December 15, 2014

Disney Planning - Part 1: Pre-Planning


Okay.  I know that title sounds crazy.  You are saying to yourself, "Elizabeth, are writing about planning to make a plan?"  And the answer is, yes.  This series of blog posts is going to serve as a walk through of my process for planning a multi-family trip to Disney World.  To give you some background, we are planning a trip to Disney World at the end of July 2015 with my Dad and step-family.  There will be 9 people going total.  Of those 9, 7 are adults, one kid will be 10 and my kiddo will be 2 (almost 3, which is important later).  If that sounds anywhere close to your family trip or even if it does not, this series is for you.  Going to Disney World is a big trip and quite frankly takes a lot of planning.  So, put on your Type A hat and join the ride.

So a big part of planning a multi-family trip is that you all have to get together to, well, plan.  For us this is taking place at our Christmas gathering, which is about 7 months out from our trip.  You want to have this planning session more than 6 months out from your trip because at the 6 month mark you can make dining reservations, so you want to know where you want to eat prior to that date.  To help this meeting to be the most productive, I have taken some time to pre-plan (you know, planning to make a plan).  I have highlighted things that are important for my family to do and see.  I have picked some of our top restaurant picks and scoped out different resorts.  That way, I already have some ideas of what may work or not when we get together. 

This is my first trip to Disney as a parent.  My sweet little toddler has no idea of what wonders await him.  But, I will warn you, I am learning how to do Disney as a parent as I go.  I will update you on what I learn as I go.  I am no Disney novice though.  I have been several times as a teen/adult and I am glad I have some experience to pull from when planning a trip for my little family.  The first thing I started researching was what options we have for resorts.  My child historically does best in hotel situations when he has a separate sleeping space from us.  Also, if someone has to take little man back to the hotel for a nap or early bedtime, I didn't want them to have to sit in a dark, quiet room while he sleeps.  With this in mind, I found three pretty good options:

Disney's Art of Animation Resort:  This is the newest resort and I am intrigued by the theming.  It is a value resort so it falls in the lower price bracket.  The sections are themed for The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, Cars, and The Lion King.  I happen to live with a pretty big Nemo fan (2 if you count my husband), so the adorable rooms and huge Nemo pool seemed very exciting.  This resort also has family suits in 3 of the 4 sections that sleep up to 6 people.
  • Pros: Exciting themes, very nice pool, suit style allows for a separate sleeping space for at least napping.
  • Cons: The suits and regular rooms are not close together, the suit would be crowded, and my little dude would have to share a bed with someone.  
Pop Century Resort:  We have stayed here before and quite frankly, it may be the best resort for your money if you want a traditional hotel room layout.  We really liked the resort and the cafeteria style dining area cannot be beat.  The resort has some fun themes and still has a large pool and some fun icons around the grounds to explore.  The sections are decades, but everything is pretty close together so you can see anything on the grounds even if you are not in the decade of your choice.
  • Pros:  Most cost effective, great cafeteria and food, and the privacy of our own room with just our little family.
  • Cons:  We have stayed here so it would not be new, no separate sleeping space, and it is pretty far from the parks especially if you are using the Disney transportation.
Treehouse Villas at Saratoga Springs:  Okay, this is my top pick right now.  These are just too cool.  The houses are elevated 10 feet giving the feeling of being in a treehouse.  All around is green and wooded areas.  The 2 bedroom villas sleep 9 (perfect, right?).  We could all stay together in what feels much more like a house than a hotel.  One of the rooms has bunk beds, perfect for cousins! Saratoga Springs also has fantastic pools with water slides and whirlpools.  There is also a full service spa if you are into that.  Splitting the cost of a villa turns out to be very near the cost of either of the other options.  Plus, did I say they are treehouses?
  • Pros:  They are treehouses (cool factor), we can all stay together, separate sleeping areas, and amenities of an upper level resort without the extra cost.
  • Cons:  Slightly (maybe 100 bucks) more per person in overall cost, no cute character theme, and we all have to stay together.
Let me clarify that last con.  Going on a multi-family trip is great.  I will write a whole post about why I love going to Disney like this.  But, depending on your family dynamics, a week of never getting away from each other might not sound so fun.  Gage that before committing to sharing sleeping space.  Also, everyone has to be 100 percent committed when you make the reservation.  We have had trips where someone has planned on going, but was unable to afford it come time to make the payments or had to back out for some other reason.  If you calculate your cost based on splitting a room like the treehouse 8 ways and 1 person backs out, everyone else's cost goes up.  These are things to discuss at the meeting with everyone.

Now I have some picks for resorts so I moved on to looking into restaurants.  It is not as important to research your quick-service meals at this time.  You really only have to nail down your sit-down meals ahead of time.  Since we are traveling with a small child, character meals are a must.  We decided that the character breakfast at Hollywood and Vine in Hollywood Studios was a must for our family.  This meal features the Disney Junior characters like Doc McStuffins, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Sophia the First.  If you have a child under the age of 5, you must do this.  Another top pick for us was Coral Reef which is located in the Seas pavilion in EPCOT.  There are not any characters here, but you eat with a view of a huge aquarium full of all sorts of wonderful creatures.  Plus, the food is delicious.  T-Rex at Downtown Disney also made our list despite not having characters because of the immersive dinosaur theming for my dino-loving little dude.  Finally, Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom is a delicious buffet with the adorable characters of Winnie the Poo.  We have also considered Chef Mickey's but it requiring 2 dining points may prevent that from being an option this time.

Finally, I spent some time researching the ins and outs of traveling to Disney with a toddler.  I have made a list of rides he will be too short to ride (not many) and highlighted what I would consider are the most important rides and attractions for us to see at each park.  The bottom line is, it is virtually impossible to see everything in a week at Disney so you have to prioritize.  Some of the interesting logistical things I found about taking a 2 year old to Disney are:
  • Children under 3 are free at Disney (yay!)  There are implications to this.  My little guy will get a magic band, but he will not get a dining plan.  He can eat for free at buffets, but will have to share or we will need to purchase him a meal at any other meals.  
  • Since he is under 3 and does not have a park ticket, he cannot do the Pirate dress up activity (the boy counterpart to the Bippity Boppity Boutique).  
  • He will not have his own FastPass+ reservations, but as long as he is with an adult with a reservation, he can tag along.
  • There are wonderful Baby Care Centers in all the parks that offer much more than rocking chairs and changing tables.  There are also little tables and chairs with coloring books and toddler sized potties.  These may be a lifesaver when we have a hot and overstimulated toddler on our hands.  
Some great places to look when pre-planning is of course the Disney website.  Also, check out the Mom's Panel on the Disney website.  I learned more about the ins and outs of taking a toddler to Disney from this Q&A page than anywhere else.  Look for other blogs too (other than this one) on Facebook and Pinterest.  Nothing is more helpful than hearing other people's first hand experience.

So, happy pre-planning!  Look for an update after Christmas detailing the ins and outs of the big family planning session.     

May 30, 2014

Why I Hate MLMs... Even when I love their products.



Since moving to Kentucky three years ago, I feel like I have been noticing the growing number of MLMs (Multi-level Marketing).  In case you are unfamiliar with the term, some examples include Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, Thirty-One, Avon, etc.  It seems that now there is an MLM for almost everything.  Before moving I knew a handful of people that participated in the big ones like Mary Kay or Pampered Chef, but since moving, it seems like every other post on Facebook or person I know seems to be a rep/consultant/distributor/whatever for some company.  I believe MLMs appeal mostly to families with one parent that stays home.  I have also found them popular among families with a parent in school, since they can provide additional income.  However, I am not interested in buying into the MLM model, even when I love their products.  My most recent experience with this paradigm has been with Essential Oils.  I was introduced to Essential Oils a few months ago by a dear friend and really have enjoyed using them and learning more about them.  We, as a family, try to stay as natural as possible and Essential Oils seemed to be a good fit for us.  However, the company that I was introduced to is an MLM.  Young Living (as well as it's counterpart, DoTerra) serve as the big players in the essential oils market and are both MLMs.  So, I am going to use Young Living as my example as I go through the reasons I hate MLMs.  Most if not all of these reasons apply to all MLMs, regardless of the product or business structure.

1:  MLMs pass on a significant amount of unnecessary cost to the consumer.

 You know all those great rewards and discounts that top sellers get in MLMs?  Guess who pays for them!  All of us!  That's right, every person who purchases a product from a company that is an MLM is paying higher prices than necessary to cover the cost of rewards and discounts for the top people.  Think about it this way:  Through Young Living, if you reach the rank of silver in six months, you get an Aroma Complete kit for free.  Now, I don't really know what it takes to reach that rank as far as how many people under you, but I do know that Aroma Complete kits retail for well over $1,000.  I also know of at least five people that hit that rank last month in my tiny network alone, not to mention the whole company.  That means that the company is giving away thousands upon thousands of dollars in product every month.  Someone is paying for it, and here's the kicker, it's you.

2:  MLMs seem to brainwash their distributors and create biased reviews.

Okay, that may sound harsh, but here is what I mean.  Have you ever met anyone who sells some sort of MLM product that is not totally in love with the product and feels that it can be the only product of any quality on the market.  They all seem to also think that their company offers the highest integrity, has the best leaders, and the best business model.  Now, I understand brand loyalty.  I buy the same brand underwear because I like the way they fit, but that doesn't mean that I believe everyone should buy my brand of underwear or that my brand of underwear are the only brand that will really get the job done or that the company that makes my brand of underwear is the only company that makes quality underwear.  See how silly that would be?  However, that is what MLM distributors seem to be like.  I am going to continue using Essential Oils as the example.  Every Young Living Distributor I know will tell you that Young Living is the only company making 100% pure therapeutic grade essential oils.  Unfortunately, that is not true.  The bottom line is that both Young Living and DoTerra use the same methods for growing and extracting their essential oils.  After all, DoTerra was started by people who left Young Living.  But aside from the big MLMs, there are a handful of regular companies making 100% pure therapeutic grade essential oils using the same methods and plants.  It seems that since these companies cannot remain competitive through cost (see above), they gain customers by claiming that they are the biggest and the best and the only product worth having.  But, when your livelihood relies on getting others to like a product enough to sell it, you may have to bend the truth a bit. 

3:  MLMs can create tax burdens that distributors are not prepared for.

Disclaimer:  I am no accountant.  But, my husband had his own business for the first couple years of our marriage.  I saw through him the tax burden that having a personal business can create.  Everything from commission to bonuses to prizes to merchandise kept in stock can have an effect on your taxes at the end of the year.  That is the main reason I would never want to make money from an MLM.  Our taxes are complicated enough thank you very much.  My fear is that distributors are not educated on proper record keeping and tax issues and are left open to potentially high tax bills or audits.  No one that has ever talked with me about selling any product for an MLM has ever talked about taxes.  Not one.  That is frightening.

4:  MLMs are all win for the company.

It seems that everyone participating in MLMs feels that they are getting a great deal.  They talk about all the rewards and discounts and great products, but the bottom line is, the real winners are the owners and other top ranking officials of these companies.  Essentially, these companies are able to spread a product without a single store, marketing campaign, or distribution deals with stores.  They create armies of die hard sellers and distributors that do all the ground work.  Are the heart, they are pyramid schemes and the top of the pyramid wins big.

There you have it, the big four.  The four reasons I hate MLMs.  The downside is, sometimes I do love their products.  I do really enjoy Young Living oils.  I also have a pretty great Thirty-One lunch box and bag that I like quite a bit.  But, I would much rather purchase these products at closer to actual retail cost and not feel like I have to decide who is my better friend for who I order through.  I also do not appreciate companies that automatically sign you up as a distributor just for buying their product.  But that may only apply to a handful of these companies. 

March 7, 2014

The Rule of Averages: My Take on Body Image


I don't normally write or talk about body image issues because I really try not to waste too much energy on it, but let's face it, I am a female in America so I have thought about it.  Lately I have been thinking about why we seem to have such an issue with body image in the good old U.S. of A.  I was watching a show on Netflix from Australia (Dance Academy if you are curious) and noticed that despite all of the main characters being ballerinas, they did not seem excessively skin
ny to me.  It made me wonder why body image, like many things, seems to be so much more of a problem in this country.  Being a fan of statistics, I had to try to find some good old numbers to back me up.  Here they are:

Both the United States and Australia have similar rates of eating disorders at around 9% of the population.  My idea that America was way ahead in this race was wrong, but does not change my perception of the problem, only widens the scope to a global issue.

Some more unsettling statistics for the United States include:
This is me in 7th Grade (Looking Confident, right?)
  • 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner
  • 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat
  • Of American, elementary school girls who read magazines, 69% say that the pictures influence their concept of the ideal body shape. 47% say the pictures make them want to lose weight
The idea that such young children are already struggling with body image is so very unsettling and makes me wonder what all contributes.  There is tons of research on the influence of media, toys, beauty pageants. and peers.  I do wonder though, are we really considering everything?  Would changing beauty images really make a difference or are there other subtle things that influence our children to think about and worry about weight.

I am going to get a little vulnerable and I want to apologize to my family up front.  Know that I love you all and this is not an attack nor am I blaming you fro anything.  I was always a skinny kid.  I grew tall really young and was always pretty thin.  Among my family members, I was somewhat unique.  Like many families in the U.S., most of family would be classified as overweight.  When I was young, I remember thinking that I did not want to grow up to be overweight like my family.  I was going to beat genetics and stay a thin girl forever.  I have never wanted to be the thinnest or to look like a super model, I just didn't want to have to have the struggles I saw my mother have.  Struggles to find a swimsuit that looked okay or to find pants that fit well.  As I got older, several members of my family were diagnosed with Type II diabetes.  I hardened my resolve to beat genetics and not have to cut sugars and carbs and feel the need to turn to artificial sweeteners to avoid a bland diet.  I never knew who I wanted to look like, but I knew who I didn't. 

When I got pregnant with my son, I weighed about ten pounds more than I really wanted to, but I had been half-heartedly trying to loose those ten pounds for years, so it wasn't the end of the world.  I again made my resolve.  I had seen women gain fifty to eighty pounds during a pregnancy and enter Mommyhood with a completely different body than they had.  I didn't know who I wanted to be, but I knew who I didn't want to be.  After my little was born, I lost half of what I gained.  The other half has hung around.  So be it.  I do wonder, though, if blaming the super skinny models and celebrities isn't the whole issue.  Maybe we need to be blaming the idea that overweight people are somehow less than, or someone you don't want to be.  We have been spending so much time fighting obesity that we may be scaring young children into body image issues.  Young children may not always want to be Miss America, but they also don't want to be The Biggest Loser.

The bottom line is, I am average sized for an American woman.  In 2010, the average woman was 5'4" and weighed 165 ponds.  I am little taller and a little heavier than that so I figure I am in the ballpark.  But sometimes I still get comments like, "You don't look like you weight that much?" or "These pants are a 10, they would fit you right?"  Some people may find people thinking they are thinner they are to be a good thing, but to me it says that my actual weight or actual pants size is not okay or not average.

We seem to have lost a sense of what average is in this country.  I was recently struck by baby clothing sizes.  This may be a stretch, but stick with me.  My son has always been on the small size when it comes to percentiles, usually hovering between the 10th and 20th percentile for weight and the 20th and 30th for length.  Remember, these percentiles are based on the sizes of babies across the entire country.  But, throughout his life, he has progressed through infant clothing sizes right on time.  He moved up to 3 month clothes when he was 3 months old, 6 months at 6 months and now that he is almost 18 months he is just transitioning into 18 month clothing.  So, if he is on the small side, why are infant clothing sizes seemingly perfect for him?  Can we really be sending a message that smaller is more "right" at such a young age?  I here other parents say how "huge" their baby is when their 6 month old is wearing 12 month clothes, but the bottom line is, that even infant clothing is set up to skew our idea of average.

Maybe if we embraced average we could loosen the grip of poor body image from our young people.  Little girls should not need to feel like they should be thinner at the age of six.  Are we telling average girls that they are above average?  Are we scaring them with our anti-obesity campaigns to the point of unhealthiness?  Body image is complex and everyone has different experiences, but we need to remember that Barbie and Miss America are not the only issues here.  There just may be more to it.