Parent Club Calendar

This is the last weekend to take in the sugarbush festival. Last call for sugar shacks, maple syrup tasting and tapping sack. If you haven't had a chance...get your families to Kortright or Bruce's Mill to take part of this Canadian history experience!

New Immunization Schedule

There is a new immunization schedule currently out for our children. The measels, mumps, rubella shot has now been separated into two shots; one at 18 months and the other at 6-8 years old.

You can do your own research about the new studies (which seemingly come out weekly) regarding the supposed links between immunization shots and autism. Each parent should really make their mind up on that issue.

A problem presents itself; if one has a 6-8 year old child who has had the full shot as per the old schedule should another shot be necessary? The public health team says that the child needs to get the additional shot. Here is the dilema...the initial shot was a full dose (as per the old schedule). Should the child really have another dosage to keep the paper trail correct for the new schedule?

Hmmm...

Parent Hook-Up

Have you ever been to a playgroup, kid place or library and felt an attraction to another parent. Not in the dating sense of attraction. But in the sense of; "hey our sons are the same age" or "I like her parenting style". In the sometimes lonely world of parenting, it is appealing to get a parent hook-up.

How do you pick up a parent?

Casual, friendly, and without pressure. "We come to the library every Saturday morning" shows your openess to meeting again without the pressure of a parent date.

If you've seen the parent a few times, and spoken casually at the swings you could certainly trade cell phone numbers. That way when your off to the park next time you could give them a call.

For babygroup or pre-school friends, you could plan a pot luck playdate at a park (ok not in April -- but in the warmer weather). Where you eat, play and leave.

Swapping e-mail addresses is also a good way to start a parent hook-up. Just don't send FW: jokes or chain letters. Recipes, cool websites (like www.parentclub.ca), and tips are best.

Parent Web - Pregnancy

Here's a cool tool for pregnancy. Baby Gaga (http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/pregnancy.php) has FREE pregnancy tickers. You configure the ticker with your due date information and you can share the progress of your pregnancy in your e-mail signatures, websites and blogs.

Below is an example of the Baby Gaga ticker. (Parent Club acknowledges that this picture belongs to Baby Gaga - we paste it here to share their great info. with the Club.

Click on the picture - we've linked it to the Baby Gaga website.

Parent Club test panel

Parent Club has a couple of product tests coming up in the next few weeks. If you want to become a member of the test team and try out some family friendly products...send us an e-mail:

Click HERE to e-mail Parent Club