All posts by Anne Younger

Anne is a 30-something full-time SAHM mom of 5 ranging from 3 to 17 and grandma of 1 who resides in Ashwaubenon (Green Bay) Wisconsin. She started blogging in 2008 as a way to regain her sanity. She enjoys coffee, chocolate, cheeseburgers and vodka along with spending time with her husband and kids.

4 Effective Tips to Help Children Cope with Domestic Abuse

Children who experience domestic abuse need understanding, love, and support. Violence in any form is truly traumatising and those innocent people who witness it should be saved and protected. It should never be tolerated and as parents, you must take good care of your children all the time.

Once your children become victims of domestic abuse, you must act upon it immediately. You are responsible for protecting your children, so make sure to help them cope with such violence. It is never your children’s fault to be abused by anyone. With this, you must understand their situation fully and take actions accordingly.

The struggle that your children experience is real, hence, you must consider the following tips to help them cope with domestic abuse:

Create a support system

Experiencing domestic violence makes your children feel isolated. They might feel helpless and that they are alone in this battle. However, you can change this notion by building a support system that will help them cope with the abuse. You may seek outside sources or support groups that provide child care. This way, your children can have a fun and healthy outlet and they will never feel alone anymore. You may also apply for an ADVO order to prevent further violence that may occur.

Communicate to your children

When your children finally open up about experiencing domestic violence, you have to trust what they tell you. This is a serious matter and it takes a lot of courage before they can talk about it. Therefore, you have to listen to them and tell them that what happened was not okay. As a parent, you need to make your children feel loved and never blame them for the abuse. In addition, you have to sit with them and let them express their emotions without any judgments.

Empower yourself

As parents, you must be your children’s role model. Be that person who loves and takes care of himself despite of the traumatic experiences that come along the way. Your children need you the most in times like this, thus, you have to be strong for them. When they see you empowered, they will also have the courage to get through this painful experience. A supportive and strong relationship between you and your children will be built and that’s one of the most important things you all need at this point.

Strengthen your children’s sense of security

The moment you learn that your children were abused, you must prove them that you are by their side no matter what happen. You have to show them that you are available to provide them comfort at all times, for this is what they truly need. They must feel secured always and never leave them.

Overall, domestic violence can happen to anyone. There is no need to blame one another for causing such thing, rather help your children to cope up by considering these tips mentioned above. Simply let them feel more loved and secured, despite the distressing experience that happened.

Turn Off the Games – – Turn on the Brains

Here’s a great way to give your kids thumbs a rest, and get them to turn off the DS’s, X-Box’s, Nintendos, Tablets, Phones, and every other mind numbing piece of electronics.

I told you last week about Battlefield Earth – – the classic Sci-Fi novel from 1982 that was just re-released. Well, the hype surrounding the release has been unreal! A 25-foot tall alien spaceship from the planet Psychlo “crashed” onto Hollywood Blvd. The malevolent alien security chief for Earth, Terl, was captured by the story’s hero’s Jonnie Goodboy Tyler and Chrissie, led by a team of 10 Scotsmen, complete with drums and bagpipes.

The book lives up to all the publicity and it’s a great way to engage your tween or teen with reading and start reigniting their imagination, while giving them a little dose of history.

The story begins with Voyager, the actual NASA space probe that was launched in 1977 in order to study the outer Solar System and hopefully make contact with would-be alien lifeforms.

Check out the Trailer!

 

In real-life The Nasa Voyager Interstellar Mission carried a gold-plated audio-visual disc complete with photos of Earth, scientific information, spoken greetings in 55 languages, and a collection of music, and other information into deep space so that in the event that it was ever found by intelligent life forms from other planetary systems they would come to understand our planet and civilization. Having operated for over 38 years, the Voyager spacecraft still receives routine commands and returns data. In 2012 it became the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space. Conspiracy theorists believe Voyager actually did encounter extraterrestrial lifeforms (as depicted in the book) but then again it is unlikely we will ever find out.

Share and Get Up-To-Date Info

Again, please feel free to share this post on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Linked, and any other social channel you can think of. The Facebook page for Battlefield Earth has a lot of up-to-date information, photos and videos as well (Click Here to visit the Battlefield Earth Facebook page.)

Buy the Book

AND…if you haven’t read Battlefield Earth you can purchase the book or audio-book on Amazon (Click Here to purchase Battlefield Earth.)

Coding is Fun with the Think & Learn Code-a-pillar at Best Buy

Back when I was pregnant with Joey and the doctors were concerned that there might be something wrong with his brain, I always joked that the only thing that would be wrong with it is that it would be too big because he would be born super smart.  Little did I know back in 2013, that I would be correct.

Joey, who is now on the verge of turning 3, is definitely advanced for his age. He can count, knows the alphabet, can recognize all the numbers, most letters, uses words that most of our older children don’t, retains everything he sees, hears or does, and so much more.

Since we discovered that he has a love for learning and for technology, we have done our best to supply him with toys to feed that craving. He has tablets, ereaders, handheld game devices, books, puzzles, blocks and more. One of Joey’s new favorite toys is his caterpillar, as he calls it, which is the Think & Learn Code-a-pillar from Fisher-Price, available at Best Buy.

Coding is Fun

The Fisher-Price Think & Learn Code-a-pillar makes coding fun for preschool kids ages 3 to 6.

Joey loves to take his code-a-pillar apart, redesign it and set it in motion and then follow it around.

Originally, I was worried that Joey wouldn’t be able to connect the pieces or figure out just quite how to work things, but I should have known better.

I love watching Joey play with it and figure out all the different ways to make it work. He is my little problem solver and I swear I can see the gears turning in his head.

Learning Through Play

The Fisher-Price Think & Learn Code-a-pillar is a great way for kids to learn about technology and coding.

What Does the Code-a-pillar Do?

  • Encourages experimentation while developing important skills
  • Including skills like sequencing, critical thinking, reasoning, discovery, memory, problem solving and experimentation.
  • Learning fun in endless directions
  • Kids can configure the segments to reach targets they set up throughout the room. Toy includes 1 sound segment, 3 straights, 2 right turns and 2 left turns. 2 destination targets and 1 motorized head.
  • Motorized head and segments features lights
  • Fun character sounds and blinking eyes to bring toy to life. Each segment lights up as the action happens.

On top of all of that, it makes learning oodles of fun and keeps kids busy!

Get It At Best Buy

You can find the Fisher-Price Think & Learn Code-a-pillar at Best Buy soon for $49.99!

Keep Kool with Kemps + Giveaway – Ends 7/21

What do you when it’s a hot summer night and your husband just had his tonsils out? Naturally you serve the entire family ice cream for dinner!

Thanks to our friends at Kemps and a killer deal at our local grocery store, we stocked up on flavors for the entire family to enjoy!

Ice cream is something we purchase on a regular basis and we love to enjoy it all summer long but let’s just say the kids are really enjoying it since daddy can’t eat much else right now!

Of course, ice cream is something we have always enjoyed as a family and Kemps is our preferred brand, not only because they are a family friendly company but also because, Kemps produces products we love right here in the midwest.

Flavors for the Whole Family to Enjoy

In addition to producing a quality product, we also love the Kemps offers a variety of 40 delicious ice cream flavors so you can rest assured that you will find something for everyone!

For the chocolate lover, you will find flavors like Moose Tracks Double Fudge, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup and Old Fashioned Toasted Almond Fudge.

Those who crave candy will enjoy Pearson’s Mint Patties, Nut Goodie and Salted Nut Roll.

The holidays deliver special flavors like Pumpkin Pie, Candy Cane and Holiday Vanilla.

Then of course, there is one of my personal favorites, Cherry Fudge Chunk!

And that’s not even half of what Kemps has to offer!

Find Kemps

Ice cream lovers here in Wisconsin and in Minnesota can find their favorite Kemps flavors at their local grocery retailer and the following stores:

Wisconsin: Pick ‘n Save, Copps, Skogans, Trigs, Woodmans, Piggly Wiggly, Meijer, Target, Walmart, County Market

Minnesota: Cub Foods, Knowlan’s, Coborn’s, Cashwise, SuperOne Stores, Lund’s & Byerly’s, Holiday Station Stores, Kowalski’s, HyVee, Teal’s, Target, Walmart and County Market.

Win

Want to try one of these delicious flavors from Kemps?

Tell me, in a comment below, what your favorite flavor from this page is and you will be entered to win 1 of 5 – $5 coupons for Kemps ice cream!

Yep, it’s that easy to win!

This giveaway will end on 7/21/2016 at 11:59pm CST. Winner’s will be contacted via email and will have 24 hours to respond with their mailing information to claim their prize. Coupons are redeemable at any store carrying Kemps Ice Cream products. Expiration date – 12/31/17. The Megalomaniac Mommy is not responsible for prize fulfillment. Any questions, please contact us.

*The Megalomaniac Mommy policies on giveaways can be found here.

 

The Relaunch of Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard

Aliens Among Us?

If you’ve read the 1982 Sci-Fi book Battlefield Earth, you’ll probably remember that it talked about Voyager, the actual NASA space probe that was launched in order to study the outer Solar System and hopefully make contact with would-be alien lifeforms. The story was engaging, entertaining, and perhaps even a bit too realistic. If you have not read Battlefield Earth you will very likely want to after you watch this trailer that the publisher produced to relaunch the book on June 16, 2016, which is even more realistic and believable now than ever before.

In real-life The Nasa Voyager Interstellar Mission carried a gold-plated audio-visual disc complete with photos of Earth, scientific information, spoken greetings in 55 languages, and a collection of music, and other information into deep space so that in the event that it was ever found by intelligent life forms from other planetary systems they would come to understand our planet and civilization. Having operated for over 38 years, the Voyager spacecraft still receives routine commands and returns data. In 2012 it became the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space. Conspiracy theorists believe Voyager actually did encounter extraterrestrial lifeforms (as depicted in the book) but then again it is unlikely we will ever find out.

Rumor has it that followers and fans of the book are using the story line to create ‘life-like’ videos that show how the story of discovering an alien life form might actually unfold online, a medium that obviously didn’t exist when Voyager was launched. It is pretty likely that I will have access to those videos once the word gets out that I’m writing about it here (and hopefully you’re sharing this on your social channels). If I do get access to the videos, which rumor says they’ll be available around mid-June, I will post them here and on my social channels for your entertainment and ‘deep pondering’.

Share and Get Up-To-Date Info

Again, please feel free to share this post on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Linked, and any other social channel you can think of. The Facebook page for Battlefield Earth has a lot of up-to-date information, photos and videos as well (Click Here to visit the Battlefield Earth Facebook page.)

Buy the Book

AND…if you haven’t read Battlefield Earth you can purchase the book or audio-book on Amazon (Click Here to purchase Battlefield Earth.)