Loora's Profile

JANE JONES gave the best advice ever, I think. I'll get the best material possible for the floor (you walk on it !), the hardware and the sink/bath/shower '(but your average white ceramic isn't expensive). However, I think that this article makes an excellent point: without compromising the quality, you can get much cheaper items when you know where to look ! Which I don't, most of the time...

The layout is so much better... it really looks like a kitchen now !

I'm not a huge fan of white-on-white-on-white, because I feel cold and unwelcome at 7 AM, but if that's your thing, well, you've done it perfectly ! I love how the kitchen is decorated without being overstuffed. I'd take off the "Eat" sign though, I feel like it's everywhere these days, and the rest of your decor is so much more original (love the three prints on the last photo).

I also thought I was about to read some tips about photographing a place, maybe in the prospect of selling it ? Disappointed.

Seems like the article is creating a confusion between "using technology as a baby-sitter or a crutch" and "using technology to do other things". I'm living far away from my family, and yes, my son and I use Skype to stay in touch. Technically, we are together in front of a screen for maybe 10-20 minutes a day, but he talks to his great-grand-parents who are too old to leave their home, to his grand-parents, or to his aunt who lives across the Atlantic ocean. He gets to see their faces, and, trust me, it's made a HUGE difference when we go to visit them. You can't imagine how happy his great-grand-parents were when they saw him in person, and he recognized them and called them by their names.

On the other hand, he's never used my phone while we go grocery shopping, to the doctor or to the restaurant. We know he can sit quietly for an about hour and a half, and take care not to go to restaurants where eating will take longer than that. When my husband and I want to talk together, we ask him to go and play quietly for a while... a work still in progress, but isn't education endless patience ?

I don't agree with KFARLEY that parenting is a 24-7 activity; I'd go crazy if I didn't get some "me" and some "me and my husband" time. I even need "me and my cat" time ! But when my husband and I go to dance class, I hire a nephew as a baby-sitter, and there's no app used. It's another family time with a different person. I also don't understand the part on not taking long airplane trips: isn't the travelling experience worth an few hours of cartoons and playing with an app ? I took my then-15 months old son across the Atlantic, and he came back a different person; but yes, both of the 12 hours flight were punctuated by playing on my iPhone and watching cartoons.

On the other hand, I couldn't agree more on your other remarks especially:
"there are times when they cry or meltdown like all kids. But handing them an iPad in that situation, in my mind, is robbing them of the experience of learning how to regulate their behavior and responses internally."
Amen to that ! But the temptation is sometimes very hard to resist...

Why not go directly to the channels you are interested in ? I never browse the "main" channel because I don't care about technology or that "porn" article, but I like the family channel and go there directly.

About the article. If the point is to show beautiful plates, well done. If it's to make children eat... not so much. I'm French, I'm supposed to know everything about making children eat veggies (please take that remark with the highest mark possible on the irony and self-depreciation scale). I know my son would eat the carrots and snub the raw broccoli.

I totally agree with Charlie26: get them involved in preparing decent food, even simple recipes. Washing veggies, cutting them (if age-appropriate), helping with the cooking... that's fun too. I'm also not sure about the positive impact of playing with food to such an extend. Eating should be a pleasure as much as possible, but a pleasure related to the food itself, the taste, the smell and the presentation, not related to drawing, which is a whole other category in itself. Then again, maybe it's just me. Playing with food is encouraged in our house (I'm the first culprit), but it means associating ingredients together (how about some coconut milk and saffron with your risotto ?). My son loves grating the nutmeg so much, we even tried it once in strawberry yoghurt (trust me, don't). But that was fun.

I love the backsplash ! Cement tiles are all the rage here in France, and I don't think they'll ever look dated. Some are really old design, and I love them a lot. The soft grey and white colors are a great twist on the traditional strong color.

I also love the gold hardware. Call me crazy, but I think gold is coming back in a big way, and I don't think it clashes with the stainless appliances. But then again, that's just me.

And I'm off to see if you can import those fantastic microwaves. Seriously, I've never seen one like that in France. Integrated over the stove, under cabinets ? Huge capacity ? I need one !

Love your "theme" !! That must have been wild fun for the kids ! A caped child feeding animals with his friends... that's the most fun my own 2-years old could ever dream of !!

I have a question for you Americans. I'm French, living in the northern France, and I have some American friends with kids about the same age as mine. I wonder: are parents automatically invited to birthday parties ? Here we "drop" the kids at the party and leave, but am I supposed to stay at an American birthday party (I'd love that !) ? If I stay, I'd like to bring something to the birthday boy's mother, who had so much trouble organizing it all for kids and adults: would a nice hostess gift be ok ? Any idea ?

Thank you for helping me figuring out the etiquette of an American birthday ! I love my friends and don't want to offend them just because I'm ignorant of their ways.

Go back to APARTMENT therapy and forget the therapy part. Really hating this.

Another vote for transitioning directly to an adult bed when you live in a small space: you can use the bed as a guest bed, even if it's a one-person bed. Children learn to give their space to guests for a day or two, and they have fun sleeping with their parents (we didn't sleep as well as usual, but that was fun anyway). We found it very useful, since we don't have a guest bedroom and our small house can't accommodate guests in the living room.

How about not faking a clean home office and tidying things up every evening ? It takes 2 minutes to do it, and if someone is coming, the clutter won't amount to much. Plus, you know, people are usually working in their home office, nobody expects it to be magazine-ready...

I'm the laziest person on Earth, and I found it easier to put books and magazines back where they belong directly after I'm finished with them. And if I'm not, well, I'm working and I won't pretend otherwise, so no, I won't fake-clean my desk if I'm working on an article and have my reference books all over the desk, even if the Pope is coming to check on my home office. And if He did, I don't think He'd mind anyway...

I really thought that the list would end with "buy some fresh flowers and display them artistically", "take a quick shower and don't forget to vacuum under the fridge" or "quickly change your computer wallpaper for something with neon and chevrons in it".

"Your over-worked self needs to scramble to make your over-worked home office look magazine-spread-ready in about 15 minutes." Maybe you could clean that stupid way of thinking first ? (I'll bring hot tea, you'll get the cookies ?)