How to spot the signs of sex trafficking

1) Constant runaway episodes.  Upon return new clothing, numbered tattoos (barcodes), jewelry, etc.

2) Disinterested in what they normally liked doing.

- School grades dropped.

- Involved in sports and now they are uninterested.

Any change in behavior and routine are keys.  For example, if they are 14 and hanging out with a 28 year old...that's a sign.

Long Working Hours for New Moms, Retired Moms and Simply Tired Moms? Enough!

Sometimes we just can't work the long hours at various times of our lives.  Those who are closest to us may have seen our moods fluctuate, our bodies do some interesting things, and most of all grow distant from them.  There was a time where 50 to 60 hours a week is what we did, but as we grow older, things change!

Making your family and close friends understand your plight can be a losing battle when they lack understanding and have grown to rely on you to meet their financial needs.  The key here is not to persuade them into believing how tired your mind and body are, but to simply do what you can handle for the time being.  In order to do that, you will gradually spend less money and time on them.  Actions always speak louder than words!  You jump right into your plan after you communicated, "I just can't do what I used to do...so here is the new plan."

Selfish people will find fault, have their temper tantrums, and may not like you very much Mom, so get ready!  But you are weary and stressed out from being all things to everyone.  Is your health worth risking to put a smile on a nonchalant spouse or child's face?  There is nothing you can do once in the grave, so they might as well learn how to get along without you.

Maybe your situation isn't that bad now, but it is headed that way.  You feel something a bit different inside and you can't explain it.  You may have to schedule a doctor's appointment sooner rather than later.  In the meantime, you can do the following when it comes to work:

1)  Be creative in getting tasks done and don't do so many at a time.  Leave the multi-tasking for the young and the stronger.  Delegate responsibilities!

2)  As you start to notice you are getting better, approach your employer about a split-share program.  Simply put, you would like to share your 40 hour shift with a fellow unemployed mother.  This way you are not working eight hours a day, but four.  You can also mention making your current role part-time if there is often not a lot to do or you can finish your work at home.  If your employer doesn't think your suggestions are reasonable, start looking for true part-time employment.  Too many companies start off giving part-time hours for little pay only to turn you into full-time when someone leaves.  Remember your health is more important than long hours and more pay!

3)  Find out if your partner is willing to make extra money working part-time on weekends.

4)  Children 15 years and up can work.  Encourage them to make their own money on or offline.  Stop paying for their extracurricular activities and putting away for college.  Talk with a relative who might be able to help with their college savings account.

5)  If you find out that your health is failing fast, ask about home care or what health plans are offered that you can be able to stay at the hospital for awhile.  Too often ill patients rush to get back home before they are well only to have more complications.  Being at home to recover with family isn't always the best option.

6) Evaluate your debits and credits and find out how you can reduce some costly expenses.  Work smarter not harder!  You can check out a video I created on varied income streams.

7)  If you have a personal faith, pray!  Ask others to pray for you as well.  You can check out my playlist on YouTube with prayers.

Consider your health comes before wealth this new year!

Nicholl McGuire is the author of Spiritual Poems by Nicholl and other books.  She is also the owner of this blog.

Teaching My Son to Be Responsible with His Scooter

So I gave my son a simple task, I asked,"Could you please go get the mail?"  Without hesitation he said, "Yes."  Before long he was out the door.  As I looked out the window, the snowflakes began to fall a bit faster.  There was snow covered everywhere.  The night before we had about three inches and in other areas about seven.  While he was out, I hadn't noticed, but something was missing from that large open space next to the kitchen counter.

I proceeded to cook dinner and didn't think much about his trip to the mailbox which is down a long driveway and a short walk around the corner.  I figured he walked.  The snow continued to fall while I boiled rice and watched the meatloaf in the stove.  As my thoughts about dinner carried me away, I heard a bump at the door as if something hit up against it.  I came to the door and there he was with snowflakes decorating the hood of his coat.  He was struggling to bring his electric scooter inside.  Shocked, I say, "You brought your scooter out in the snow!  It's electric!  What were you thinking?"  The stainless steel plate was covered with snow.  He responded disappointedly, "It doesn't work in the snow."  Well of course it wouldn't!

My son looked upset and I wasn't happy because he just got it for his birthday a few weeks ago.  He talked about getting that scooter on and off for almost a year and there it was covered with snow that was melting fast!  Well, I ran into the kitchen and grabbed paper towels while I instructed him to brush the snow off out onto the patio.  All the while I'm thinking, "This scooter better work after we dry it off."  He worked quickly taking great care to dry it off.  After spending about 15 minutes or more, he says, "Well at least the front wheel isn't dirty."  I respond, "Yeah, okay.  Don't do that again.  It wasn't built for the snow." Grateful that it was still working, he assured me he wouldn't.

I thought the timing was interesting, because one of our partners has a website dedicated to scooters.  Take a look at the top right corner of your screen if you are reading this on your computer.  Maybe your child is bugging you about a scooter or did something stupid and now it doesn't work.  There has been quite a bit of talk recently in our household about scooters.  One of my older sons wants one but those we see in local department stores are for children weighing less than 120 pounds.  In the future, we plan to get him one too.

Investing in any thing of quality for a child can be worthwhile when he or she is old enough to take care of them.  However, when they act irresponsibly, it tends to make you think twice.  Lucky for my son, his scooter is okay and needless to say he is careful not to take it out in inclement weather.

Check out our partner's site Pro Scooters and enjoy your purchase!

When Mothers Cry - Our Mother, Grandmother are Now Gone

Two of my four children and I were deeply saddened when Great Ma (my grandmother) passed May 2015 before Mother's Day. We knew she had been sick, in and out of the hospital, but we would have liked for her to come out the hospital at least one more time--she didn't.

My younger two sons only spoke to her a few times over the phone, but didn't have any interaction with Great Ma outside of that. Great Ma prayed for us, she was spiritual. She reached out and called periodically to see how we were doing and I would do the same. During some of those conversations, she requested that I read biblical scriptures to her and she also prayed with me. However, as we got on with our lives, we noticed that after Great Ma's passing, family members grew distant.

Then this year, October 2018, my mother passed. I can't say that I was shocked being that I had a revelation last year about her dying although she was doing just fine back then. Yet, during the month of January 2018 I had a second revelation. I saw that she had passed in a dream when two deceased family members sat at her dining room table and she was absent.

The children hadn't been emotionally moved as much as they had been with Great Ma's passing. You see, when my mother left this world we weren't on speaking terms. Unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment and other assumed negative emotions by observants surprisingly didn't play a part, at least on my end, as to why I no longer spoke to her.

Here's what was really going on within me, I simply grew weary of the off-putting vibe I had experienced time and time again I received from her. This negative vibe I felt happened since childhood. Some relatives knew exactly what I was feeling and cautioned her long ago. I wasn't the favorite, I was rejected from birth because I caused her so much pain. It took awhile for her to deal with the fact that she had bear a child and it didn't help that she was talked into having another one and told it was best she stayed home with myself and sibling rather than go to work. She adjusted and did what she was told, but carried her own personal issues regarding life decisions she had made. I was the scapegoat and when she was angry about whoever or whatever she dumped on me. Then went on about her life wearing a smile as if she never had a care, but I knew differently. The feeling of rejection--being second-best, just became too much to bear. I wasn't the favorite child nor did I want to be. I was the one she called on when she couldn't connect with her golden child and other favorites.

My mother told me long ago that had I not been her daughter, she wouldn't be friends with me--I was "square" like my dad. She felt we didn't have anything in common in my youth--of course we wouldn't! I was a child, her daughter, not her girlfriend! A square back in her day was considered boring, nerdy, corny...person. Yet, when I became an adult, she praised me on being responsive to her conversations--"having something to say...and I like talking to you" while sharing that others were boring and didn't have too much to say to her.

She didn't mind creating division when she didn't get her way or didn't like how others responded to her especially when she was being difficult. As I grew older, I knew what her requirements were for maintaining a relationship with her and codependency was not what I had in mind. If you were broken, she attempted to fix you--like feed off of your brokenness while all the while presenting herself to be better than you. Her fixing was more like checking you--putting you in your place without truly listening to why you did what you did and providing you with a plan without interjecting herself into it. She would be quite bold or subtle about your shortcomings but not in a way that motivated you to be your higher self; instead, you found yourself getting angry without being able to connect the details of your anger. "Is she helping or hurting me?" I would sometimes think. She would tell you in so many words, her relationship was better, her financial decisions were better, her way was better, her life was better...you get the picture? When one was done with talking to her, he or she gleaned what they could from the conversation, but the arrogance was evident and at times some of her listeners just didn't want to talk to her again.

I had watched my grandmother and mother interact for decades and it wasn't a healthy connection-- a classic codependent and narcissistic relationship. It appeared that the two were very needy at times of one another when the opportunity most suited them and then standoffish when needs weren't met. They knew how to get their narcissistic supply elsewhere as they aged. In addition, I noticed some competitive and jealous behaviors with the pair particularly around holiday seasons. There connection was one based on performance and one was rewarded if they could answer this question, "What have you done for me lately?" A relationship wasn't all love like they would boast at times to family and friends. "I love...I would do anything for...I care for..." Those who knew them well yet couldn't explain what was going on with them, kept a safe distance. It took me years to figure out why so many came and went out of their lives. I didn't want that "do for me or else" kind of relationship with my own children. I worked hard to establish boundaries years prior to their passing--before I went low contact with grandma and no contact with mom.

Sharing so much of myself, time, and money was no longer what I wanted to do in an effort to appease itchy ears and hands. I had communicated my enlightenment, transformation and other revelations of what was occurring in my life respectfully like my book, "Tell Me Mother You're Sorry" as I gradually distanced myself from both. I also didn't need the unnecessary distractions affecting my muse to speak and write to help others.

Ma and Grandma were strong-minded women, which I admired, but they didn't mind interjecting their personal opinions on what I did on and offline. They didn't do so well with the boldness of my spiritual walk and the faith I have in God--the one they would reference every now and again. Despite my efforts some years back to keep calm and distant so as not to offend, I would be drawn back into their webs of unbelief, disregard, mean-spiritedness, and a "do for me" mentality with yet another story they shared about a neighbor, relative, personal revelation, or offense. Sometimes during our chats, I volunteered information, battled with them or remained silent and politely excused myself. Conversations would at times be hours over the phone while my own family needed me in another room or I had responsibilities where I had to leave my home--and no, I wasn't always willing to continue a conversation on a cell phone. Yet, I didn't want to disappoint, but I had a life.

Now that they are gone, I admit I have a sense of peace. I am grateful for what I have learned from them and have continued to serve others who are in or out of tough relationships with mothers and grandmothers. Furthermore, an important lesson I have learned is not to sugar-coat one's relationship or lack thereof with a parent or grandparent. You don't cover up or deny your personal truth with relatives to appease others, even if they are close to their kin, it's never a good idea when you are on the road toward healing.

Denial of your emotions, events, experiences and more does nothing more than to keep you bound to toxic relationships. I have also found that so many daughters and sons swallow their identities, become spineless jellyfish and give parents and grandparents a pass on so many things for fear they will be left out of wills, face punishment, and more. I rather be true to who I am then be given a bunch of promises that patriarchs or matriarchs may or may not keep. Oftentimes when you are the scapegoat, you don't get nearly as much in return as you put out. You spend your life doing things for others because for years the mantra, "You owe me because..." has been shoved down your throat or "That's mom, you ought to...you better!" And what if you don't?

God has a better plan, trust me! What you owe to yourself is a chance to have quality connections whether it is your biological relatives or others who sincerely love and appreciate you! There is simply no conditions to real love--it just is!

Nicholl McGuire

When Mothers Cry Blog Owner and the Author of Tell Me Mother You're Sorry

Under the Xmas Tree Pressure - Is it Worth It?