Parenting and Finance

I thought this post was worth sharing, in highlights, the subject is with regard to savings accounts for kids. Taken from here, emphasis mine:

"You have 16 years to teach him your values about education, how to treat others, money, responsibility, what words are inappropriate, table manners, etc. It's all a package. You can either have faith in your own ability as parents or not."

It can be so easy to question one's own parenting skills, but I guess it's also important to remember that our parents were able to do so, and lucky as we are to have good parents, we are doubly lucky to have a model/method to follow from our own experiences.

"Maybe I was naive and lucky, but I never considered not telling my children about their savings or not removing myself as custodian when they reached 18. My children knew from about the age of six (they were told before, but might not have understood the concepts) that we were saving money for them to go to college. Either then or by ten, they knew it was "their money," but they were expected to use it for college. By twelve, they knew the word "disinherited." Of course we never talked to them about going to college, only about going to graduate or professional school. [You shouldn't have to explain the benefits of going to middle school, and we treated going to college the same way - it's just another step along your path.]"

I thought that this was an interesting approach and I found it quite clever.  I actually agree with it, except I have concerns about putting implied pressure (internal within the child, or external from parents) on the child to get into a graduate / professional program.  Now that I think about it, this might have been what my parents did with me!  Hmm...having said all that, one can only push a child so far before they have to go forth on their own.

"I always thought honesty was a good policy, and children learn by what you do as much as by what you say. That's just one reason why I wouldn't hide the account if I were you."

The first part is a no-brainer.  The whole post is a good reminder of things to consider.  Lots for me to think about.

Xtreme Comforts Bamboo Pillow Review

I had a memory foam pillow I tried from Costco, it was nice.  It was comfy.  I don't use it anymore for good reason.

Little did I know how important a feature it is for a memory foam pillow to be fully machine washable.  Seriously.  Little Ender (LE) really likes whatever pillow we use, and not the kid-sized one we bought for him, which is fine and dandy; until he gets sick and vomits all over your pillow.  Your memory foam pillow that ISN'T machine washable.  How the heck are you supposed to "spot clean" vomit?  Also, did you know memory foam acts like a sponge?

Desperate, I jumped on Sweethome and found the Xtreme Comforts Bamboo Pillow.  In short, it works.  It's quite supportive, and smells only a little bit, initially, gone in 24 hours depending how sensitive you are to these things.  It arrives in a sushi-like package, and then you rip open the plastic and it unfurls and expands.  Fluff it up, smash the heck out of it, or toss it in the dryer for a bit to spread out the shredded memory foam and you can sleep on it the first night.  Works great!  Until the pillow gets stolen by the wife.  Which then gets stolen by LE.  So now...we have 3 of these because other pillows were forcibly phased out by wear and tear, or LE's vomit.  Ah, the joys of daycare.

Standard size, queen size, and slim (for Little Ender.)  Get the slim if you're a stomach sleeper.

Now I can rest easy (ha) knowing if I have another emergency cleaning session, it's as easy as tossing them in the washer.

We took an extra step and got some waterproof pillow protectors too.  Because even though the pillows are easily washable, it's better not to have to wash them every time.  Worth it.

Tuft and Needle review

After 7 days with the Tuft and Needle Queen size mattress, I have to say, so far, I really like it!  We went with it because the mattress was a bit firmer than other ones based on Sweethome, and the because the price was attractive.  It doesn't hurt to also check Sleep Like the Dead.

It's definitely more supportive than my previous memory foam mattress from Costco, which I think was a Sleep Innovations mattress.  It's about 70 lbs so it was a bit of struggle to bring it upstairs myself.  It had surprising little smell when it was opened; I was able to sleep in it just a couple hours after opening.  When I first hopped on, I actually bounced back up a bit, which was my first indication that it was pretty supportive.

One thing I noticed is that when I sit in the TN mattress for a while, I don't get the lower back pain that I would from the other mattress.  Also, the edge support is much better, although it isn't saying that much because it's still memory foam.  The surprising thing is, the TN mattress is more supportive while being about 2" thinner than the previous mattress, I suppose it must be higher density foam. My preference is to "float" when I'm lying down, as opposed to being "enveloped" by the mattress, so the TN mattress has just about the right amount of give.

In any case, I recommend it, and it's quite affordable for a new mattress, ~$600.  I bought it directly from the manufacturer website rather than Amazon because the return window for the Amazon is 30 days vs 100 days from T&N.