Tips & Hints

Summer holidays are all about relaxing.

Yes, we did say relaxing.

Hmm. How do you feel about that?

Because sometimes when you’ve booked the holiday, got the dog into kennels, set the Sky+ to record, gone on a crash diet to fit into your bikini, watered the plants, instructed a neighbour about the post, booked the hire car …. Well getting organised to go away during the school summer holidays can leave you more exhausted than when you initially had the idea.

But it’s still worth it.

Anyway, today we’re going to give you some handy packing and holiday tips that we’ve gleaned from other parents and also have learned the hard way ourselves.

• If you’re driving to your holiday destination and are short of room in the car for luggage then ditch some of the suitcases and instead use vacuum pack bags instead. Put all the kids’ shorts, tee shirts, swimming costumes, etc in one of those handy bags you can buy in places like John Lewis (or online here), get the hoover out and then watch in utter satisfaction as everything squashes up really small and compactly (is compactly a word?) When everything is flat you can just ‘file’ the bag or bags into the car or tuck them under the front seats if there’s room there. Weirdly clothes don’t crumple when you do this so if everything is ironed it will come out uncreased. (Must be something to do with the lack of air?) Once you’ve packed like this it becomes really addictive and it also works well with ski clothes which are irritatingly bulky.
• Oh that sinking feeling when you’re last at the baggage reclaim carousel and are slowly realising that your suitcases aren’t going to turn up, you’ve got tired and hungry and impatient kids and you just want to get to your holiday let, have a glass of wine, a swim … Firstly, we’d recommend you invest in a set of our supremely stylish personalised luggage straps which let you emblazon your family name proudly and brightly around your suitcase. So no irritating idiot is going to pick up your suitcase by accident. Also, airlines recommend that you also put your name and mobile number inside your suitcase and what better way to do this than with one of our personalised stick on name labels?
• Another trick. Not sure we should share this one but anyway. Avoid the queue at the holiday car hire desk by parting company with your other half so one of you goes off to wait for your luggage at the carousel (you’ll probably have to draw lots for this) whilst the other zips straight to the car hire desk and is first there, before everybody else turns up with their laden trolleys. So you’re ahead of the game, ready to greet your significant other with the car when they get through, you’re off on the autoroute or autopista and on with your holiday!
• If you’ve got teenagers, one of the things you’re most likely to argue about sharing on holiday are foreign adaptors. Teenagers feel like they have lost an arm if they haven’t got their mobile phone attached to the end of it and they’re quite likely to unplug your own charging mobile so that they can sort out their own phone (and all-important social lives). We say it’s worth buying about 5 adaptors for foreign plugs so that you can all charge away happily (just don’t forget them at the end of the holiday, your mobile charger is the thing that hotels say is the most frequently forgotten personal item).
• Take a medicine kit consisting of plasters, paracetamol, antiseptic cream, antihistamine and Calpol. It’s the usual rule, if you take something you won’t actually need it!
• If you’re staying in a resort or hotel, it’s worth labelling young kids tee shirts, shorts, towels, hoodies etc with iron on name labels. It only takes a few seconds, they’ll stay put through the wash and you’re more likely to get your stuff back.
• Also, you can save yourself having a heart attack losing kids at airports and crowded tourist attractions by investing in our ID wristbands which you can personalise with your own name and telephone number, just in case anybody wanders off and gets lost. And we also do allergy ID wristbands which could literally be a lifesaver if your child has a serious wasp/bee allergy.

These are just some of our own hardwon tips. But we’d love to hear more of yours. Here’s to relaxing family school summer holidays!

We just came across a Daily Mail article called “How mothers use up to 20 time saving short cuts a day”.

One of the shortcuts said “Many also admitted to writing names in uniforms with pen rather than sewing in labels.”

Well. Interesting use of the word ‘admitted’ we think. Although in fact we think mums need to know about more useful shortcuts – like our ONCE™ iron on name labels that apply in seconds and last for hundreds of washes.

Hate Sewing? Try Our No Guilt Iron On Name Labels

If you can’t bear sewing but still want school kit named efficiently this is the way to go. Of course, for the old school types we do offer sew-in name labels but we also have stick on, tagg on and iron on name labels for people who a) can’t sew b) hate sewing c) would be overcome by guilt if they (heaven forbid) wrote a name in a uniform in pen.

Other shortcuts mums ‘admitted’ to were things like hanging up clothes instead of ironing them, using ketchup on foods kids don’t really like and buying, not making, fancy dress outfits. Oh, the guilt.

Hmm.

Well, we’ve listed 10 of our own shortcuts/tips that we think make parents’ lives much easier (and help you to find your socks).  If you’ve any to add, please let us know.

1.     Using our ONCE™ iron on name labels that last 100s washes. A no brainer.

2.     Always using bubble bath in the bath (makes the bath easier to clean). That goes for all members of the family.

3.     Take a picture of your cupboards/fridge before you go shopping so you remember what to buy. Also take a picture of your friend with anything you lend out so that you remember who you lent your favourite dress/book/shoes to.

4.     Put dry tea bags in smelly trainers to get rid of that adolescent boy whiff.

5.     It’s an old one but worth it. When you’re making a favourite family meal, make double and freeze half.

6.     Get into online banking. Are you really still going to the bank to pay bills? Set up an online account and you can pay bills, transfer money. It’ll save you so much time when you could be going on spa breaks, gossiping on the phone, watching a DVD box set eating chocolates …

7.     Have a box full of all-purpose birthday and thank you cards to save you making individual trips to the shops to buy in a panic. Same goes for postage stamps. Buy in bulk and keep to hand.

8.     Get rid of children’s clothes that no longer fit. Have a box marked ‘outgrown clothes’ and put stuff in as soon as it’s tried on. Otherwise you’ll find yourself in that endless cycle of child tries on something, it’s too small, it goes in laundry basket, washed, put back in drawer … and repeat. You’ll feel fabulously organised if you do this.

9.     Have back to school haircuts and buy new shoes a couple of weeks before the kids go back to avoid long queues at the hairdressers and shoe shop. It depends on how fast your children are growing but shoe shops and hairdressers are usually pretty deserted mid-August.

10. Get kids involved in clearing out their drawers and cupboards at the end of every holiday and bagging up clothes that no longer fit to save time on a school morning. 

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. We LOVE saving parents’ time. It’s one of our aims in life here at Name Label Company. Name labelling of school kit is a fact of life …  but we’ll make it as painless as possible for you (and efficient too). 

You might like to look at our other blogs on surviving the dreaded kids' sleepover and is there anything you can't label? 

What’s the question we never want to hear our kids ask?

It’s “Can I have a sleepover?” 

For a start, you know that there’s likely to be very little sleep going on. You’re going to have an evening with excited youngsters racing up and downstairs, round and round the house and then trying to herd them into bed at a fairly reasonable time (and probably failing).

Then you’ll be ssh-ing in an increasingly irritable manner as they fail to settle down and the clock ticks on towards midnight. At 2am you’re likely to be woken up by one of your offspring with a tearful young guest saying “Jake/Josh/Molly/ is homesick and wants to go home. Now.”

The next morning your house is likely to be trashed, you’ll be overtired and the only good thing is that it’s going to be at least a year until you have to host another birthday sleepover again.

Or are we being too negative about the whole thing?

With a few ground rules in place, a sleepover can be fun, relatively painless and just think of the benefits. You have eight kids sleeping over at your house so that’s at least eight child-free nights owing to you.   So how should you play it? We’ve asked some sleepover veterans for their advice – what to do and what to avoid. If you’ve any comments to add, please do so.

·      Don’t host a sleepover until your child is ready – that’s at about seven or eight years old

·      Make it clear that kids can be picked up at bedtime or call home at any time if they decide not to stay (so the child’s parents have to do the driving, not you).

·      Don’t have too many kids. Six to ten with two adults is plenty.

·      Make sure all the kids know one another. This is not the time to introduce a new face to the crowd.

·      Be clear on the invitations about what is involved. Give drop-off times, meal-times, pick-up times, ask guests to bring their own pillows/sleeping bags, a contact number for their parents and information on any allergies. (This is where our allergy stick on labels could come in really handy.)

·      Limit sugary foods and crisps before bedtime. Otherwise you’re going to have a load of hyper kids on your hands on a sugar rush, racing up and downstairs and generally stressing you out.

·      Plan some activities in advance. These might be boardgames, craft games (decorating cupcakes if you’re feeling brave enough), a Lego competition, karoke, followed up before bed by a non scary DVD.

·      Have a level sleeping field. That is to say, let everybody sleep on the floor in their sleeping bags (even if it looks uncomfortable to you it’s what they want).

·      Hoping for a regular bedtime is way too optimistic. Instead let the kids know when they have to go up to bed and when it’s lights out. Maybe hand out flashlights (good party bag presents) then. If the giggling and whispering is still going on at 2am then it’s time to step in with a deep, authoritative adult voice.

·      Don’t make pick up time the following morning any later than 10am. It’s unlikely the little dears will sleep much beyond 7am in any case. Give them a good breakfast, have a sweep round to check that no toothbrushes, pyjamas, cuddly toys, clothes are being left behind and make them all pack up their bags to place by the front door after breakfast so they’re ready to go when collected.

·      Finally – your own child will be going on a good few sleepovers so it’s worth naming their play clothes with personalised name labels – our new ONCE™iron on labels will firmly attach in seconds and stay put for hundreds of washes. Toothbrushes, hairbrushes and the like can be named with our wrap on sticky waterproof name labels.

Healthy & Unhealthy Lunchboxes

There’s quite a gaping chasm between what we, as well meaning parents, would like to see in our children’s lunchboxes and what they’d like their own lunch boxes to contain. Really they’d probably prefer you just to turn up every lunchtime with a cholesterol-laden offering from the local fast food outlet. But we know that’s not going to happen, don’t we?  After all, you’re a responsible parent who labels their child’s school uniforms with their name (which is presumably why you’re reading this!)

What (Most) Children Would Like Parents to Pack In Their Lunchboxes

·      Crisps

·      Fizzy drink

·      Bar of Chocolate

·      Sweets

·      Maybe a croissant?

·      Cake, preferably chocolate

·      If a sandwich, one with jam or chocolate spread

·      Another fizzy drink for later, preferably in a bright colour with an artificial flavour like bubblegum

·       

What (Most) Parents Would Like Children To Have In Their Lunchboxes

·      Bottle of water

·      Piece of fruit

·      Chopped vegetables (carrots, celery, cucumber)

·      Sandwich made with wholemeal bread containing chicken, tuna, cheese or something equally nourishing

·      If something sweet, a piece of homemade cake (we know, we know) or a homemade flapjack

·      Oh, and a napkin

As with everything in life, packing up a lunchbox that your kids will actually eat and that will sustain them throughout a gruelling day is going to be a compromise between what you want and what they want.

Here are some ideas to be going on with.

Fruit & Vegetables. Might be a good idea to do a deal here.  Most kids like vegetables like carrots, cucumber, celery if they’re chopped up into small bite-sized pieces. You could also give them something to dip the veg into – like a homemade humous or dip.

Soups. Invest in a small thermos flask (label with one of our stick-on labels and it won’t disappear) and fill with some hot soup – homemade if you’ve got the time. Chunky broths in winter are very nourishing – remember to pack a spoon so they can ladle all the bits up. My son never liked sandwiches but he’d happily eat soup (and I admit, quite a few were ready-made, rather than homemade) especially when accompanied by a crusty roll.

Sandwiches  Great opportunity here to use some healthy wholemeal bread. Or make up sandwiches in small bread rolls. Fill with tuna mix, chicken, ham and salad – here are some ideas for homemade sandwich fillings you can keep in the fridge.  

Sweets and chocolate. Thankfully most sensible schools ban these from lunchboxes. But if your child has a craving for something sweet you could pack something like a flapjack or a cupcake. Maybe make a carrot cake at the weekend together. It’s the usual story – everything in moderation – and it’s hard to ban sweet stuff from our kids’ diet entirely. Just remember not to include anything with nuts in, so if you’re making brownies, ditch the walnuts or pecans and just make them straight up chocolate.

Cleaning out lunchboxes at the end of the day isn’t the most appealing job. If you use our stick on personalised labels (or tagg-on labels on soft insulated lunchboxes) you can put them through the dishwasher over and over again (or on a gentle wash if you’ve a fabric lunchpack). Cleaning out squashed banana at the end of a school day is never an attractive thought. (But the worst was when my son brought his cricket bag out from the garage at the beginning of the cricket season and discovered a blue mouldy something inside that had probably once been a sandwich.)  Our personalised stick on labels will also stay put on plates, Tupperware, drinks bottles, thermos flasks, spoons, forks, bowls, etc. etc.

We like these sites which have some great lunchbox recipe ideas and you can also check out our Pinterest board ‘Lunchbox ideas’ which we’re always adding to. But beware, if you haven’t used Pinterest before it does become somewhat addictive!

If you’ve a child or care for somebody who’s been diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum, then you’ll quickly have learned to become an expert in managing and being around the individual concerned.

In recent years, autism has become very much more talked about and understood. Books such as ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ and films like ‘Rain Man’ have brought autism into the public eye.

World Autism Day is 2 April 2013 and is marked with fundraising and awareness events. 

Online support groups set up by parents and relatives of children with autism can make life very much easier – shared experiences and wisdom is invaluable. The National Autistic Society has an excellent website with tips and advice and an active online community. 

When Is Autism First Noticed and Diagnosed?

According to the website Medical News Today ‘Autism presents itself during the first three years of a person's life …People with autism have issues with non-verbal communication, a wide range of social interactions, and activities that include an element of play and/or banter.’

If it’s your second or third child who develops characteristics of autism, you may have been aware early on of a noticeable difference in development between your children and so receive an earlier diagnosis. However, if your first child is diagnosed autistic you will not be so aware of what to expect and it may take longer before your realise that your child’s behaviour is ‘different’ and that you may need help in managing and educating the individual to live more easily in society.

A friend of ours has a nine year-old child who was diagnosed on the autistic spectrum five years ago. The youngest of three, the mother was aware that ‘something was up’ when she noticed that Jim was happy to play by himself in a playpen for hours on end, with no interaction, unlike her older two children who mixed happily playing alone with wanting regular adult interaction and attention. After several visits to GPs, who initially dismissed her concerns, her nine year old was eventually put on the special needs register and is receiving an education that meets his ‘different’ requirements.

How your child’s autism manifests itself will be apparent in a number of different ways. Again, according to Medical News Today, ‘no two people with autism will have exactly the same symptoms.’

Here is a list of the most commonly found characteristics of people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

·      Wanting little eye contact with others

·      Finding it hard to understand the feelings of other people

·      Talking about a ‘theme’ rather than exchanging ideas and thoughts

·      Some dislike cuddling or physical contact

·      Loud noises, smells and bright lights

·      Speech may sound flat with little intonation

·      Repetitive behaviour and routines

So Where Do Our Personalised Name Labels Fit Into All This?

It seems odd to suggest that our name tags can help to make the lives of relatives with autistic children a little easier, but in fact in our experience (and those of the mums and dads) they certainly do.

A particular aspect of autism can be the child’s wish for the familiar. A person with autism thrives on predictability and enjoys routine.

Our iron-on name labels can help with this. Firstly, they iron on very easily leaving a very smooth finish, with no ‘edges’. For a child with autism this is very important, as they may well dislike the presence of tagg-on or sew-in name labels. Because our iron-on name labels blend in to become part of the fabric of the clothing they are much more acceptable. They’re also hardwearing so won’t peel or fade in the wash.

In addition, your child can choose the font, colour and image depicted on the label – which might be very important to them and the identity they choose for themselves.  

Name Label Company iron-on name labels can be used on anything that you can iron – but if your autistic child decides he or she wants to label everything belonging to him in exactly the same way, then you could get identical stick-on labels made up for using on hard surface items like lunchboxes, water bottles, rulers etc.

If you’ve any experience in bringing up autistic children and have some hints and tips to share, then please leave a comment below or visit our Facebook page. As parents, we’ve plenty of hard-won wisdom and relatives of autistic children will undoubtedly have some valuable management skills and knowledge. 

Photograph of child via Autism Speaks