Great Tips on Crib Safety

Your baby will spend most of her first year in her crib. And she will spend a lot of for second year in it too. While it is understandable that you want her crib to be pleasant and comfortable for her, more than anything else, you want it to be safe for her. Not to mention, the crib needs to be sturdy to last the entire two or three years that your baby will spend knocking about in it. When you bring up crib safety, most people think only of how the crib itself needs to be manufactured to standards.

The crib mattress needs to fit in snugly, drop-side cribs need to be designed to latch securely without crushing any fingers, the bars of the crib need to be close to each other we all know the routine. There is more to crib safety than just a safe crib though.

For instance, parents often think that it could be great idea to put a crib right next to a window. They feel that it would do the baby a lot of good to be right next to all the sunshine and the fresh air. The baby on the other hand thinks it's a great way to explore the world outside. Babies do climb on top of their crib, on to the window, and then over the edge. It's known to happen. Suffice it to say that crib safety is something you need to take care of all around.

Let's start with the crib itself. Make sure that you look for a crib thats certified by the Juvenile Products Manufacturing Association. That should take care of everything you need bar spacing, adjustable height, stability and so on.

You also don't want to go with used cribs if they happen to have been made before 1973. That's when federal guidelines were drawn up and put into effect. But sometimes, even ones manufacturers as recently as 20 years ago can be unsafe.

So much for the crib itself. But let's talk safety to do with actually using the crib. Ever notice how some parents will push a crib against the wall and then have a nice picture right there above the crib? There's always the risk that the picture could fall off. There could be any number of ways for that to happen someone could lean on it, someone could make gestures with their hands when they are talking standing near it and knock it off or something. A minor earthquake could do it too. Quite simply don't do it.

You also don't want to use a baby monitor inside the crib. In many cases, it is noted that babies manage to somehow tangle themselves in the cord and get strangled.

Buying Rules Crib Mattresses that are Safe and Comfortable

Crib mattresses are just supposed to be cozy and warm. You also need them to be designed correctly so that your baby's soft bones aren't deformed in any way sleeping long hours on them. And general safety to your child's ability to breathe safely no matter what position she may be in is an important requirement too. Basically, you want to understand that crib mattresses need to be specifically made for the crib. Not just any soft thing will do. In fact, crib mattresses have to be quite firm. You can't even put a sheet or anything on them. A sheet of cloth, for instance, can easily turn into a suffocation hazard.

Once you have these basic rules down, you're pretty much free to choose according to your preferences.

If you're trying to choose between foam and innerspring, for instance, you'll find that they are both valid options if the foam is firm enough for a crib mattress. Foam made for this purpose is usually about 6 inches thick, very light, and quite inexpensive. Even if the store does sell a unit as a crib mattress, how do you know if it really is specifically built for the crib?

Apart from what the store claims, you could also take a look at the specifications on the package. Any foam that has high enough density 1.5 pounds per square foot for instance, say should be perfectly adequate. If the mattress you pick doesn't seem to list this number anywhere, try to judge how good the density is, by picking it up and feeling its heft. Crib mattresses that are dense enough need to be about 8 pounds in weight.

Innerspring mattresses are going to be far more expensive if you try looking for them. But they can be more comfortable and longer-lasting as well. Basically, you're looking for springs that are made of low gauge wire that are marked at less than AWG 16. And you're looking for about 150 coils to a mattress.

Youve probably heard of organic crib mattresses and how they're made of natural organic materials like wool or cotton. This isn't an entirely different kind of mattress though. You can have organic mattresses of the foam variety or the innerspring variety. What makes them organic is the fact that they don't use synthetic foam or flame retardants that are strong toxic chemicals. Whether you go for this or not is a matter of personal choice.

Whatever you do, make sure that you don't ever use a secondhand mattress or an air mattress. Those can get a little soft and can turn suffocation hazards.

The Credit Card Chargeback if you Dare

Remember reading sometime about how credit cards are infinitely better than debit cards because credit cards give you the chargeback facility if there is a dispute with a merchant over poor quality of goods or non-delivery? Well, have you ever tried taking advantage of the credit card chargeback facility at any point? Well, if you ever make use of the credit card chargeback facility you were told was the greatest thing about credit cards, it is possible that your name now appears on a list maintained by a company to sell to retailers. There are millions of people on this list, and these people are persona non grata as far as the retailers are concerned.

The blacklist is online on a website called BadCustomer.com. It was an online retailer who launched the website; after having been hit by frequent credit card chargeback claims by dishonest customers and losing money. It's actually something to think about. If you as a customer should find that a business is fraudulent with you, you can go complain to the BBB and you can initiate chargeback proceedings to recover your money. What is a retailer to do if he is hit by a dishonest customer who receives the goods orders but then claims he never did? There is no place for businesses to go to for justice.

Chargebacks cost businesses in the country $15 billion every year. But how does your name get on the blacklist? It's a list that is compiled with names helpfully supplied by corporate retailers around the country. Of course, no retailer who uses the list actually knows about whether a given consumer on the blacklist really did anything wrong. For all he knows, it could have been the retailer who did something wrong. But they don't want to take a risk. Any merchant who looks the list up online, if he sees that a customer standing before him has his name on the list, can just refuse to do business with him. Which isn't fair; but that is how it is.

The company makes its profits by providing a kind of mediation service to businesses and their customers. If you find your name on the list and you would like to get off it, theres only one way to do it you have to call the company and him ask them nicely.

Of course, this whole thing tends to make things difficult for you if you are a consumer who just initiates a credit card chargeback because a retailer was unfair to him. It's just a system that tries to bring a measure of balance to an imperfect setup.

Thinking of Great Creative Baby Shower Gifts

So there you are, with a brightly-decorated baby shower invitation on your screen before you. You may not know the happy expecting mother all that well, but you certainly do love babies. To you, it wouldn't feel really respectful to the baby if you didn't choose one of the most creative baby shower gifts to bring.

These days, it isn't even just about a gift for the baby to be born. Tradition dictates these days that you need to consider the feelings of the siblings of the baby that's soon to come. What if they feel left out?

When it comes to creative baby shower gifts, you can't go wrong with a great handmade, custom-made gift basket. You would think the women who get invited to a baby shower would be somewhat resentful of having to shell out big bucks for a gift. You just have to take a look at the kind of creative baby shower gifts they bring these days though.

The way all the invitees sit around the table and compare gifts to see who brought the most unique-looking gift, it's plain to see that people love doing this. They enjoy being creative with baby gifts far more than they do with gifts for a wedding or birthday.

If you're experiencing the creative gift there's block thinking of something really new and meaningful, consider these ideas.

How about an organic baby gift basket, for example? Or perhaps a centerpiece that's organic? Whatever you buy of this kind, you're telling the mother-to-be that her baby doesn't deserve chemicals, synthetic stuff and pesticides. When you fill your custom baby shower gift basket with carefully chosen articles of clothing such as bibs, onesies, washcloths and other cute little things, make sure that you go organic. It'll be such a powerful statement.

One of the most creative baby shower gifts can be when you go the other way and do it all for the mother-to-be. With all the attention that everyone showers the thought of the baby to come with, the mother is often likely to feel left out. There are ways of filling a gift basket with all kinds of mother-pampering stuff body spray, soaps, bath bubbles and so on. Or you could include a gift certificate to a spa that you know the mother likes.

It's likely to be the one gift that stands out. You just have to get creative.

Getting a Full-Time Job through a Craigslist Job Search

If you're a freelancer or if you're on the lookout for rewarding part-time work, there is almost no better way to find it than through a Craigslist job search. Nevertheless, hundreds of hunters for full-time employment have found this site remarkably rewarding as well. Everyone seems to know someone these days who has won a proper job in a proper company through a Craigslist job search. Here is what you need to know.

When it comes to the Jobs section on Craigslist, you basically have two places to head to right off the bat one is the Gigs section (where, as you might expect, you're supposed to head for freelance or part-time work), and then there is the Jobs section for everyone else.

The first mistake that job hunters make on a Craigslist job search is to assume that employers use these two sections in a reasonable way. They don't. You'll find both kinds of jobs in both kinds of listings. You basically have to search in both places.

The Jobs section and the Gigs section work in slightly different ways. The Jobs section has job openings listed by industry and the part of the country where it is. The Gigs section on the other hand just categorizes things by job type and industry. If you find that it tires you out to search on Craigslist city by painstaking city, you can just search on AllOfCraigslist to search the entire country all at once.

You need to understand that job posters on Craigslist have to list part-time and full-time jobs in different places. If you're looking for part-time work, you want to head for the part-time section in main. But you also want to look for jobs by industry because sometimes, they just post things in the wrong place. Make sure that you check the Etc. section for unclassifiable jobs. Of course, you need to keep in mind that most scam artists like this section better than other.

Once you trace your finger down the list and find something that interests you, you do need to make sure that it's somewhere where you can get yourself every day. You dont want to get yourself into an impossible commuting situation. Do make sure to look through the entire list even if it might be several pages long. It's not like a Google search where results that appear at the bottom of the list aren't as relevant.

Great Simple Craft Projects for Kids

There are always times every now and then when it's cold, wet and miserable outside. And for these days, every parent needs a comprehensive set of activities to keep the children busy. Because if it rains or snows outside and youre empty-handed while you try to keep your children happy, you won't have time for anything else. Usually, your emergency kid-occupying strategy involves stuff like porcelain painting and Shrinky Dinks stuff that's ready to use in an antsy-kid emergency. But then, how long are you going to occupy your child with that? Here are a few craft projects for your kids that you can put into action with nothing more than a printer. The crafts themselves can be great fun for the kids, and preparing the supplies needed can be great fun for you.

For instance, how about getting your children to turn everything that usually gets stuck on the refrigerator, into a refrigerator magnet? The children can print baseball schedules, all the phone numbers that need to go on the fridge, artwork everything on a fridge magnet. All you need for this are the fridge magnet sheets you get ready-made at any online store. Childrens supplies companies like Avery make them, and you get a magnet sheet for two dollars.

Fridge magnet sheets aren't all that Avery makes. They make fun T-shirt transfers too. While your kids can't be allowed to iron them on to their T-shirts on their own (too dangerous to let children mess with hot irons), they can certainly pick out designs on the Internet and print them out. The transfers go on any regular T-shirt or canvas bag. If you want stretchable stuff, they have a special stretchable fabric pack as well. To get your kids started, Avery provides a bunch of free pictures. A six-pack of T-shirt transfers only costs $10.

How about getting your children to make their own board games? Have you ever been to Education.com? They have such great imaginations over there with ideas for dozens of games to appeal to every interest in little children. Such a great selection of games that are fun but also educational. And all it takes is printing them out, sticking them on to a sheet of cardboard and playing forever.

And finally, for a great DIY coloring book time, try the app that Crayola has on its website called Lights, Camera, Color. The app gives your kids lots of photos that are attractive enough to color. Your kid prints the pages out and colors them. But of course, you need the special Crayola crayon box for this that gives you unlimited prints. It's only five dollars or so.

Have you really totted your real Cost of Home Ownership

Have you really totted your real Cost of Home Ownership Up?

When you talk to a hopeful homeowner about how he's going to manage the cost of home ownership, typically, the answer you get has to do about how he is completely prepared for this mortgage payments every month. The problem is, that as difficult as it might be to make those payments, you really dont get a pat on the back for succeeding to be regular. You're only rewarded with a bunch of extra bills. The cost of home ownership can be pretty high when you add all of those incidentals and overheads up. If you're trying to calculate the cost of home ownership for a future purchase, make sure that all of these are on your list.

Well, to begin with, your mortgage isn't the only thing that's an inescapable payment. Your property taxes are, too. You may have never realized this, but when you don't pay your property taxes, the local authorities stop helping you. For instance, if you call the fire department, they dont come when they see that you are a defaulter. In some places, you pay two property taxes to your city and to your county.

Tax rates do vary from state to state and from county to county. Usually though, you are taxed on the value of your home as assessed (which is a small part of your appraised value). How much do you need to be prepared for? Well, technically, it could run into thousands a year or hundreds every month. To really be sure, you need take a close look at your papers to see what land area and home value you are dealing with.

In the matter of your mortgage payment, you may find that to pay for private mortgage insurance or PMI is mandatory. You usually have to do this if your down payment is less than a fifth of what your mortgage value is. The lender figures that if youre someone who can only swing a very small down payment, that you may be in financial trouble and may default. This can cost about $100 a month.

Your homeowners association fees are another inescapable fact. Depending on where you live, you can be called on to pay anything from $300 a month to $1000 a month. If you don't pay those fees, the law gives the homeowners association the right to foreclose on your home. If you're wondering if this ever happens, youd better believe it. It happens all the time. And depending on how many units in the condo complex are occupied, the homeowners association can increase your decrease payment requirements as well.

Moving into a new home can come with new and higher utility bills. If you have a bigger home, you usually have to pay more to heat it, to cool it, to light it and to ventilate it.