So I enter a number of contest everyday that I've found online. There are a few sites that I trust implicitly and some that I refuse to enter because I am not certain of the legitimacy of the contest. My success rate is variable but I firmly believe that if you don't try you can't win. That being said I only spend about 15 minutes a day doing this. I know there are several people you spend all day doing contest and that is just to much for me. However, I do wish I could find more child friendly contests.
Do you do surveys? I do, usually 2 online per day and one or 2 written ones per week. The online ones are pretty straight forward with some offering point rewards that you save up for cash or material rewards. These are the one's I prefer. As for the written ones, they are interesting but a lot of work. I also find the rewards are not reflective of the amount of work involved. Lastly I do one that is done using a scanner and some on-line activity. This one is probably the easiest. I enjoy providing the information but doing surveys is not a way to get rich quickly.
I take advantage of almost any freeebiew I can get. In the trunk of my car there are too many enviro bags to count and yet all but one of them was free. I use bins from the Loblaws chain of companies to organize and again these were free. I find that freebies, often sample , are great for when packing for trips, filling in gaps in a gift bag, entertaining my daughter or just because. Freebies can come from almost anywhere including the toothbrushes at the dentist office or the small trial sizes you get with coupon packages.
Now coupons are probably the one thing that can benefit you the most if used properly, but they can be the most elusive. I know it doesn't make sense to buy something just because you have a coupon, however,, cutting coupons just to have them expire before you use them doesn't make a lot of sense either. I'm not perfect and tend to do both regularly!
Recently, I've started to use online coupons, better know as deal codes, when doing online purchases. These have a benefit over store coupons because you know immediately if they work rather than potentially being embarrassed at checkout.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Chapmas Kids Club
This is a phenomenal site that doesn't costs you anything. It is a fun and interactive website run by Canada's foremost Ice Cream Company, Chapmans Ice Cream. You play games at kidsclub.ca and you can earn up to 600 points per day playing jigsaw puzzles, memory, etc. The point values vary by game and some depend on how far you get before you lose. At the start of the month there is a quiz with 200 points. You can start exchanging your points for Chapman's Branded Merchandise at 500 points for a Fridge Magnet Photo Frame to 9500 points for the Chapman's Ice Cream Delivery Truck. There are several prizes in between and many can be requested multiple times in a year. Rachel has enjoyed this site and in particular loves going to the mailbox to get mail for her. Out experience has been that gifts arrive about 2 weeks after ordering and there is no cost for shipping. The only "cost" is the time to play/assist/supervise the game. Yes, they do run out of prizes occasionally, but I've seen everything restock. We haven't been playing for long so I haven't seen many new prizes but I'm sure it happens. Go Chapman's Ice Cream and thank you for the free gifts.
Tag Tails
My little girl is three (she just turned 3) and doesn't necessarily get the idea of tag. To her the game is called "Get You: and it is the person she is playing with you is supposed to catch and tickle her, then do it again until she gets bored. For her third birthday my friend Paula and her gamily gave Rachel a set of Tag Tails from Playskool. This is a set of 4 coloured belts with 4 detachable tails (monkey, lion, zebra and tiger). Now when Rachel wants to play a chose game she ask to play Jungle Me (she's the tiger) and Jungle Mommy (the monkey) and Jungle Daddy (zebra and lion). The great thing is that she knows not only does someone chase her and steal her tail, but she has to get the tails off of the other players. This makes for hours of fun in our yard. There are other versions of the game for between 2 and 5 players. Sometimes with Rachel we change the game up a little and there's a chase to put the tails back on their owners.
Rating 4 out of 5 stars.
Rating 4 out of 5 stars.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
The Value of Communication
Do you ever wonder why bother writing to a company? Let's be honest do the big companies really care what we think? Well I've never been afraid to write when something isn't quite right or something really exceeds my expectations. This is probably from my courses at school that drove home if you don't know why your customers are leaving how can you fix it.
I've had a couple situation where I've written because a product hasn't lived up to my expectations and have been pleasantly surprised by the results.
The first was Leapfrog! Rachel had a fridge farm, but one of the magnets was always weak. Eventually it wouldn't stick at all. I wrote to Leapfrog and they responded that they would replace the piece at no charge. Actually they had to replace the entire animal set. The set didn't arrive as expected so I sent a followup e-mail. The response was quick and since they ran out of the animal kits they sent a whole new farm.
The second email was to Lego about a cracked lid on a Christmas git. As it happened Lego called me for more information and since the stet is no longer made they sent a $20 gift card to replace a broken lid!
Back in April we purchased Rachel an Innate Bottle at Mountain Equipment Co-op in Burlington. I was looking forward to using it, because it seemed virtually indestructible. Howler in early June we noticed the drinking oval was starting to rip. I sent an email to Innate asking how to prevent further damage on a Sunday evening and as of the next Monday afternoon they apologized for the problem and sent a new lid in the mail.
These quick responses make me more inclined to deal with these three companies in the future!
As for Disney however the response was very different and I am very disappointed.
We purchased an Ariel Under Water Garden water bottle for Rachel at the Disney Store in Hamilton. Whithin a month of having the bottle issues surfaced. The bottle has a purple lid and a large chunk is missing as well as a crack up the side. Since the product is aimed at children I was really disappointed by the lack of durability. I emailed the Disney Store and the response was basically we can't do anything and you need to travel to Hamilton to resolve the issue! Not a positive interaction with a large well known multinational organization.
My disappointment extends beyond this to include frustration at cash. See the Hamilton store doesn't except Mastercard and you didn't find out until you get to cash. The last time I was in the store the sign was obscured by shelf displays. While I realize the store has a right to make decisions I would like to know before I am caught off guard at cash!
I've had a couple situation where I've written because a product hasn't lived up to my expectations and have been pleasantly surprised by the results.
The first was Leapfrog! Rachel had a fridge farm, but one of the magnets was always weak. Eventually it wouldn't stick at all. I wrote to Leapfrog and they responded that they would replace the piece at no charge. Actually they had to replace the entire animal set. The set didn't arrive as expected so I sent a followup e-mail. The response was quick and since they ran out of the animal kits they sent a whole new farm.
The second email was to Lego about a cracked lid on a Christmas git. As it happened Lego called me for more information and since the stet is no longer made they sent a $20 gift card to replace a broken lid!
Back in April we purchased Rachel an Innate Bottle at Mountain Equipment Co-op in Burlington. I was looking forward to using it, because it seemed virtually indestructible. Howler in early June we noticed the drinking oval was starting to rip. I sent an email to Innate asking how to prevent further damage on a Sunday evening and as of the next Monday afternoon they apologized for the problem and sent a new lid in the mail.
These quick responses make me more inclined to deal with these three companies in the future!
As for Disney however the response was very different and I am very disappointed.
We purchased an Ariel Under Water Garden water bottle for Rachel at the Disney Store in Hamilton. Whithin a month of having the bottle issues surfaced. The bottle has a purple lid and a large chunk is missing as well as a crack up the side. Since the product is aimed at children I was really disappointed by the lack of durability. I emailed the Disney Store and the response was basically we can't do anything and you need to travel to Hamilton to resolve the issue! Not a positive interaction with a large well known multinational organization.
My disappointment extends beyond this to include frustration at cash. See the Hamilton store doesn't except Mastercard and you didn't find out until you get to cash. The last time I was in the store the sign was obscured by shelf displays. While I realize the store has a right to make decisions I would like to know before I am caught off guard at cash!
Date Night
Once a month or so Richard and I have a date night. We ship Rachel off to one of the sets of grandparents and have the evening through the next day at lunch to ourselves. This sounds romantic, and to start with it is! I usually meet Richard after work and we go out for a special dinner. When we get home though things change and we do house projects. This includes painting rooms, getting ready for a yard sale or cleaning carpets. But it isn't all bad, it just is a perfect opportunity for us. On top of that we usually get to go our for meals, watch a movie and have some real couple time without Rachel interrupting. I mean how do you feel when your three year old asks you "Why were you making the bed jiggle?"
Opinions
Professor Grand,
I am corresponding with you to express my disappointment with your interview in Debra Brennan's Labours of Love. In the article you state that all post adoption support groups do is discuss how to manage unmanageable behaviours. What gives you the authority to make such a blanket statement? Have you attended a post adoption parent support group meeting?
I attend the London and Middlesex Post Placement Support Group meetings and am an active member of the Canadian Coalition of Adoptive Families. Our support group does much more than talk about what is wrong with our children. We regularly remind parents that even though every part of their life was put under the microscope during the home study, while a foster parent and during adoption probation - we are only human and do not need to be perfect. We encourage our members to find time for themselves to do an activity they like and go on dates with their partners.
You say that the grief of infertility and unresolved and we are still trying to mould our children into mini models of us. I think the opposite is true. We have moved past infertility if that was even an issue! Many people in our group and other groups I have contact with were driven/called to be Adoptive Parents and some even have biological children resulting in a truly blended family. Any parent who tries to make their child a mini version of themselves needs to re examine his/her priorities. At group we encourage mesuring success differently then society especially in the education system. We are thrilled to have our children and grateful that someone, usually overworked social workers, deemed us to be the best parents available for a unique child. All children open the minds of their parents to new and amazing discoveries. Adopted kids just seem to be better at doing so.
According to your interview you state that open records are critical because of the right to a history and in cases of illness. Yet those of us who adopted through the child welfare system have special human beings that we ignored by their birth parents on some level. How do you tell a child of any age that her birth mother loved her very much - when while the child was in foster care the birth parent missed 1/2 of the scheduled visits in the first 19 months of your life and didn't see you at all after that? Or that your birth dad agreed to sign his parental rights away, but didn't ask about you from the time of his last visit until after your adoption finalized (a thirteen month time period).
As for the medical piece - assuming the birth parents loose their relationship with the respective CAS they are under no obligation to tell CAS anything later in life even if diagnosed with a hereditary or familial disorder and may even deny it if asked. We can get the medical information available on our children at the time they are adopted and unfortunately even that tends to be incomplete because the birth parents don't tend to reveal everything to the social workers.
While I sympathize with you in that your step adoption over wrote the first six years of your life, I think step adoption, private adoptions, public adoptions and for that matter even international adoptions are all different and the situation depends on whether openness is a good idea or not.
I am corresponding with you to express my disappointment with your interview in Debra Brennan's Labours of Love. In the article you state that all post adoption support groups do is discuss how to manage unmanageable behaviours. What gives you the authority to make such a blanket statement? Have you attended a post adoption parent support group meeting?
I attend the London and Middlesex Post Placement Support Group meetings and am an active member of the Canadian Coalition of Adoptive Families. Our support group does much more than talk about what is wrong with our children. We regularly remind parents that even though every part of their life was put under the microscope during the home study, while a foster parent and during adoption probation - we are only human and do not need to be perfect. We encourage our members to find time for themselves to do an activity they like and go on dates with their partners.
You say that the grief of infertility and unresolved and we are still trying to mould our children into mini models of us. I think the opposite is true. We have moved past infertility if that was even an issue! Many people in our group and other groups I have contact with were driven/called to be Adoptive Parents and some even have biological children resulting in a truly blended family. Any parent who tries to make their child a mini version of themselves needs to re examine his/her priorities. At group we encourage mesuring success differently then society especially in the education system. We are thrilled to have our children and grateful that someone, usually overworked social workers, deemed us to be the best parents available for a unique child. All children open the minds of their parents to new and amazing discoveries. Adopted kids just seem to be better at doing so.
According to your interview you state that open records are critical because of the right to a history and in cases of illness. Yet those of us who adopted through the child welfare system have special human beings that we ignored by their birth parents on some level. How do you tell a child of any age that her birth mother loved her very much - when while the child was in foster care the birth parent missed 1/2 of the scheduled visits in the first 19 months of your life and didn't see you at all after that? Or that your birth dad agreed to sign his parental rights away, but didn't ask about you from the time of his last visit until after your adoption finalized (a thirteen month time period).
As for the medical piece - assuming the birth parents loose their relationship with the respective CAS they are under no obligation to tell CAS anything later in life even if diagnosed with a hereditary or familial disorder and may even deny it if asked. We can get the medical information available on our children at the time they are adopted and unfortunately even that tends to be incomplete because the birth parents don't tend to reveal everything to the social workers.
While I sympathize with you in that your step adoption over wrote the first six years of your life, I think step adoption, private adoptions, public adoptions and for that matter even international adoptions are all different and the situation depends on whether openness is a good idea or not.
Frustration
Has a Family Court Judge in Ontario adopted through the current child welfare system? My response to that question is no. The judicial system can make adopting a child from the local Children's Aid Society a nightmare.
There are time lines set out in the Child Welfare Act that state when decisions should be made to prevent a child from living in foster care longer than necessary, but those guidelines mean nothing to the Family Court System.
Our daughter came home from the hospital under a temporary care and custody order in May of 2007. These orders expire after 30 days and should have been replaced by Society Wardship order that would have been granted at the Show Cause Hearing 7 days after her initial admission to care. The Show Cause Hearing never happened and after 7 adjournments was adjourned to a Settlement Conference because birth mom or her lawyer did not appear.
Settlement conferences are supposed to happen within 90 days of a child being apprehend and expidite the process of Crown Wardship. Again the settlement conference never happened and in August of 2008 (yes our daughter is now just over a year old) was finally adjourned to trail. A trial that won't happen until late April 2009 if we're lucky and a few days before her second birthday. Again the reason for the court delays were actions by the birth mom and her lawyer.
Since our daughter is under the age of six an application for her to become a Crown Ward occurred around her first birthday after she had been in care for a year, as required by the Child Welfare Act. Our daughter's birthmother hasn't seen her since December of 2007, but vecause she is entitled to her day in court she is fighting until the bitter end. Our daughter on the other hand had no way of making her voice heard and her future remained in limbo until September of 2009.
I am glad our daughter was young enough that she didn't necessarily understand what was going on.
As for granting openness to the Birthparents, this has its own set of challenges. Since birthmom was quiet for so long we don't feel any obligation to keep her apprised of our daughters progress. Digging in your heels just so you can tell your birth child if and when they contact you after they turn 18 that it wasn't your fault you had to give the child up, but the fault of Children's Aid doesn't put the child's needs or well-being anywhere near the forefront of the birthparents mind.
Our daughters adoption was finalized in December 2009 at the age of 2.5 years. We have agreed to send letters/pictures to birthdad, whom is no longer with birthmom as long as he sends something first.
There are time lines set out in the Child Welfare Act that state when decisions should be made to prevent a child from living in foster care longer than necessary, but those guidelines mean nothing to the Family Court System.
Our daughter came home from the hospital under a temporary care and custody order in May of 2007. These orders expire after 30 days and should have been replaced by Society Wardship order that would have been granted at the Show Cause Hearing 7 days after her initial admission to care. The Show Cause Hearing never happened and after 7 adjournments was adjourned to a Settlement Conference because birth mom or her lawyer did not appear.
Settlement conferences are supposed to happen within 90 days of a child being apprehend and expidite the process of Crown Wardship. Again the settlement conference never happened and in August of 2008 (yes our daughter is now just over a year old) was finally adjourned to trail. A trial that won't happen until late April 2009 if we're lucky and a few days before her second birthday. Again the reason for the court delays were actions by the birth mom and her lawyer.
Since our daughter is under the age of six an application for her to become a Crown Ward occurred around her first birthday after she had been in care for a year, as required by the Child Welfare Act. Our daughter's birthmother hasn't seen her since December of 2007, but vecause she is entitled to her day in court she is fighting until the bitter end. Our daughter on the other hand had no way of making her voice heard and her future remained in limbo until September of 2009.
I am glad our daughter was young enough that she didn't necessarily understand what was going on.
As for granting openness to the Birthparents, this has its own set of challenges. Since birthmom was quiet for so long we don't feel any obligation to keep her apprised of our daughters progress. Digging in your heels just so you can tell your birth child if and when they contact you after they turn 18 that it wasn't your fault you had to give the child up, but the fault of Children's Aid doesn't put the child's needs or well-being anywhere near the forefront of the birthparents mind.
Our daughters adoption was finalized in December 2009 at the age of 2.5 years. We have agreed to send letters/pictures to birthdad, whom is no longer with birthmom as long as he sends something first.
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