One Mom's Journey

To brief you, I traveled from Toronto to Cancun - 3.5 hours with a husband, teenage boy and 3 and 1 year old girls. We booked a Sunquest vacation and flew on West Jet. We stayed at the Gran Bahia Principe - Coba resort in Riviera Maya. This will be a very detailed review of all aspects of the vacation.

Booking with Sunquest:

We are 5 in our family - one of whom still sleeps in a crib. Sunquest would not let us stay in one room only, because the capacity was 4 people. Therefore we were charged for two rooms at dual adult occupancy. Started my vacation off on the wrong foot. Sunquest would not make it work, even though 1 of our children was still in a crib. What did that mean? Our vacation that was originally going to cost us for 2 adults, 1 teen, 1 child and 1 baby(free) now cost us 4 adults + 1 baby(free). Crazy, we are talking a HUGE difference here!

Next - our toddlers/baby suitcase was left behind in Toronto. We were left without any children's clothing and baby necessities for 40 hours. You could only imagine the horrible situation that put us in.We were allocate $200 to spend on necessities, we have yet to see how quickly we receive our reimbursement. Also while on the resort, the Sunquest rep was extremely difficult to locate in guest services, and was rarely there during his 'so called' hours.

West Jet

I took a break from everything for 9 days - in Mexico. I took a break from emailing, cell phones, cars, Facebook, Twitter, blogging - everything. And you know what, I was so proud of myself. I was even more proud of myself while I played in the pool with my husband, teenage son, three year and one year old daughters without even thinking about looking at my smartphone.

I actually had an epiphany while looking around at all the young 20 something year old couples glued to their screens while sunbathing, and again while watching the speechless conversations of the 50 something year old couples who zoned out on their screens during a romantic dinner. PEOPLE ARE PATHETIC! They are addicted. Life is happening right in front of their eyes. Why do they have to be online while this real, tropical, haven is right in front of them?

This is a touchy subject, and probably raises a lot of controversy, but I don't care. I am calling it. People are addicted to their connected life.

Hey you - with the boyfriend - burning under the crazy hot sun - while playing angry birds or something...open your eyes and talk with your man - maybe you will realise that you don't actually love him!

Hey you - Dad - with the laptop - your kids are

We are seeing more and more women run small businesses.  Why?  I am sure there are many factors that can contribute to this, but some of the biggest factors are women are trying to find a way to balance and juggle and multi-task the whole "mom" gig.

Image courtesy of www.thegospelcoalition.org

It goes something like this:  Get pregnant.  Baby is born.  Fall in love with baby.  Realise you have to go back to work.  Realise the cost of daycare.  Realise that you would rather stay at home.  Realise that household overhead does not allow for this. Figure out a way to make money and raise kids.

Here are some brilliant things moms are doing to stay at home and make money.

1. Run a home daycare.  Depending on your area you can earn between $30-$50 per day per child, and you can take care of your own kids at the same time.
2. Walk a dog Dog walkers believe it or not earn between $15-30 dollars an hour for simply walking a dog.  Walk two to three dogs a day with baby in stroller and you are getting exercise while earning extra money.  Taking in a dog while someone is on vacation can earn you between $30 and $50 dollars a day
3. Direct Marketing  Love to host parties, or socialize and have a great network?  Direct marketing is huge right now. Consider reading more on this with the Flip Flop CEO book.  Great read and really dumbs down the industry on how you can make money while raising a family. 
4. Artsy and Computer Savvy? Consider being a graphic designer. Be a Wix.com pro, or sell photography to iStock.com or shutterstock.com and earn a few extra dollars.  You can even contract your graphic design services via logo submittal online sites and earn loads of extra cash.  You can do this during nap time, or even after kids go to bed.

My toddler had never been exposed to cable television.  We streamed everything via our Boxee Box. Recently, my husband decided he wanted cable so that he could watch sports live.  In comes traditional television for the first time in 4 years.  I had no idea what I was going to experience.

My three year old was watching something on Teletoon (or something like that) and up pops a commercial. Harmless enough; toys, branding, the usual, but this was the first time she had been exposed to this - and what happened next was shocking.  For the first time ever, she started asking for everything she saw on commercials.  Mommy, I want one of those, I want that too.  Can I get that for Christmas?  Can you buy me that?  Everything she saw, whether it was a toy or an item of clothing - she wanted it.

In come self-esteem.  Little did I know that I was doing my daughter a favour by not having traditional commercials polluting her mind.  She had never compared herself to others, she had never disliked her clothing, until now.  I will never forget watching her watch a commercial with a bunch of teenage girls, with their long straight hair, cell phones and high boots walking down the street looking so cool and "typical" television perfection.  She has short and super curly gorgeous hair - now she wanted long and straight hair like them.  Poor thing...what have I done?  What has society done?

I have two children in daycare.  My monthly expenses for daycare are higher than my mortgage payment.  It is absurd.  I pay for quality daycare, and I think my children are benefiting from it...but am I?

I have done the math. After all my personal expenses plus my daycare costs, I personally bring in negative each and every month.  Yes, I contribute to the households expenses, but at what expense?  At the expense of someone else raising my child?  At the expense of only seeing my children for a total of 3 hours each day Monday to Friday?  At the expense of quality time that I will never get back.  What if I was a single mom, balancing a mortgage, car payment, child care, gas, groceries etc.  Would I still be able to afford daycare? Probably not.

Although Ontario offers subsidies for families to benefit from daycare and go back to work, it is very difficult to get approved.  It is a lengthy process of paper work and believe it or not - interviews!  An interesting PDF, although dated, shows great information about subsidy allocation for Canadian residents based on provinces http://www.childcarequality.ca/wdocs/QbD_FeeSubsidies_Canada.pdf .

Ontario's average licensed daycare costs per child are $918, the highest in the country followed by BC at $885. The lowest costs, supplemented entirely by the QC government and tax dollars at $7 per day...for a whopping $140 per month. Wouldn't that be nice. Source:http://bit.ly/1aT41Ks