Some thoughts on outsourcing

A friend in a high tech company I do consulting work for shared this story:
Both he and his wife work in high tech. They have 3 kids.
He has a confession to make - they've come to terms with their decision to "outsource childcare."
Outsourcing? As in sending out your manufacturing to Flextronics? As in offshoring your call center to India?
His explanation:
The nanny (metapelet) stays with the baby at their place, and at 1 PM picks up the older kids (ages 5 and 7) from kindergarden/school. Feeds them. Helps with homework. Takes them to their extra-curricular activities.
By the time mom and dad arrive, they're done with most of the activities of the day. But, he's fast to add, if there are any emergencies (older son forgot to sign approval form for his karate club? Younger kid wants to have a playmate over?) either parent can get there in 15 minutes or less.
Costs them a fortune, but doesn't sound too bad. It certainly beats our arrangement of leaving my kids until 4 pm at their respective kindergardens, and having a teenage babysitter several times a week (confirm availability an hour earlier) to pick them up and walk home (rail, sleet or scorching sun), who then feeds them hopefully-colorant-free-but-sugar-loaded shlukis (hey - whatever keeps the kids happy) and makes a mess out of my livig room in good days, watches 2 hours of TV in bad days.
Or maybe not.
My friend's confession is not that they have a brilliant Mary Poppins every day. It's that they've "come to terms" with outsourcing childcare.
No way. I refuse to accept that I'm outsourcing childcare or child rearing. Outsourcing is something you do with
a) things so specialized you're better sending them to an expert,
or
b) a task so common or simple that it's cheaper for someone else to do it (or by economies of scale as my mentor Ben Gilad would say)

Could motherhood not be a core competency of mine?
(okay, save your comments)
Is money all that is at stake here?

I don't care how many other "parenthood helpers" we hire to get on top of our regular workload - I'm not outsourcing this bit. I'm insourcing help. Creating new jobs. Bringing diversity into my children's day.

Is it only a question of semantics? It all comes down to what the I balance book will say in the end - did our kids show a profit from our activities as parents? Did we?

Naming your kids Web 2.0 times?

It suddenly dawned on me.
While looking at possibilities for naming certain elements of my new venture, I realized that naming your kids had just gotten much more complicated.
People currently search the web to browse popular names, learn more about meanings, maybe even Google a name or two to get a feel for spellings, variations, and current bearers (hopefully famous).

I'm guessing some are now using zillions of Facebook polls and Yahoo Answers questions to help make the decision. But will these folks alsocheck the domain name for availability as a main criterion ( As in +.com? )

Hmm. It gets worse.

• Will +.com worth more than dot net or dot info? Skip the dashes and underscores, of course.
  
• Startup! Special suffixes for those under 18 who are yet to claim their domain? Obvious candidate: dot kid.
  
• Will there be a new generation of kids named Tylr or jon.ath.an?

Ugghh.

My Kids - the introduction

ABOUT BEN (Two years, 8 months)
Ben likes music. He makes up the lyrics to his own songs. Knows the names of about 12 instruments, and pretends to play the guitar with a fork at the dinner table.
He is determined, strong, agile and loudspoken. He also gives the sweetest kisses and best hugs.
Ben sucks his thumb, especially when he's tired, or bored, or angry, or anxious.
He knows most of the letters of the Hebrew and English alphabets, and can switch back and forth beetween Spanish and Hebrew with ease.
In him I see things I would have liked to be and often I see the worst of myself repackaged in male format. Then I have to remind myself that he's only two.

ABOUT YAEL (10 months)
She's beautiful. Absolutely breathtaking. Blue, almond-shaped eyes and red cheeks.
Yael doesn't stop moving for one second. She can climb stairs. Cruises across furniture. Feeds herself Cheerios, bread, meat, avocado, yogurt (with her fingers, of course).
Absolutely refuses to take a bottle. Fortunately she can drink alone from a cup (water only - don't even try to sneak her formula) and make herself heard across the room.
Grins. Smiles. Shows you her toothless gums every opportunity she has.
Is in love with Ben. And Ben with her, as long as it doensn't mean sharing his guitar with her.

A Toddler Survival Kit

Every parent should receive a present for their kid's first birthday - not a cake or a diploma or a weekend retreat spa in a Polynesian resort and spa (leave kid with grandparents) -but something much more precious: a Toddler Survival Kit.
The kit is a real, tangible collection of tools to educate, calm or entertain your toodler at those times when you are dying of hunger, there is nothing in the kitchen, the house is dirty, your neighbor wants to drop by with HER kids, and (I'm not talking about a membership to a "discover your inner self" course or something esotheric) that must be kept handy at all times. A smaller, travel companion kit should be included free of charge.
My version of the kit has the following:
1. I small box of yellow-box Cheerios, ready-cooked pasta, dried apricot halves and a cute (disposable) tiny bottle of water
2. Stamps and stickers of different colors, sizes and shapes and small coloring book to fil it
3. Magnetic drawing board -hours of fun, no mess
4. A Baby Einstein video/DVD or two
5. Bubbles - lots of bubbles
6. An old magazine with pictures of airplanes, trucks, the sun and the moon - favorite themes with Ben from age 12 to 25 months
7. Colorfun bracelets, ketchans and a broken cell phone for those calls to Mickey Mouse
8. Grandma on call (so what if she lives in Guatemala...)

Ben is now two-and-a-half so I need to move on to a Level 3 Toddler Survival Kit (advice sought) But now that Yael is cruising, babbling and approaching her first birthday (AAAAAAHHHHHH), ehem, I am effectively posting my new Toddler Survival Kit wishlist. Contributions and donations, and suggestions, to this email address, please.

Vivi

My online idea book

This is my online idea book.
Marketing my new consulting business. Solving search challenges. Remaining sane after 4:00 when I pick up the kids from daycare. (And hope they don't go crazy with the juggling act I put on until my husband gets home.)
Think, share, post, smile.
Maybe there is hope for me after all.