Ricky Zoom and His Friends Make Chores FUN!

This post was sponsored by eOne but all opinions, as always, are my own.

Just in time for National Clean Your Room Day, on May 10th, which also happens to be Mother’s Day, get your kids to start helping out around the house with a smile on their face thanks to Ricky Zoom’s chore chart!

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If you haven’t heard of Ricky Zoom, then you can thank me after your kids fall in love with the show and start learning about teamwork, responsibility, friendship, community and helping others – all the core elements of Ricky Zoom! You can watch Ricky Zoom on Nick Jr - http://www.nickjr.com/ricky-zoom/ and catch all-new episodes May 18 to May 29th, from Monday to Friday at 5pm.

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The Ricky Zoom chore chart is much different than the ones we’ve seen in the past. For starters, you can print it out at home and customize it or you can use one of their pre-colored ones. Because they’re easy to print and double as an arts & crafts activity, we printed a few and put them all over our home. In the basement, for example, we put up a Ricky Zoom chore chart that included: Put away your cars, turn off your iPad and wash your hands. In Zane’s room we have: make your bed, brush your teeth and put away your books.

Click here to download the Ricky Zoom chore chart!

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The Ricky Zoom chore chart comes with some chore recommendations but also comes with blank tags so you can write in your own. We’re trying to teach our older son, Zane, to share with his younger brother so although “sharing” isn’t really a chore, we put it on the chart to remind him that it’s important and to encourage him to do it. My son is 3 years old and extremely motivated by reward, so we’ve found that having this chore chart has really made him enjoy helping out! He loves feeling grown up, he loves the praise that we give him when he’s completed a chore and he loves sticking the lightening bolts on the chart when he’s completed a chore!

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For kids that are a little older, you can use the blank tags as a way to encourage them to make the decision about what chores they’ll do every week. And because it’s a printable, you can switch up the chores too every once and a while to keep things exciting!

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I love Ricky Zoom for my kids because the show teaches him such important life lessons and values and with my son being out of school until at least September, I want to make sure he doesn’t forget all the valuable lessons that he’s learned at school about playing and sharing with others. Because of Ricky Zoom’s chore chart, my son feels like one of his bike buddies every time he finishes a chore and so it’s helped make the average boring chore (such a putting away his sippy cup) super exciting! Ricky Zoom offers so many amazing fun activities for your kids on their site such as toys, apps and free printables! Head to Rickyzoom.com to check them all out. 

My Apologies to My Friends Who Don't Have Children

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Having a baby changes your life and also the relationships that you have with the people around you. It makes you sympathize and bond with your fellow moms over how it's possible to survive on so little sleep and it unfortunately, can also distance you from your friends who don't have children. I can't say that I blame my friends... I once upon a time didn't have a baby and found it really hard to relate to what my mom friends were going through. I would try to have a conversion with my bestie M. and every 10 seconds was interrupted by: L put that down, L stop jumping, L stop running in the house! Fast forward a few years and our conversations now go something like this:
-Hey M! How are y - Zane don't eat the dog food! - what was I saying? 
-I'm good... tired, busy the usua - L put that down! Leave your sister alone! - what was I saying?
-You were telling me I think about your day yesterday? I don't really remem - Zane stop french kissing the dog! Omg M gotta go. Zane is playing in the toilet.

Mom life changes EVERYTHING. I've teamed up, once again, with my mom friends and we've come up with a list of apologies for our friends that don't have children! Feel free to add your own in the comments below: 

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1 - I'm sorry I was an hour late to your birthday party  - to be honest.. my son threw up all over as I was heading out the door and you're lucky that I showed up at all. You should in fact be buying me a gift. Have you ever tried to wake a baby up from a nap and then show up at a party smiling? Why is your party at 9am anyways? Don't you know this is NAP TIME. 

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2 - I'm sorry that every time we go out I'm always wearing black yoga pants - it's really because no other pants fit me and the black really camouflages all the food stains from my child throwing his dinner at me. Tonight we ate cheerios for dinner because i just couldn't deal.

3 - I'm sorry that my child bit you/hit you/threw something at you - I really am trying to teach him. Listen - if you think you can do better, take him for a day and try. Actually maybe a week. I could use some sleep. Please?

4 - I'm sorry I forgot your birthday/anniversary/first day of work etc. - I run on 4 hours of sleep a day and I can't even remember my own name most of the time, so just be thankful I remember who you are. You really are important to me and I promise one day I will get my shit together and start checking my reminders on my phone... if I can only find it... my son was playing with it somewhere. Speaking of which... were is my son? 

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5 - I'm sorry I had to cancel our plans last minute because the baby was sick - I promise this isn't an excuse. They put everything in their mouth and are sick every week. I would much rather be sitting and having a glass of wine instead of sucking out boogers from my baby's nose (for those who don't have kids - yes this is a thing... and yes you will have to do it. Have kids they said... it'll be great they said.)

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6 - I'm sorry I left your party early - I know I said it was because the baby was going to have a melt down, but I was the one who was ready to snap and felt it would be frowned upon if I started crying in the middle of a crowd of strangers. 

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7 - I'm sorry I can never make it to dinner with my kid unless we eat at 5pm - Kids are assholes sometimes. Especially tired ones. If you want to have dinner at 7pm and want me to bring my son, that's fine. But know that there WILL be a melt down. And my son's screaming is comparable in volume and pitch to a beluga whale so EVERYONE will stare. We might even end up on YouTube when he starts catapulting the food across the restaurant. I'm down if you are... I've been through it all and have no shame anymore. 

All in all, my life has changed... but I promise I'll find that balance again... or a really good babysitter that's always available. I love you and miss you and still treasure our friendship so please wait for me to find my way. :)