2/17/2017

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One thing that all parents can agree on is that encouraging your kids to eat healthily is a mission which can take a lot of time and practice. However, as long as you are including certain foods in their daily diet, you should find that they are much healthier than they would be otherwise. The fact is, encouraging a healthy diet is relatively easy as long as you just focus on a few of the most important types of food first and foremost - and worry about the rest another time. If you are simply looking for a way to bring more healthy food into your family’s diet, then take a look at the following for now.

2/16/2017

Over 300 aspiring chefs from 52 schools and universities competed in the 2017 Ajinomoto® Umami Culinary Challenge (UCC) at the Philippine Trade and Training Center (Manila).  This event was the culmination of the national roadshow that began last August 2016 in Cagayan de Oro and October 2016 at Cebu City.

When your little ones are very young, you're used to being everything that they need. They not only rely on you, but you're always the one they turn to whenever something happens. It's a lot of work, but there isn't a parent alive who would say they want things any other way. That's what makes it so hard when your kids start pulling away and wanting a little more independence. A lot of parents imagine that this starts at around puberty, but it actually starts to happen quite a bit sooner than that. Even as a pre-teen, your child is going to end up going through more changes than you expect. But remember that. However jarring and surprising a lot of these changes might be for you, that's going to go double for them. It's important not to overreact when your kids start showing signs of wanting a little more distance, the last thing you want it to smother them and end up pushing them even further away. The key is to help them feel confident to strike out on their own while always making sure that they know that you're always going to be there for them. Sometimes, that can be easier said than done, however. To help make things a little easier, here are some tips on how to handle a few of the tricky milestones that your child might hit as they get a little bit older.


Sleepovers
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Image from flickr
There is no doubt that Disney films have a unique place in our culture. They are truly generational; the films we watched as children are the same ones that we show to our kids now. Unlike so many other aspects of culture, they don't lose their magic over time - today's kids love Cinderella just as much as the original watchers back in the 1950s did. The stories get updated, take on a new meaning and inspiration for a new generation, but they never lose their gloss.

Given that many of us who are now parents were raised on Disney films, it's fun to look back at them. You know you have crossed the adulthood Rubicon when you hear Ariel's speech to her father from The Little Mermaid:

"I'm 16 years old! I'm not a child anymore!"

And you find yourself thinking: "are you kidding me? 16 and able to make a life-changing decision? Yeah, that'll go well..."

So what lessons have our generation learned from Disney films? It's worth thinking about, given the continued presence of the genre in our lives. We inundate stockists for information on Frozen merchandise (and have the occasional meltdown on social media when they run out), we strap our kids into the Minnie Mouse stroller, and we pack lunches into Tangled lunchboxes. Disney is still ever-present. So what does it have to say about parenthood?