Family Matters

It can be easy to feel that no matter what we do, it’s never enough.

If you’re a parent or caregiver who is paying attention, this may feel familiar. There is a lot to care about—a healthy diet, extracurriculars, mental health, social activities, school, homework—and there are a lot of problems to solve.

Sometimes, life itself feels pretty urgent. Between school carpools, work, kids’ homework, practices, making dinner (yes, you have to feed the kids every single night), and squeezing in a little time for yourself, the days fly by.

Take a moment to consider your answer to the question, Do you believe, generally speaking, that people are doing the best they can?

Whether your answer is “yes,” or “no,” you likely have strong reasons for your answer. You may believe life is stressful and full of demands and it’s amazing anyone functions at all. Or, you may believe people are willfully inconsiderate or destructive.

Most parents would probably agree that the past year and a half has been tough. The pandemic has added tons of parental stress: we juggled work with kids schooling from home, we maintained a physical distance from our friends and loved ones, and we navigated a completely different set of societal paradigms.

The past year has been tough for parents, especially those with younger children. Between physical distancing, kids schooling from home, and parents working from home, the many competing demands have been intense.

The essence of Flour Stone Bakery is steeped rich in heritage by its founder and owner, Kim Blumstein who, along with her husband, opened the business in 2015 to serve the Greater Quad-City area with handmade, preservative-free baked goods.  The Blumstein’s moved to the area in 1998 from Idaho, where they owned a bakery within a grocery store and have continued that profession in their current location in Prescott Valley’s Entertainment District.

The first five years of a child’s life are critically important in terms of brain development and the development of social skills that enhance success in school and throughout life, according to Kathy Watson, chair of First Things First (FTF), Arizona’s early childhood agency.

FTF funds early learning, family support and children’s preventive health services to help kids be successful once they enter kindergarten.

Stephanie Miller and her family do things a little differently. Their “normal” may seem a bit different, too, but what is “normal,” anyway?

A 40-year-old mother of two, Stephanie has worked at the Prescott YMCA since 2005. Her husband, Matt, is a mechanic. Their son, Matthew, is nearly eight and their daughter, Maci, is five. The Millers have loved living together in Prescott since Matthew was a year and a half old, and people in town often recognize them.

Why might people recognize this particular family?

Stephanie, Matt, and Maci are Little People.

It’s hitting families with children in some unique ways: students are schooling at home part- or full-time, which means working parents have to come up with childcare, shift to working from home (or shift to working from home while children are schooling from home), or possibly even stop working to stay home with their kids.

For many, planning and having something to look forward to keeps us sane, even when is “normal.” Given the current state of our world, though, many of the holiday traditions we look forward to have already been canceled or changed. So, given our new reality, how do keep up our holiday spirits—and those of our children?