I have a long history of always being involved in some sort of cause. Before I had kids, I spent a lot of time in pet rescue. Though I’ve moved on as far as where I spend the majority of my time, I still feel passionately about animal welfare and responsible pet ownership. What I focus on now is supporting the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) in preventing unnecessary cesareans and supporting VBAC, promoting breastfeeding, and opposing routine infant circumcision.
What are you passionate about? What causes do you support? Please post a blurb about your favorite cause in the comments. Include a link if you have one. Please read everyone else’s comments, and let’s use this post to spread awareness.
I’ve always loved to read, but finding time to read once you become a parent is a real challenge! I was lucky to discover audio books before I became a parent. I listened to them in my car during my commute to and from work every day before I had my first child. Once I became a mom, I found audio books to be even more useful. You can listen to them in those long hours of nursing and rocking babies to sleep, while cooking dinner and doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, and folding laundry. Audio books can be a parent’s best friend, offering sanity in the face of incredible boredom with household tasks.
The main issue you may run into with audio books is the cost. A paperback may cost $8 or less new, $1 or $2 used, and free from the library. A new audio book can cost $35 or more, used $20 or more. But fear not! There are many wonderful resources for audio books that are free or very affordable:
- Check your library! I have a Cobb County library card, and they have tons of audio books on either tape or CD, and all you need is your library card.
- Visit www.netlibrary.com for more free audio books (and ebooks!).
- An Audible.com membership gets you audio books for about half the cost of other sources, for about the cost of a hard cover book. You may also find affordable audio books in the iTunes Store.
- If you’re visually impaired, there are many services available that lend out audio books.
Books that are on CD can be put into iTunes to be used on an iPod, or transferred to other mp3 players for ultimate portability. If you love to read but find you just don’t have the time to sit down with a book, give audio books a try!
