Category Archives for "Embrace The Kids"

What To Do When Your Kids Aren’t Listening

There’s not much more frustrating then a child thats ignoring you. And yet, as a parent it happens far to often. So what do you do? Start dishing out consequences?

Maybe instead ask yourself “when was the last time you played with your child?”.

I can still remember the words of my grandfather, “30 minutes of play is worth hours of obedience”. It’s been one of the best pieces of parenting advice I have ever received.

When I find my children ignoring me, it is almost always linked to how little attention I have given them. Spend some quality playing time with your children and you will see a dramatic change in how they behave.

Remember: Embrace The Kids,  “Make Them The Reason… ”

 

Related Posts:
Becoming Your Best (Parent) Self

3 Guidelines For Living In An RV With Toddlers

5 Tips To A Successful Road Trip With A Toddler

 

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Embrace The Kids Life Style Blog

Email: ContactUs@EmbraceTheKids.com

“Make Them The Reason, Not The Excuse”

P.S. Looking to start traveling full time but not sure how to fund your adventures? Learn how to follow a simple process to start building a full-time income online.

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Becoming Your Best (Parent) Self

I always thought I was a pretty patient person. I always imagined that I would be a fun, kind, extremely loving and pretty much, the best parent EVER! Then I had kids…. Man, do they test and push all my buttons. Here are two tips I am constantly working on to help me become my best parent self. I hope they help.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Parenting is a funny thing. It is something that we get to practice EVERY…. SINGLE…. DAY…. You get to practice becoming your “best parent self”. Everyone may have different ideas of exactly what that is. But that doesn’t matter because we get to re-do, re-test, and re-invent our parenting strategies at the beginning of everyday.

What an amazing way to master our parenting skills! It is not always easy, but boy is it worth it. Through all the challenges/practice we face everyday, we get a step closer to being our “best parent selfs”

Be Quick To Forgive

I am so grateful that everyday we can have a do over. We can let go of things that happened the previous day and try again. When I first thought of forgiving I first thought of talking to your child and making amends with them. That is a very important step, however I think it is equally important to forgive yourself.

Too often I think back on mistakes I have made and things I wish I didn’t do or say. I put myself down, and wish I was a better parent. So be quick to forgive yourself as well as making amends with your child/children.

 

Hope you enjoyed these simple tips to becoming your best parent self. What other Tips would you offer? Tell us by commenting below!

 

Related Posts:
The Shocking Truth About Setting Your Kids Free

Life Clouded With Negativity? Clear Your View and Tell The Right Story

 

Was this helpful? Please consider sharing. Or if you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to comment below.

Embrace The Kids Life Style Blog

Email: ContactUs@EmbraceTheKids.com

“Make Them The Reason, Not The Excuse”

P.S. Looking to start traveling full time but not sure how to fund your adventures? Learn how to follow a simple process to start building a full-time income online.

If you enjoyed this post on “Becoming Your Best (Parent) Self”, comment, share, or follow us on Instagram #EmbraceTheKids.

 

3 Guidelines For Living In An RV With Toddlers

People ask us all the time. “How do you live in an RV with toddlers and not get claustrophobic?”. Well to be honest, some days are really hard. Most days are great! A lot of it has to do with your mentality to the whole experience. There are also some guidelines to having a good time. If it’s a rough day we’ve probably violated one of these guidelines.

Get Out!

The whole purpose of us living in RV has been to travel and be closer to the great outdoors. We want to be outside of the RV as much as we can. Which means we are adventuring and doing more of what we love. Even on the days we need to stay in more, its important to get out and do something.

Go on a hike. Get outside and play. Explore somewhere fun. Take a little walk. Go to the store. It makes all the difference. Think of the RV as a sleeping and eating space more than a living space. There are times you need and want the living space but you should be mostly living outdoors.

Clutter Kills

Nothing makes a space feel small like clutter. Living in an RV with toddlers can feel small enough. Ad in some dirty dishes and toys left out everywhere and things feel real small in a hurry. There is just something about having a clean and orderly house that makes everyone happy. Living in an RV is no different.

The great thing about living in a small space is how easy it is to clean up. When I find myself getting frustrated, it usually has to do with clutter. If we stop what we are doing and clean up. We can have the whole place spic and span in a few short minutes. Try to pull that off in a big house!

Take Deep Breaths

Sometimes toddlers will act just like toddlers. Some days are just hard. It’s important to remember to take a big breath. Remember, “Make Them The Reason…” Give someone or everyone a hug. Or try to find the humor in the situation. Everything will be alright.

Living in an RV with toddlers is an adjustment. Most days are great! Some days are a little harder. All in all? It is totally worth it!

Related Posts:
How Backpacking With Your Toddler Will Make Them Stronger

5 Tips To A Successful Road Trip With A Toddler

 

Was this helpful? Please consider sharing. Or if you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to comment below.

Embrace The Kids Life Style Blog

Email: ContactUs@EmbraceTheKids.com

“Make Them The Reason, Not The Excuse”

P.S. Looking to start traveling full time but not sure how to fund your adventures? Learn how to follow a simple process to start building a full-time income online.

If you enjoyed this post on “3 Guidelines For Living In An RV With Toddlers”, comment, share, or follow us on Instagram #EmbraceTheKids.

5 Tips To A Successful Road Trip With A Toddler

Travel Trip Map Direction Exploration Planning ConceptCompleting a successful road trip with a toddler can seem like a battle. Victory in battle takes planning and preparation. Often times it doesn’t take much time or thought but it can make all of the difference Here are 5 Tips To A Successful Road Trip With A Toddler.

Plan Your Road Trip Around Your Toddlers Sleep

This will take some testing. Some kids sleep great in the car and it makes a lot of sense to travel at night. So you can knock the trip out as fast as possible. For us, That rarely works. They sleep well for part of the trip but one of our children almost always wakes up crying. It’s all down hill from there.

We like planning our road trips around our toddlers nap schedule. That way if she wakes up a little grumpy we can always pull over and stretch our legs. Another great thing about this method is that the naps and awake times typically coordinate with meals. Which means when she wakes up its time to eat so we can stop and eat to let her get the wiggles out.

Distraction, The Time Killer

When your toddler is awake on a road trip, the first line of defense is simple distraction in the form of games. They start out as a distraction tool but can turn into a lot of fun in a hurry. One of our favorites is I Spy. It helps a lot to help her stop thinking about the restricting car seat and instead focus on the outside world and all of the cool things flying by. Trust me even if its not cool, making it really cool goes a long way!

Songs are another great distraction. The best part? You don’t have to be good at singing. Your spouse may not like it but your toddler won’t care. Children love to sing. Songs help them develop and are another great way to pass the time. We often find ourselves making up songs about things around us which can be fun.

Snacks, A Powerful Key To Victory

A hungry toddler is an angry toddler! Having a nice snack cup, to prevent spills, filled with yummy snacks has become a necessity for every trip. Whether its grapes, crackers, cereal or any other favorite, an eating toddler is a happy toddler. It’s typically our second line of defense from a whining toddler and almost always an effective one!

Breaks A Good Reset

It’s no secret that toddlers have a hard time sitting still. Locking them into a car seat feels like torture. Letting them free from prison can be a lot of help! Stopping for even five minutes for a bathroom break makes a big difference on her attitude. It takes longer to get there, but part of the joy of the trip should be in the journey.

Another easy fun way to incorporate breaks is to find cool spots to spot. With a little Google searching you can usually find a historical stop or something fun to see along the way. Even if its a wide spot in the road with an unreadable faded sign, your attitude makes all of the difference.

The Last Line Of Defense- Electronics

Desperate times call for desperate measures. We prefer to keep electronics put away on trips. Especially for our children. A sad way for your toddler to miss the joy of a road trip is to be buried in a movie she has seen a hundred times. That being said, when the “stuff” has hit the fan, it may be time to pull out a a phone or tablet.

We try to avoid movies. Our toddler will often times enjoys looking at pictures and videos. She loves reliving experiences. With all of the pictures and videos we take, she can relive almost any big memory we have had together. If all else fails we have been known to whip out a movie to help our toddler relax and pass some time on a trip.

 

Road trips can be a lot of fun. Taking a road trip with a toddler can be a painful experience! It doesn’t have to be. Take some time to plan and prepare and you can have a fun successful road trip.

Related Posts:

5 Tips For Enjoying The Journey

6 Tips To Keep Your Kids Focused And Moving In The Right Direction

 

Was this helpful? Please consider sharing. Or if you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to comment below.

Embrace The Kids Life Style Blog

Email: ContactUs@EmbraceTheKids.com

“Make Them The Reason, Not The Excuse”

P.S. Looking to start traveling full time but not sure how to fund your adventures? Learn how to follow a simple process to start building a full-time income online.

If you enjoyed this post on “5 Tips To A Successful Road Trip With A Toddler”, comment, share, or follow us on Instagram #EmbraceTheKids.

How Backpacking With Your Toddler Will Make Them Stronger

If you found this post, you probably enjoy the outdoors. Backpacking is one of the ultimate ways to really get out into nature and enjoy all of the beauty. Backpacking can be hard enough just taking care of your own gear and food. So why would you go backpacking with your toddler?

Sounds crazy right? Well that all depends on perspective.

Backpacking With Your Toddler Is About Perspective

If your thinking about all of the extra work, preparation and whining that will come you probably want to say “bag it”.

What if, instead you thought about your child first? What could this trip mean to them?  How would this “hard” thing help them down the road?

What The Navy Seal’s Teach Us About Backpacking And Hard Things

If you know much about the Navy SEALs you probably know that they are some of the toughest soldiers in the world. How did they get so tough? Well they trained like crazy and the culmination of their training is what they refer to as “hell week”. For a week they are put through hell. It’s horribly miserable training and very little sleep. They push their bodies to the limit.

Why? So when they are put in a really tough situation they can look back and say “I survived hell week, I can get through this”. Learning how to get over those tough climbs will help you prepare for the future mountains that will surely come.

Backpacking With Our Toddler

In preparing for our first backpacking trip with our two-year-old, we decided that she would be hiking the whole time. We knew it would be hard for her to do it. We also knew it would take a lot of patience and help from us. But if she could get through this tough hike she could get through the next “mountain” that would come.

The result?

We were totally floored! On the three day hiking trip she hiked a total of 10 miles and she did really well. Keeping her focussed was hard at times but she loved it. Its now a great reminder for her about doing hard things. Likewise it was an eye opener to us of the capability of our children.

They CAN do hard things and they SHOULD do hard things.

 

Related Articles:
5 Tips For Enjoying The Journey

6 Tips To Keep Your Kids Focused And Moving In The Right Direction

10 Things To Take On Every Camping/Backpacking Adventure

 

Was this helpful? Please consider sharing. Or if you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to comment below.

Embrace The Kids Life Style Blog

Email: ContactUs@EmbraceTheKids.com

“Make Them The Reason, Not The Excuse”

P.S. Looking to start traveling full time but not sure how to fund your adventures? Learn how to follow a simple process to start building a full-time income online.

If you enjoyed this post on “How Backpacking With Your Toddler Will Make Them Stronger”, comment, share, or follow us on Instagram #EmbraceTheKids.

 

 

5 Tips For Enjoying The Journey

Enjoying the journey is not always an easy thing to do. We just got home from an AMAZING backpacking trip, but it was not the trip we had planned on. We had been planning this trip for a couple months and I was SUPER excited!

I had been looking forward to this trip all summer. As the trip drew near the weather got worse and worse. The forecasted weather was thunder storms ALL day, everyday! So we knew that in the mountains above 12,000 ft it would be a down poor.

So we decided to change our plans in hope for better weather. I was really bummed and didn’t take the whole process very well. I was disappointed, stubborn, grumpy and not excited about any of the alternatives.

Have you ever had your plans not go quite as you planned? I am pretty certain that it has happened to all of us. What do you do when something doesn’t turn out like you had hoped? Here are 5 tips for staying positive when your plans don’t go as planned. I hope these tips will help you to stay positive and have a good time even when your plans change.

1. Recognize Why

Why do you feel the way you do? In order to move forward I think this is important to recognize. I had set my expectations for the original trip and could’t see any of them being met with the other suggested hikes. I had day dreamed about the views we were going to see and how beautiful it was. And I was disappointed that we weren’t going to see them. I don’t know your why, so make sure you can figure it out so you can move past it.

2. Take a step back

Look at the big picture. Why are you doing what you are doing? In our case we were doing a backpacking trip because we enjoy getting out in nature and we wanted to give Emery more experience hiking by herself. We were also doing this trip with a brother-in-law, his wife, and two kids. So it was also about spending time with them. Once I did that then I realized that it didn’t really matter where we went.

3. Forget Yourself

Did you notice that my “why” was all about me and what I wanted? Usually your plans involve other people so once you start thinking about them it helps you forget your own problems. Once I remembered that this trip was not all about me and that it was for our girls too, it helped me to notice that no matter where we go or what we do they will most likely enjoy it.

4. Change Your Attitude

As hard as it may be, it must be done. A change in attitude is the game changer. Once this is done your expectations can change, and it will help you to have a positive out look and the situation. You are the only one that will determine the outcome. So you might as well enjoy yourself.

5. Realize That Everything Is Going To Be O.K.

It is not the end of the world. You can still have a good time and enjoyable experience. So make the most of it and have a fantastic time with what ever you are doing. 🙂

What do you think? How do you stay positive when things don’t go your way?Thanks for reading!

-Adam and Paige
#PowerParents

 

P.S. We love adventuring together. We love being able to hike with our kids when and where we want.       Learn how we became digital marketers to live life by design.

 

If this is useful let us know, comment below, or snap a photo of your adventures and hashtag it #EmbraceTheKids — We love to see the fun things you are doing and the adventures you are going on. Find us: @EmbraceTheKids

Inspiration: Grant Cardone, Dr John Demartini, Tony Robbins, Russell Brunson, Alison Faulkner- The Alison Show, The Original Power Couple, North Country Littles, Melyssa Griffin, REI, Osprey Packs, Deuter, Mike Clelland, Ultralight Backpacking.

#EmbraceTheKids #optoutside #hikingwithkids #backpacking #camping #hikingadventures #adventurelife #adventurethatislife #runwildmychild #wildandfree #childhood #childhoodunplugged #getoutstayout #liveoutdoors #outdoorkids #livethelitlethings #adventurefamily #exploretogether

 

 

 

 

 

 

Backpacking With Kids – Starve Your Fear

What does being afraid mean? The dictionary defines it as feeling fear. The thought of backpacking with kids often times gives people a scare. If this is you, I want you to really think… What are your fears when it comes to backpacking with your kids?

We all have fears of one thing or another. But why do you have that fear? Are you basing your fear, off of other peoples experiences, or are they something that you have imagined? I have heard peoples fears of backpacking with kids before they have even tried it. Fear has also been described as False Events Appearing Real.

Are you imagining some horrible experience that probably isn’t even realistic? Don’t let those fears hold you back. In Grants Cardone’s book, “The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success And Failures“, he says, “Time is what drives fear. The more time you devote to the object of your apprehension, the stronger it becomes. So Starve the fear of its favorite food by removing time from its menu”.

There are some things in life that you just have to do. That thing just happens to be backpacking, but with your kids. 😉 Once you do it, you will be hooked. What ever fears you may have, FACE them! Set a goal to make it happen. In the end you will be glad you did.

Every trip we have gone on has not been a magical experience the whole time. But we embrace them and accept the challenges and work through them. As we do we have come to learn and love our adventures with our kids. So don’t be afraid, take the leap, life is all about learning and growing. Go..Get out…and have some FUN!

What fears do you have about backpacking or camping with your kids? Let us know and we will answer with how we deal with it.

-Adam and Paige

 

P.S. We love adventuring together. We love having new experiences and facing our fears. Don’t let fear hold you back from reaching your potential.  Learn more about what we are doing and how we face our fears each day.

If this is useful let us know, comment below, or snap a photo of your adventures and hashtag it #EmbraceTheKids — We love to see the fun things you are doing and the adventures you are going on. Find us: @EmbraceTheKids

Inspiration: Grant Cardone, Dr John Demartini, Tony Robbins, Russell Brunson, Alison Faulkner- The Alison Show, The Original Power Couple, North Country Littles, Melyssa Griffin, REI, Osprey Packs, Deuter, Mike Clelland, Ultralight Backpacking.

#EmbraceTheKids #optoutside #hikingwithkids #backpacking #camping #hikingadventures #adventurelife #adventurethatislife #runwildmychild #wildandfree #childhood #childhoodunplugged #getoutstayout #liveoutdoors #outdoorkids #livethelitlethings #adventurefamily #exploretogether

 

 

 

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