1. Distributing Children’s Vitamins
If you hand out children’s vitamins that vary in color/shape within the bottle, and if you have the problem we have, which is of children clamoring for a specific shape/color and/or of all the children wanting the same shape/color so that that shape/color gets used up first, I will tell you how I solved this problem: I shake vitamins out into my hand, and the very first MATCHING SET I get is the vitamin everyone gets. I don’t think this would work as well if all five were on the same vitamin, but the littles have one type and the bigs have another so it works great. The vitamins we use are ones that vary in color but not in shape, so I shake out vitamins into my hand until I get two purples or two oranges or two pinks, and then that’s what the bigs get. Then I do the same for the littles: I shake out vitamins until I get three that match. This stops the “OOO OOO, can I have orange??” and also stops the problem of them eating all the orange ones and then complaining about it until 66 vitamins later when we open a new bottle. It also takes the blame off me: hey, it’s FATE that decides today’s vitamin color, not ME. (I could also just shake out one vitamin at a time and say that’s the vitamin that child gets, but this led to “NO FAIR, he ALWAYS gets orange!!”)
2. Peeing Without a Stepstool
If you have a small boy who needs to use a public restroom and only wants to do it standing up but also still needs a step stool, try having him stand on your feet: you stand at the toilet as if YOU were the boy who was about to get to pee without the Public Toilet Seat squeamishness issue even entering into things, and then have him stand on your feet. This still won’t be enough for smaller small boys, but works for the ones who need a little boost. And you don’t have to stand there dangling a child in the air over the toilet while your arm muscles complain.
3. Inexpensive Non-Leaking Children’s Lunchbox Bottles
I’ve tried a bunch of different reusable lunchbox bottles and they ALL LEAK. I have been SO FRUSTRATED. Then I thought, “…Hey. These reusable bottles are sold empty. But little bottles of water and juice are sold FULL: they CAN’T leak, or the transportation/stocking issues would be a nightmare.” I first bought the little 8-ounce bottles of bottled water, and they DIDN’T LEAK. But they were also made of thin, easily squashed/crumpled plastic. So then I bought these:
(photo from the Amazon.com listing, where they
probably cost a million dollars when in stock)
They’re Mott’s 8-ounce apple juices, and I buy these at Target, though only two of my three within-driving-distance Targets carry them. They cost about $4 for an 8-pack, which is more than I’d want to pay for a disposable product (for field trips I send juice boxes), but think of them as an 8-pack of reusable lunch box bottles, only 50 cents each (which is what our school system charges for a carton of milk, which is what inspired me to start this whole quest). I peel off the paper label and I write the child’s name on the bottle and the lid in permanent marker, to make it clearer to school staff that the bottle is meant to be reused. The bottles are surprisingly sturdy and they don’t leak. (We’ve had occasional problems this year with the twins, because they don’t always get the concept of the screw-top needing to be threaded correctly, in which case of course the bottles WILL leak.) The kids reuse them until they lose them: in several years of using these, I’ve only had one bottle taken out of commission for breaking, and it was the lid that cracked.
Good idea re: the drinking bottles. My kids use these Thermoses:
http://www.amazon.com/Thermos-Funtainer-Bottle-Story-Ounce/dp/B003QTEBRK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301051823&sr=8-1
and it has gone well. I do send them wrapped in a ziploc bag just in case and the bag travels to and from school so no waste there. I prefer the stainless over the plastic (leaching) and also that it keeps drinks very hot or cold for a long time. The milk they take in the morning is still cold, even after school. I bought two of the three on clearance at Target for six bucks each. :-)
Um, I don’t have a kid old enough to send lunches for, bit I might use the apple juice bottles tip for myself.
Our pharmacy just switched over to all purple vitamins. Our family got the last bottle of circle, mixed colors and the first bottle of square, purple vitamins. For the moment, we fight over colors AND shapes. I cannot wait till we have all purple square vitamins all the time.
Oh. And. I just wanted to let you know that I’m thinking of you this morning. No matter how right the time is (and I think it is.. you waited just the right amount of time) losing a beloved pet is hard. You will have your own sadness and the sadness of the kids to handle all at once. You’re in my thoughts today.
We reuse the hard-shell plastic bottles for lunches too. Do you handwash or run them through the dishwasher? We use the dishwasher, and I do worry about the chemicals breaking down, etc. Also, we do have a few of the “bpa free” ones (sold as a set with the lunch sack) and they’ve actually not leaked. Though truthfully, I have no idea what brand they are! They are IMO too large though… so they barely get filled halfway, which seems silly.
My kids don’t fight over vitamin color that often. We use the Gummi-vits which are mostly red or orange and yellow with a few “white” mixed in. I dump out 3, then dole them out.
I did the same with these milks http://www.meijer.com/s/nesquik-low-fat-chocolate-milk-1-multi-pack-4-bottles-ea/_/R-169384;jsessionid=F671F2E2E8FA62728C3D00F394BB60F3.instance01?CAWELAID=693435657&cmpid=goobase
but Codi’s school kept throwing them away. I had a total fit about it because WE RECYCLE IN THIS HOUSE. One of his teachers got all pissy at me about recycling and how it was NOT IMPORTANT and who cares about reusing a bottle buy another one. OMFG I wanted to punch her.
In other news NO FAIR YOUR KIDS TAKE VITAMINS. Mine suck on them for a second and then hide them in the couch cushions
I am very sad to say that I don’t reuse bottles like I should but YES! those Mott’s bottles are awesome! They are virtually indestructable.
I love the Smart water bottles with the flip cap style. Those I will reuse, although they may be a tad big for lunch boxes.
Good idea with the standing on the feet to get a boy to pee. I hate taking my nephew to the bathroom because once I’m dangling him he/I can’t get the pee to stay in the toliet. Apparently my aim is as bad as my husband’s.
There is ONE ISSUE that is about to come up in my house and I would LOVE for you to cover it. Like step-by-step/leave nothing out please, SWISTLE I’M BEGGING YOU! (see how worried I am?)
Potty training a girl. Mine is about ready-she tells me when she is peeing or pooing in her diaper-but I have NO IDEA how to get started.
Help me!
What wonderfully helpful tips! Thank you Swistle!
You are brilliant. Thank you!
Anonymous- I hand-wash them, using one of those brushes meant for cleaning baby bottles.
Nik-Nak- Oh, I am the WRONG one to ask! I do very…poorly…with potty-training. Like, it’s lucky it does all kind of pan out in the end, because I never manage to come up with a workable plan.
Oh, little boys peeing in public places. I can’t count the number of times I’ve said “Don’t let your penis touch the toilet.” I’m sure the women in nearby stalls were wincing at that one.
one of the many things i never thought about should i have kids: holding up boys so their little boy weiners can reach the urinal. ha.
I have been so frustrated withthe leaking issue. I wanted to get them reusable bottles for the waste issue, but also for the cost issue (refilling them with juice /milk/water is less expensive than sending an individual sized disposable), but they KEPT LEAKING. I am putting this suggestion into action immediately! Also, I can hardly stand that you have so many targets within driving distance. I am going to Denver for the weekend and can hardly wait to see that big red and white sign! :)
Maybe you could host an occasional discussion on ‘hot tips on…’ and pick a topic.
(I second the potty training girls request–little bunny announces “Poopin’!” but all hell breaks loose if we try to involve a potty.)
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Shoot! So hopepully she’ll eventually learn herself then, right?
I just did something similar with the juice bottles. My kids love cran-whatever juices which you don’t find in juice boxes. So I bought the small cran-raspberry juice bottles and we refill them. Works great and much cheaper.
We have our son stand on the toilet in public restrooms. He’s 3 but the size of the average 18 mo. It will splatter some, but I would rather have to clean the toilet seat with a baby wipe after he’s done than have to clean him. :-)
I’m on my third potty-training girl and here’s my secret. I wait. This method isn’t for everyone of course. Some really want to be rid of diapers, some need to be able to move into a non-diaper room in daycare. For me though? The thing I wanted the most was to NOT clean up accidents, especially in public. So I wait. Around age two or sooner, they want to start using the potty. This has always been the case with us so I don’t know what I’d do if they were potty-averse. So they can practice but they get back in the diaper when they’re done. As the third birthday approaches I think, “oh crap, they should probably be on the potty by now.” So I put them in underwear. So far this has worked like a charm. First two girls had one or two accidents then were dry for good.
Yay for Hot Tips! They should be a weekly feature.
I’m sorry about Mouse.
ARGH! Vitamin dispensing! I HATE it! I finally came up with a system which works great and it doesn’t even require ME at all. I wrote about it here if you’re interested. Sounds like your system works but this is even LESS work:
http://peterspartyof5.blogspot.com/2010/05/5-things-i-want-to-share.html
Will be buying those Motts.
Catching up after a long and exhausting week. Often when this happens I go straight to the part of my RSS reader that says, in happy, bold, hooray-new-items! font, “swistle(1)”. It’s been a while since I commented and I wanted to say – I so love the way you write and the way you look at things. Thanks for brightening my days – as you have been doing for years now!
Thanks swistle!
– Katharine
I used to do the boy on my feet thing in restrooms too. Not sure why I thought of it, but it is a great tip to share.
whoa, you may have changed my life with number 2. thanks!
Thinking about the peeing in public thing makes me not want to even think about potty training my three year old boy – yes, I know it is time!
We will have to do school lunches next year and I will keep the bottle tip in mind!