LifeStyle

7 Dog Grooming Myths You Should Dismiss

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People love their dogs passionately which is why whenever subjects like dog grooming are being discussed, their views and beliefs relating to them are often ingrained. Unfortunately, this often leads to dog owners accepting advice about dogs they have been told without checking its validity, presumably because they believe that the person relating this advice being a dog lover would surely know what they are talking about.

The problem that exists is some of the so-called advice about dogs, and particularly about dog grooming, is complete nonsense. Worse, if followed, that erroneous advice can lead to the health of the dog’s coat and skin, and potentially their overall health, being compromised. For that reason, we have decided to highlight 7 of the most common dog grooming myths in the hope that if you currently believe any of them to be true, you will subsequently know to ignore them.

Myth #1 – Short-Haired Dogs Do Not Need Grooming: Simply not true. Whilst they may not have some of the problems that longer-haired dogs have, short-haired dogs still need baths, they still need their nails trimmed, still need their ears cleaned and brushing a short-haired dog regularly is still beneficial to their coat. Having a short-haired dog might be simpler in terms of grooming them but it does not negate the need to groom them completely. You can have help with your grooming at professional places, so you know your dog is in great hands. 

Myth #2 – Dogs With Long Hair Always Shed More: Contrary to this myth, it is the type of coat that a dog has, rather the length of their coat that governs how much they shed. This is why some long-haired dogs shed very little, and some dogs with shorter coats shed considerably. The health of their skin and coat also play a significant role in shedding

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Parenting

10 Childhood Speech Error Patterns Speech Pathologists Can Help Resolve

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As a child’s speech and language skills develop, they can sometimes go astray in the sense that they start to display certain error patterns in their speech, and this is when a speech pathologist may be required to help them overcome these problems. It can be the case that a child displays just a single speech error pattern or several different ones.

Speech error patterns occur when a child uses different sounds than the ones they should. These are often associated with children replacing letters or sounds with other letters or sounds on all occasions. An example would be using “W” instead of “R”, so the phrase ” red rose” becomes “wed wose”. Outlined below are more details on this and nine other speech error problems a speech pathologist can treat.

#1 – Gliding: This is the example we just gave, and as well as the letter “R” being replaced by ‘W”, it can happen with the letter “L” too. This leads to phrases like “The little lady is looking at the large dog ” pronounced, “The wittle wady is wooking at the warge dog”.

#2 – Deaffrication: Affricate sounds occur when we ‘rub’ two individual sounds together such as “T” &”SH” becoming the “CH” sound in “chair” or “D”&”ZH” becoming the “J” sound in “jump”. If deaffrication occurs it means the child is omitting the first part of the speech sounds so “chair” is pronounced “shair” and “jump” is pronounced “zhump”

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Legal

10 Common Myths About Separation And Divorce

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10 Common Myths About Separation And Divorce

Given that a divorce is something that most people will never experience, or if they do, it will be once, it is understandable that knowledge of family law relating to separation and divorce will be extremely limited. This is why the most sensible action for anyone going through a divorce is to seek the services of an experienced family lawyer.

It is also a reason why there are so many myths in circulation concerning divorce. To be fair, it may not just be due to ignorance of divorce law, as often divorce cases are depicted on TV and in movies as having more legal wrangling than most ever are in reality. So, to clear up some of the confusion, here are 10 myths relating to divorce and separation.

Assets Are Always Divided 50/50: The division of assets within a property settlement must be fair but that does mean that everything is given a value, and each party receives half. It should be based on fairness and future needs, including the care of any children.

Divorces Are Always Settled In Court: Whilst a court will grant the final divorce via consent orders, if the couple has agreed to all financial matters and those relating to their children, then the case is not heard in a courtroom.

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Parenting

How to Make a Bathroom Child-Friendly

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How to Make a Bathroom Child-Friendly

Even though you will ultimately be carrying out bathroom renovations for yourself, it’s worth factoring your family into the decision-making process. The more they are catered for, the more convenient your bathroom will be for everyone – including families with children who may purchase your property. So, what makes a bathroom child-friendly? Some of the following things just might.

Double Vanities
Two vanities or a Jack and Jill sink can add much convenience to the average family bathroom, especially if there is only one bathroom in your home.

Rather than have to wait for the kids to brush their teeth, you can brush yours at the same time. Sure, you now have two sinks to clean, but you now have double the functionality, which ultimately makes up for that minor inconvenience. 

Pullout Steps
Most bathroom vanities are not designed for young children – but we still want to encourage youngsters to wash their hands. Rather than storing bulky plastic stools in your bathroom, consider investing in custom vanities with pullout steps. These are tucked away in the kickboard area of the cabinet – out of sight. With one pull, they can become a functional and safe stool for kids to use. 

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Legal

Why Relocating Your Children After Divorce Is Not Always Straightforward

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Why Relocating Your Children After Divorce Is Not Always Straightforward

When the parents of children divorce, or separate when in a de facto relationship, there are many aspects of the children’s lives that need to be agreed upon. This will often be done with the support and representation of expert family lawyers from www.robertsonhayles.com.au, and ultimately any agreement will be sanctioned by the family court.

If no agreement can be found however, the court, having heard from both parties, will decide the way forward. It does so via a family order which will normally relate to which parent they will live with, what the other parent’s visitation arrangements are, and assuming the court has no information which precludes it, it will rule that joint parental responsibility applies.

In any decision, the court will always have as its most important priority the welfare and best interests of the children. This applies regardless of whether or not the two parents are on speaking terms, or generally amicable to each other. In other words, the court is not concerned with how much either parent thinks the other should not have responsibility or visitation for example.

The court will also most likely be required when one of the parents, usually the one with whom the children live, wishes to relocate to another town, city, or state. Now, in some cases, they might just be doing this to spite the other parent, but this is rare.

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Parenting

Shared Custody After Divorce – A Growing Trend

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Shared Custody

As our society evolves more and more parents are adopting a new policy when it comes to fighting for child custody after they divorce: collaboration.  The old model of the weekend dad born from generations of rising divorce rates is giving way to a more thoughtful, and healthy form of parenting.  Family lawyers are also jumping on board with these new ideas.

Even lawmakers are getting in on this trend.  In many jurisdictions, the legislatures are considering bills that would encourage shared parenting or even make it the legal presumption in divorces.

One particular law this year made joint physical custody and equal parenting time standard for temporary orders while a divorce was finalized.  One governing body passed a law mandating equal time for parents in custody plans.  Others are considering laws requiring equal parenting time as a starting point when considering parent arrangements.

As lawmakers respond to the appeal of gender equality the legal push for equal time among parents is gaining strength.  Fathers say that without equality they become alienated from their children and overburdened with disproportionate support obligations.  There is a new constituency of men emboldened by the argument that they are being shortchanged.

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Parenting

6 Steps to Effective Parenting

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Parenting-06

It is usually a rude shock to parents when their toddler learns to say the dreaded ‘no’ word. Suddenly they feel out of control as their two year old throws tantrums about every second thing that happens in their life. They may think that this is all their fault, and turn to parenting books in desperation. What have they done to make their toddler behave so abominably? Usually, nothing. The terrible twos is a well-known phrase in your child’s development.

However, most parents could do with some tips on effective parenting so if you are not happy with the way your child behaves, read on for some child care tips to help you.

  1. You have more power than you think over the way your child will develop now and into the future. It is important to increase their self esteem if you want them to be well-adjusted and confident as they grow up. It is a simple thing to praise them for doing or attempting to do anything that is good. But comparing them with others to their detriment will certainly prevent them from trying and can have devastating consequences on their future emotional development.

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Parenting

Tips for Car Travel with Children

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Tips for Car Travel with Children-min

Travelling long distances in the car with children can be less than pleasant because kids love to move around rather than sit for long hours. They get bored and restless sitting in their car seats so it is up to the parents to find some way of entertaining them. This is easier to do these days with the technology that is available.

Older children can listen to their music or watch a DVD, but there are other things they can do when they get sick of that. Games such as counting certain coloured cars or writing down place or river names are interesting to older children. Puzzle books or colouring in can also be a good choice so long as the road is bitumen and not a bumpy, dirt road.

But if your children are still toddlers it can be difficult to amuse them. Here are some tips to keep them happy in the car: –

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Health

Preventing Childhood Obesity

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There have been a number of articles about obesity and children, and frequently there are words used such as “surge,” “epidemic,” and “growing problem.” Let’s take a look at what the issues are.

Obesity has a popular meaning (just plain fat – we know it when we see it) and a technical meaning. Overweight (chubby) is the same. And here comes the interesting thing: official technical meanings of these two words have changed. They deal with the body mass index, or BMI, which is the ratio of weight to height, and is arrived at by the following method: multiply the weight in pounds by 703, then multiply the height in inches by height in inches, then divide the first number by the second. If using the metric system, the numbers are weight in kg divided by the square of height in meters.

Before 1998, a BMI of 27 or more was considered overweight. But in June 1998, new cut-off weights were implemented. The BMI for overweight became 25 to 30, and anything over 30 became obese. Thus, overnight a lot of people became overweight who were considered normal the day before.

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Health

Dealing with Childhood Fevers

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We have nothing to fear of fever but our own fear. Fever is a very sensible, rational activity of the body when it is faced with certain types of stress. It is the activation of the body’s garbage incinerator, burning up debris and toxic matter that are of no use to the body’s normal functioning. These may be bacteria, virus, breakdown products of the body’s metabolism, or other extraneous proteins in the bloodstream.

In the case of children, fever can serve a very good purpose. Children are continuously rebuilding and remodeling their bodies as they grow. As with any renovation project, debris results. In Anthroposophic medicine, the theory is that childhood illnesses are simply a way of disposing of unwanted cells and tissues. Hence, colds, skin eruptions and fevers are normal expressions of a normal process. Parents sometimes get excessively concerned. According to Jane Brody, in her New York Times column “Too Many Parents are Afflicted with Fever Phobia,” the pediatric literature points out that “undue attention to a child’s temperature and mishandling of fevers generate a great deal of unwarranted parental anxiety, avoidable medical complications, and countless calls and costly visits to doctors, clinics, and emergency rooms.”

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