9. Sell something at holiday bazaars. I suspect that you have to get these kinds of events lined up ahead of time with a bit of preplanning and such, but plenty of folks make a decent seasonal income by selling cool arts and crafts type items at those holiday bazaars. Often a percentage of sales goes towards a fundraiser, but you still make enough to make it worth your time and energy to create art and to hang out at art shows.

10. Sell your plasma. We all know how important it is to donate blood during holidays, but many people don't know that you can get paid for sitting through a procedure quite similar to donation process. The difference is that they run your blood through a machine that separates plasma from red blood cells and puts red blood cells back into your body. It take longer and I guess that's why they are willing to pay you for your time. Years ago, I used to do this when my kids were really little and we needed some extra money for upcoming birthdays and such. They wouldn't let you do it more than once a week or so and they only paid about $25 each time, so you had to plan ahead if you were going to raise $100 or $200 for something you wanted to purchase. Contact your local Red Cross or other blood donation centers for help finding plasma centers.

11. Clean houses for others who have holiday guests coming. Typically, if someone has out of town guests coming for holidays, they have a lot more on their to-do list then just cleaning their toilets and shampooing carpets. You could become a real lifesaver for those in a crunch who are too busy, too old, or too tired to do a thorough deep cleaning before guests arrive. Some might even hire you again to clean up after guests leave too! Teens can do this just as easily as adults can.

12. Run errands and do odd holiday jobs like wrapping gifts or delivering packages to post office. You could start a little side business where all you do is run other people's errands for them. Drop off and pick up dry cleaning. Take their pet to vet. Deliver cupcakes to charity fundraiser. Pick up a handful of gift certificates from national department stores that will later be mailed out. Address and stamp their Christmas cards for them. Do their grocery shopping. Pick up new printer cartridge and some desk calendars for them. It's all of those tiny little errands that make for frazzled schedules and crazy timelines. For a fee, you could do it for them.

13. Decorate inside of people's homes or offices for holidays. You don't have to be a professional interior decorator to be helpful. If you've got a reputation as having a good eye for attractive and festive decorating, you can help others to set up their trees, hang garland, and place some nice poinsettia here and there. You can help make people's homes and their office space a warm inviting environment and also include coming back after holidays to break it all down into to storage containers as part of deal. I hate tearing down decorations and would love to pay someone to put it all back away!

14. Cater some dinners for extremely busy shoppers or for Holiday parties. Those who are not awesome cooks need not apply for this one! Let's say that your boss is having annual company Christmas party at his house and his wife is swamped with running kids back and forth to choir concerts and peewee football camp while shopping and planning for her in-laws who will be flying in to visit only three days after her husband's company party at her house!!! You could offer to cook and cater event for her. You'd once again be making someone else's holiday season so much easier while earning extra money for yourself. Decide in advance on a menu and who's purchasing ingredients needed. Then all you have to come up with is a dollar figure for your time and grandma's secret recipe for those little mini-cakes that everyone loves so much.

15. Chauffer someone's children to and from school and other activities so parents have some free time. This isn't quite same as babysitting. You'd be amazed at how much time a person can spend picking up and driving two or three kids to different events and hauling musical instruments and sporting gear from one event to next. You could simply run a taxi service for children and teenagers who need rides from point A to B. You don't have to hang out and watch them once they get there. Just make sure they arrive on time. Even just having an afternoon at home to cook and clean house while someone else gathers up all of kids and brings them all home could make a world of difference for someone.

As you can see, some of these services could easily be turned into a year-round side job or they could be dropped as soon as holidays are over. Perhaps you'll find that you love catering people's meals, you love refurbishing antiques, or you love running errands and taxiing others around from place to place. You could go into business for yourself and by next year, you could quit your 'real job' and be happily self-employed. Then again, your teenager could discover how much time and work it takes just to raise enough money for some generous Christmas shopping. After learning value of a dollar earned, they might decide that college is a good idea after all!

Copyright 2004, Skye Thomas, Tomorrow's Edge

3. Discuss with your former spouse your preferences for discipline to see if there is an opportunity for consistency across households.

4. In areas where there is an opportunity for consistency across households, make an agreement with your former spouse that whatever approaches are agreed upon, both of you will be consistently using same when children are with you.

5. Write agreements down, review them and be sure they are workable.

6. In areas in which you differ, find a compromise that you both can live with and stick by it.

7. Set clear expectations for children at each home. Explain to children that there are certain rules at mom's house and certain rules at dad's house.

8. Never argue in front of children about disagreements in discipline approaches.

Help your children know where they stand in their behaviors. Get resolve your differences in matters of children's discipline. Support each other.

Copyright by Ruben Francia. All Rights Reserved.

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