, and what kind of features that you should be adding. I would love to share a few simple ways to do just that.

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A Breakfast Island

The first upgrade that you should consider adding is a breakfast island to your kitchen. These are ultra modern, and something that has become a growing trend over the last few years. These sit in the middle of your kitchen and provide you with a space to eat your breakfast, or you could use it as another worktop. If you are looking for other benefits of a breakfast island, check out this site https://freshome.com.

This is going to bring your kitchen into the twenty-first century, and if you are thinking in terms of the future, then this is going to add a whole load of value to your asking price. So, if this is something that is important to you, a breakfast island is certainly something to consider.

Your Own Hot Tub

Have you ever wished that you could have your own hot tub? Whether you were little when you first had the dream, or it is something that you want in your adult life, a hot tub is going to be something that your whole family can enjoy. If this is something you want to consider, you can think about building a place in your garden for this to go. Make sure you visit a site like thesharpcut.com so that you know you have the best tools possible for this job.

There are also numerous health benefits of a hot tub such as stress relieving. If you spend some time in a hot tub a few times a week, you will notice that your stress levels are quite dramatically decreased. It has also been thought that if you sit in a hot tub, you might experience some relief if you suffer from chronic pain.

Entertainment Room

Finally, the last upgrade that you should consider for your home is adding an entertainment room. You can do this by putting everything to do with gaming or entertainment into one room. These things can include a TV, a games console, any board games you have, comfortable chairs for movie viewings, and so on. This can also encourage family time in your home, and allow you to spend more time with your children.

I hope you have found this advice helpful and will consider adding these features to your home. Remember, upgrading your home doesn’t have to break the bang. It also does’t have to mean tearing your house apart. There are many effective ways to upgrade your home with just a few simple changes.

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Take a look at your home decor and be honest: do you think it looks the best it can possibly look right now? Chances are, there are a few changes you can make to make your decor look even better, and many of them are quick fixes that won’t take you very long or cost you too much to take care of at all. Take a look at the 5 ugly mistakes below and fix them if you’ve been making them:

Pushing Your Furniture Against the Wall

Pushing furniture against the wall is something you’ll often find people doing because they just don’t know what to do with their lay out. However, pushing furniture against the wall is lazy and just doesn’t tend to look good. You can have beautiful furniture, but if you’ve just shoved it against the wall then it’s unlikely to look amazing. Play with a new lay out; give your furniture space to breathe. If you need to use an app to help you decide on the new lay out, then do so. You can then check out things like reviews about Sofamania if you decide you need new furniture to suit it. However, it won’t always take new furniture for your space to look 10x better. Just a little time and energy!

Having Too Much Visual Clutter

Having too much clutter can be a very bad thing – however, you might not realize that some of the items you have included in your decor so far are cluttering up the space. If you have a number of small ornaments dotted around, try to look at them objectively. They could actually be creating visual clutter that you’re better off without. It’s usually better to have larger, statement pieces in a space even if your home is small, rather than lots of smaller pieces.

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Not Hanging Your Art Properly

Let’s assume you already have artwork that you want to include, or have included in your home. If you haven’t, you need to find some – and fast! No home decor should be without artwork. However, one major sin is hanging your artwork incorrectly. Your artwork should be at eye level, ideally, not too high or too low. To get it exactly right the first time round, practice your layout on the floor before making holes in the wall, and then use cardboard in the same shape/size to figure out where exactly you’ll put the pieces on your wall.

Not Testing Out Paint Samples First

You have to consider lighting before you choose the right paint shade for a room. Make a small patch of paint and then look at it in different lights and times of day so you can be sure you’re making the right choice.

Forgetting To Include Plants

Plants are always a must in your home decor. They add texture and interest and even have health benefits. Just add one if you don’t want to deal with the upkeep – it’ll still make a difference!

 

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The abundance of TV ads that claim their products can get rid of 99.9% of all bacteria implies that there’s a clear connection between cleanliness and health. After all, surgeons do have an obligation to scrub their hands and arms before an operation – even though they are going to wear gloves. The reason for this precautionary washing practice is that infection can spread quickly. To prevent risks of contamination and diseases, keep strict hygiene is part of a surgeon’s job.

As a homeowner, your task is similar. Keeping your home as clean as you can dramatically affect your health. While it doesn’t mean you should turn into a cleaning and washing machine, you need to understand where the risks are and how to reduce them under your roof.

Introduce healthy cleaning habits at home

Get rid of invisible toxins

The air inside your home is just as polluted as the air outside. However, instead of car fumes, you’re dealing with a different kind of toxins. Indeed, materials such as plastic, plywood and other synthetic fibers can release harmful particles in the air. If you have an HVAC system, it’s likely that most particles will be safely sucked in and cleared through your air filter. However, if you fail to book regular filter and HVAC repair and maintenance appointment, you might end up in a situation where you AC unit releases toxins in the air instead of catching and keeping them. Natural ventilation and purifying plants can also help to clean the air.

Seriously, why use chemicals?

There’s another surprising source of air toxins that most people forget; cleaning products. Indeed, chemicals are unhealthy – you’ve probably noticed that from the skull and crossbones icon on the label. You should use them with great caution, as they pollute the air as you clean the house, which can lead to respiratory discomfort. You can switch to natural cleaning products in both situations, such as using lemon juice to clean out the limescale from your shower head or refresh your fridge. Besides, you won’t have to worry about keeping your cleaning products away from children and pets.

Don’t let the mold break you

Mold patches can go unnoticed for weeks and months when they grow in areas with difficult or infrequent access. Your basement or that little spot under the bathtub can be infected, and you wouldn’t know/ What are the typical signs of mold spores in the air? You can notice signs of allergies and respiratory diseases. When the mold patches are fully developed, you’ll get a slight musty smell. The good news is that you can use a natural ingredient such as vinegar to get rid of mold. The bad news is that it’s not active on large areas. For these, you’ll need to invest in harmful chemicals. Remember to ventilate the room afterward to remove air toxins.

Vacuum regularly

If you want to avoid the risk of a household allergy outbreak,  you need to remove the most common causes; dust mites and pet hair. Vacuuming your home weekly or even twice a week if you’ve got pets can improve existing conditions and prevent the development of further issues.

Can you make cleaning your go-to health option at home? Keeping your family healthy is about being attentive to the risks in your household. Don’t let your home make you sick!

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We often forget that sometimes, our homes are looked on with desire by others who may not have actual ownership of the property. This can be as simple as someone window shopping in the neighborhood, trying to figure out where the nicest properties are when considering moving to said environment. However, sometimes thieves and those who wish to gain access to your property will also look around with the same clinical interest, and this is not a good thing at all. You can’t prevent people looking at your home from the street, unfortunately. What you can do is ensure that the means of them actually gaining access are prevented, and stopped at the very first hurdle.

For more info regarding how to prevent a break-in, we’d recommend checking out the linked resource. But for extra advice, and perhaps a few social additions to said methodology, you can protect your home even more, from top to bottom. With these simple pointers, you are much more likely to prevent any and all break-in attempts, helping you prevent those issues now and for the rest of your occupation of the home. Consider:

Keep Leaving Quiet

When you’re headed on vacation, it can be tempting to tell everyone you know. Of course, keeping it completely silent would be a ridiculous notion, and not something that actually makes a whole lot of sense, as it would cause more trouble than it solves. However, it might be that you neglect to tell your cab driver that morning no matter how excited you are, only tell the neighbors you trust, and inform your child to only tell their close friends. There’s no reason that you need to fully declare you’re going to be vacant from your house for weeks, as you never know when this information can hit the wrong ears and unfortunately cause problems down the road.

Of course, this might actually seem like a paranoid thing to consider, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry, and you can never quite tell the intentions of those you aren’t the most familiar with. Sometimes, it’s better to keep leaving for a period relatively quiet, or at least heavily imply the home will be occupied to some capacity.

Night Lights

Of course, sometimes you need to backup the previous advice. It is extremely likely that preventing a home robbery can be achieved if you’re simply willing to implement night lights on a timer, and these are often extremely cheap to install into a plug socket. Be sure to place them in the corridors or near windows that illuminate the area the most diligently. These night lights can often deter any would-be thief, and it’s not always easy to see who’s in a home when different lights are switched on each night. However, your home being pitch black from the inside from 6pm on a winter’s night is often a fairly reasonable clue that nobody is home, and that’s what thieves look for. You can also consider implementing a floodlight outside if you haven’t already, as these motion-controlled products can often prevent someone from even trying to enter the threshold of your property.

Vehicles

If your driveway is empty for two weeks, it’s pretty clear that no one is home. If you have a spare car, be sure to park that in the main parking slot so it’s visible, and not just inside your garage. This signifies that someone is home. However, if you only have the one vehicle, it can be worthwhile to ask a neighbor to park in your garage for that period of time, which shouldn’t take much time out of their schedule at all – perhaps enough to be rewarded with a box of chocolates upon your return. While one stationary vehicle can look great, a continually arriving vehicle can deter someone who might be scoping your house for a robbery. Of course, if you live in an apartment or you usually park on the street outside, this step might not be necessary.

Home Watch

If you’re not already connected to a local household watch community, it might be worth joining one. Neighborhood watches can often bring up suspicious activity at local meetings, and this can be essentially useful if you live in a relatively small community or village. While this might not work as well in a city-environment suburb, there’s still the potential for someone to deter would-be thieves or call the police if they spy a break-in. This can both work for you if you’re headed on vacation or not. It might simply be that you need to introduce yourself to the neighbors in order to get this started. You never know who you might want to call later at night aside from the police.

Promoting The ‘What-If?’ Mindset

You absolutely want a potential home trespasser to be filled with as much doubt as possible, from the moment they even entertain the idea of your house as a target. A beware of the dog sign conveniently placed can prevent them wanting to hop that fence. A full package that promotes the overall presence of a security system can also ensure they consider your house less than worth it, but be sure to familiarize yourself with more info as far as this is concerned.

The aesthetic of your home can also influence just how it looks to someone on the outside. Does this mean you need to paint your home in spooky skeleton decals with a ‘beware ye who enter’ sign? Not likely, unless you’re into that sort of thing. But privacy fencing, privacy curated bushes, a sturdy looking door and windows, perhaps a peephole, among many other implements can show that you care about protecting your house. A well-organized home shows that you’re pretty sharp and care for the maintenance of your property. To a would be thief, this can seem intimidating.

With these simple tips and the ability to refine your approach over the years, your home is sure to be the least appealing to any would-be home thief, and potentially prevent them even if they try.

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Have you ever heard people say, “Things were better years ago. Kids today are too glued to tablets and computers.”? Sometimes it was simple things going to the library to get a book. As with most things we tend to put a nostalgic rose-colored tint on everything. People were healthier back then! Perhaps some of this is true, but overall technology has given us massive improvements in our daily lives. Let’s take a look at some of the ways, that technology (whether you love it or hate it) has improved our lives.

Communication

It has never been easier to keep in touch with the people you genuinely love. Years ago, when a family member moved to Australia, you’d be reliant on snail mail and phone calls just to make sure they were okay. Lets not forget the cost of a telephone call there. While there is a certain deliciousness in receiving a handwritten letter and sending one for that matter, it isn’t always the most practical. For example, when someone you care about is sick or in the hospital – awaiting a letter or a costly phone call can be such an anxious time. But now, we have the means to send everything we want to say with a mobile device using i3Broadband for example. When babies are born we no longer have to wait for the mailed photograph. We can get all the details via Skype or Facetime in seconds. On the flip side we have perhaps lost the art of great face-to-face conversations. But, overall, the communication capabilities are much bigger than in previous years, and the impact is mostly positive.

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Business

This one has grown in ways that no one could have predicted. Large corporations have, and always will leverage leaps in technology to make the big bucks – after all, that is precisely what they are supposed to be doing. Another business perk, however, is that more people can now run a business entirely from home. Which is excellent news for the economy in general. Almost every house has a computer and an internet connection now, meaning that anyone with a little bit of time and some big ideas can create an at home business. You can take advantage of the current boom in the gig economy, and sign up to websites like Upwork, Freelancer, People Per Hour and Fivver and see what type of jobs are available.

Personal Growth & Learning

The age of information. Potentially the information has always been available to those who sought it out, but now even the most fleeting of questions can be answered in a matter of seconds.

When it comes to learning, we are now lucky enough to be able to take a whole degree online. Universities all over the globe have opened up their curriculum and put it in easy to access, and cheaper to take, online courses. The impact of technology like tablets and laptops has meant that teachers now have even more tools at their disposal. There are countless website which are dedicated to providing resources written by other teachers. Children in classes now use online learning programs, that can also be accessed at home – giving them so much more learning opportunity and what they enjoy in school can be extended into the house and experienced with their parents.

Personal growth, mindfulness, being in the moment and stress management are all things that are accessible both via a computer, classes and via apps. Modern life demands more from people, and that is partly because the world of business and work no longer stop – it doesn’t have to. So we can now take steps to learn more about ourselves, what makes us happy, how we can maximize our own strengths and work on our weaknesses. In fact, there are now watches which can tell us so much about ourselves simply by tracking out blood pressure and sleep patterns. All the information we can use to improve our lives.

Some companies have made strides to have books work alongside augmented reality technology to provide a best of both worlds approach to learning.

Once you have an innovation culture, even those who are not scientists or engineers – poets, actors, journalists – they, as communities, embrace the meaning of what it is to be scientifically literate. They embrace the concept of an innovation culture. They vote in ways that promote it. They don’t fight science, and they don’t fight technology. – Neil deGrasse Tyson

Community

They say it takes a village, but in the modern world, it has never been more challenging to find the time to grow yours. By the time you have finished the school runs, your part-time or full-time job, the extracurricular stuff, the cleaning, the cooking… and finding 3 minutes peace (if you can). It can feel like you’re going it alone a lot of the time. Something that many women have openly discussed and written about is how lonely it can be raising children in modern times. Millions of parents have started using portals like facebook, twitter, and online forums to find ‘their tribe.’ It might not be as easy as it once was to share a cup of tea with a close friend, but sometimes making a few close friends that you can talk to via Whatsapp or Twitter, or Facebook can mean an awful lot.

All of these different platforms and different at home technology has given us the power to build a community of like-minded people – without the pressure of the real-life coffee date.

If you have a parenting question to ask at 3am, the chances are someone somewhere will be awake and able to put your mind at ease. Or, if you need someone to speak to and you just simply can’t make a face-2-face, you can message your friend in a different country and still feel supported.

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Creative Outlet

This one combines the community and the learning, and could eventually be a business. Blogging, vlogging, writing, graphic design, and photo editing are among some of the skills that you can do from home. With a quick google, you can find the best software to use, and away you go. In fact, many people who blog can make an entire living from home! But, it doesn’t end there. YouTube and other platforms mean if there is a skill you really want to learn, the chances are, that there is someone out there who has made a detailed video to help you learn it.

Finding something you love, and learning about new methods of doing things is a significant part of modern technology. Connecting with people who have the same hobbies and getting creative is a great way to spend time.

Easy Shopping

Where once you might have needed to stand in a queue for the latest toy for your child, the newest game release or even a clothing line – that is rarely ever the case now. You can pre-order games, films, make-up and even clothing. And, of course, the downside to this is, that smaller brick and mortar stores have paid a steep price – with hundreds shutting down every week. However, smart businesses prospered by creating a great online shopping experience and are no doubt cashing in on that. In the UK 87% of purchases are now made online, and that doesn’t include the weekly shop, and in 2017 US shoppers spent a whopping $108 billion during the holiday season – which accounted for 80% of purchases. It also means consumers can enjoy some deep discounts because not only do retailers compete on price, but they have fewer overheads like rental costs of shops.

This is also great for people who are perhaps less mobile than others, getting what they need, direct to their door is ideal.

Health & Family

While it could be argued that with all the new technology advancements we are more likely to stay in our loungewear and surf the internet all day, you can also say that doctors and scientists have made some brilliant and innovative breakthroughs.

Most of us have benefited from better scanning machines, quicker medical notes when you’ve been to the hospital, blood tests can be back in hours when needed. We also have things like Smartwatches and Fitbits, that can encourage us to move more and give us detailed information on our sleeping habits and heart rate.

And, when it comes to starting or growing your families, IVF has come on leaps and bounds, and the ability to meet and care for children halfway around the world. Technology and science have given hope to millions of people where previously there was none – and that is pretty magical.

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“When did Christmas get so expensive?” We think it to ourselves every year. Every year, the festive season seems to sneak up on us and upon consulting our bank statements we realize that we are woefully unprepared for the oncoming expense. But therein lies the problem. Very often Christmas becomes so expensive because we are unprepared. We fail to lay the groundwork throughout the year and can find ourselves leaning on loans and credit cards which can lead to a spiral of debt that lasts well into the new year. One thing’s for sure, Christmas can be a real source of anxiety for many households.

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The good news here is that there are many ways to drive down the cost of Christmas and still have a wonderful and fulfilling day. And the even better news is that it’ still not too late. With a little careful planning and lateral thinking you can ensure a happy and cost effective Christmas this year and every year.

Carry out an energy efficiency audit

When our thoughts turn to the cost of Christmas, they inevitably turn to presents, gifts, alcohol and the inevitable huge spread (more on that shortly). However, we mustn’t overlook the hidden costs of the season. For example, the extra energy costs incurred in the colder months may not be the most obvious thought that springs to mind but they can drive up the festive price tag.

Carrying out a festive energy efficiency audit can help you save on energy bills every winter. Walk past your windows. Do you feel a chilly draft? Even if you have double wrap windows that doesn’t mean that you’re getting the best protection from the cold and your energy costs could still be going (quite literally) out of the window. Consider upgrading to super energy efficient windows from Boulder Window. These will save you money all year round. They will seal heat in over winter and keep your home cool in the summer, saving you money on air conditioning.

It’s also worth taking a look at your attic insulation. If you see evidence of rodent infestation like tiny bite marks, burrowed holes or droppings it may be compromised. Replacing it will make a big difference in keeping your home warm. If your radiators don’t quite feel as warm as they should, don’t worry, you probably won’t need to replace them! Try adding a radiator additive which has a greater surface area than water and so is able to absorb more heat.

Get those Christmas lists in as early as possible

Nobody wants to ruin the illusion of Santa for their kids, but waiting until the last moment to get your kids’ Christmas wish lists is a passport to a nervous breakdown. Don’t spend your week leading to Christmas ducking and diving around frantic toy stores or paying over the odds for fast delivery from online stores. Get your kids’ Christmas lists as far in advance as possible. This will give you plenty of time to shop around for the best prices.

Plus, if their expectations are way in excess of the household budget, this also gives you an opportunity to let them down gently and manage their expectations, channeling their thoughts towards more affordable gifts.

Have a happy, healthy veggie Christmas dinner

We all assume that Christmas dinner is an absurdly costly enterprise, but much of this cost is absorbed by a huge turkey. If you’re looking for a way to keep the cost of Christmas down without robbing yourself and your family of the enjoyment that comes with a delicious Christmas dinner, consider going veggie for this coming Christmas. There are a great many tasty and indulgent vegetarian and vegan Christmas dinner recipes which are just as tasty and satisfying as their meaty counterparts but a whole lot cheaper… They’re also much healthier, more ethical and better for the environment, too!

Don’t bother with Black Friday

This year’s Black Friday has already been and gone but a tip for next year would be… Don’t bother with it. Aside from the outbreaks of violence, the nightmarish parking and the whiff of corporate cynicism that accompany it, Black Friday can wind up costing you more than it saves. Unless you happen to find a great deal on something that you were going to buy anyway, it is just another way of spending money you can’t spare on stuff you don’t really need or want.

Don’t stop saving

Finally, many of us suspend our savings over the holidays to give us more money to spend. Don’t. When we do this, all too often we don’t remember to start paying into our savings again until well into spring. In fact, now is the perfect time to ditch your high street savings account and find one that will make your money work harder for you!

The more effort you put in now, the easier it will become to make festive savings each and every year!

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The teenage years are a turbulent time. Raging hormones, pressure from peers, exam worries and thoughts of the future can all leave a teen a little out of sorts. One issue is that most teenagers feel that they’re grown up and mature, but are in many ways still treated like children which can be really frustrating for them. They’re given curfews, and there are rules against them doing things they might want to do- from the clothes they wear, to the people they hang out with. They’re told when to go to bed and when to get up, what chores to do and more- it can make some teens want to rebel. Parents really do know best. We’re well aware that our teens very much don’t ‘know it all’ and are still incredibly vulnerable. It can be hard for them to see that themselves, and all the explaining in the world often won’t make a difference. When they start acting out it can be a difficult time for all of the family, and leave you not knowing what to do. If you’re already the parent to a teen, or you’re just thinking of the future- here are some issues you might come up against and how to respond.

Due to peer pressure or the desire to rebel, teens can be inclined to experiment in dangerous vices such as smoking, alcohol and drugs. In the case of drugs and alcohol, these can pose a very real threat to their lives, consuming too much could lead to a fatality. They also put themselves in a vulnerable position where they could be subject to attacks or accidental injury. Know the signs, if your child is being secretive, hanging around with new people or comes home looking intoxicated then you need to speak with them immediately. Another issue families have to deal with is overuse of technology.  Our teens have grown up with technology, it’s very much a part of theirs- and everyone else’s lives these days. However, too much internet use is associated with obesity due to lack of exercise, and it can even be addictive. If you feel that this is the case with your child, you could look into a teen gaming addiction treatment. Psychological addictions like this are similar to those that are addicted to gambling, and affect the brain in much the same way as physical addiction.

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One of the best things you can do as a family is to be honest and open with each other. If your children know they can come to you and speak about any issues they’re having, you can educate them and talk them round- instead of them giving into peer pressure. Know that children and teens can and will make mistakes, if you find out they’ve done something you don’t like then screaming and shouting isn’t the answer. Talking about things in a rational way, and treating them like an adult which is really what they crave will resonate with them on a much deeper level.

These years can be difficult for all of the family, but maintaining close relationships and seeking help if it’s needed will help everything run much more smoothly.

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We live in a technology-filled world, but, in between shouting at your computer and getting frustrated by automated calls, it can be difficult to remember why we didn’t stick with stone tools.

Technology is only as good as humans make it, but this is no reason to despair. There are countless advances going on in the tech world every minute. 

Here are 3 reasons to love technology if you don’t already.

It Connects Us

The first reason that we should all love technology is that is has overwhelmingly brought us closer together. For all that we worry about kids spending all their time on their phones rather than running around outside, those phones are the hub of their social life and form an important part of building new friendships and other relationships. All you need is the best cell phone service you can get and the world is at your fingertips.

With immediate access to people around the world in less than a heartbeat we all have a greater opportunity to come together and solve problems. As we all saw in the way social media affected the Arab Spring in 2010, people can share ideas quickly and decide how to act. Though protests are easy to track, the dissemination of important ideas and solutions regarding large-scale problems like climate change should not be underestimated.

It Solves Our Problems

Technology sometimes feels as though it makes more problems than it solves but this simply isn’t true. Technology is the main tool we have to counter all kinds of issues in all kinds of creative ways. Smart homes are a great example of how multiple technologies can join together to create a more cohesive solution to a range of problems.

We would be foolish to rely entirely on technology to solve every problem we face. Though it is clear that with a little thought and invention, a solution is never too far away. And if sci-fi tells us anything, it’s that writers are already planting seeds for future inventors to grow.

It Continues to Advance

Technology is now advancing at an exponential rate. This means that the time between improvements is getting progressively smaller and so, in effect, this means that the frequency of technological revolutions is going up. While this is a problem for people who want to stay at the forefront of advancements, it does mean that you can much more easily spend less without falling too far behind!

The real hope though is that technology will soon be developed with repairing and upgrading in mind, rather than obsolescence to reduce the impact on the planet. Another problem that is already being tackled with a range of technological solutions…

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No matter how involved in delivery your partner is, women still to bear the brunt of childbirth. Why,  because men can’t do it physically.  Kind of makes you wonder if this ever makes Dad feel as if he is not as valued.

Finding a place for the guy in childbirth is a necessary part of the process. Of course, it isn’t straightforward because it’s not like you can pass on the pregnancy to your man. If you feel like Dad might be a bit sensitive here are a few things you can do to make him feel more valued.

Do Everything Together

With somethings this may seem obvious, such as going to doctor appointments. Often times Dad is more eager Mom for these appointments, after all he is not the person getting examined. Other things you may want to make sure he is involved in are things you may not think of . For example take the baby books. Both of you will read them, but you might shop for them without his input. Picking out the book that will record your baby’s future may be as important for him as it is for you.

Request Attention For Him

If it seems like Dad is left out of the conversations at appointments ask that he be included. I would hope anyone working with expectant parents would already do this. Sometimes something as simple Dad getting a little eye contact can make him feel less left out of the loop.

Get Him To Take A Break

From work, that is. He might be on vacation from the office, but he’ll have plenty to do at home. The first couple of weeks are the most important for new moms and dads, so it’s vital that he’s around. Not only will he get the chance to bond, but your guy should also pick up the slack while you’re recovering. Click here to see and to listen to how loved ones can be your rock in those initial weeks after giving birth. Paternity for dads is two weeks legally, yet he should be able to make it three weeks to a month by using his holiday allocation.

Finding Childcare

When the time comes you may decide you want, or need to return to work. This can be a hard decision to make, but, at times it is the best thing that can happen. Being a stay at home Mom can be very isolating. Face it, you can only watch so much Peppa Pig before you feel like pulling your hair out. For new moms, the relief of an adult routine often feels like heaven. If you can, work on dividing up the time you are with the child, perhaps you can work at nights and Dad can tend baby. 

Picture by Mabel Amber

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Is there ever a definitive time to approach the subject about your parents gradually requiring more help from you they age?

It’s an awkward conversation to be had with your parents. After all  they raised you. They were the ones who cared for you when you were sick, taught you to eat, dress, ride a bike and gradually live independently. However, perhaps the time has arrived for you to return the care. I would like to share a couple tips on approaching the subject of helping without sounding like you are trying to take over their lives.

Family Meeting

There’s no easy way of addressing the elephant in the room. It takes a little courage to encourage a discussion with your parents about their future plans. It’s often rare for those aging and losing their capabilities to discuss their future in this way. However, leaving the subject unraveled could result in no future plan at all.  As a consequence, stress and panic may ensue in the event that your parents may require immediate care.

You may notice one of your parents needing extra help with specific tasks. Perhaps they’ve fallen and hurt themselves a few times in their home or left the doors and windows regularly unlocked. You could mention these events to ask how they feel about those situations and how you could help to ensure their safety in the future.

What Do Your Parents Want?

Discuss with your folks how they’re feeling and listen with your heart about their feelings on their well being, their living conditions and quality of life as a whole. Do they feel happy living at home independently, or do they sometimes feel like they would like some extra help? Do they need to live in their family home, or would they prefer a ground level apartment with easier mobility and less maintenance? Have they thought about having a carer to visit, or a cleaner to take care of some of the duties they are no longer able to do?

Plan some questions to ask beforehand, this will help you to gather the information you need to know to plan precisely how you can support your aging parents, in a way which they feel is helpful and not intrusive or overbearing.

Talk About Options

Be supportive and open-minded to the wishes of your parents, however, balance this with their current circumstances to discuss their options. For instance, if one of your parents is gradually suffering from dementia, they may wish to live with you. If this is not an option, discuss with them the reasons this will not work. Let they know why you are unable to provide the professional around the clock care. Explain why they would benefit from receiving in a nursing home.

Alternatively, you might like the idea of looking after your parents in your own home. If this is the case you may want to look into hiring caregivers to help you out. 

In other circumstances, you or your parents may feel that a nursing home could be a good option to relieve them of daily duties they are no longer able to keep up with while living independently. Such as cleaning their own home, self-care and paying for a multitude of bills to different companies each month.

The primary concern of choosing a nursing home as a potential option is the worry over whether an aging family member will receive a high standard of care, free from neglect. If you think a family member in a nursing home is being mistreated preview https://www.gbw.law/personal-injury/nursing-home-abuse/ for information.

It is important to raise the subject about helping your parents sensitively. They may be filled with grief at the thought of leaving their family home, or feel that their pride has been damaged if you mention that you think they are no longer able to look after themselves adequately.

Talking about this subject may be difficult to begin with, however you can find comfort in finding out what kind of help your parents would like from you now or in the future, so that you can organize and plan your life to help them as they get older and less able to do things themselves.