Sometimes, custody evaluations are ordered when there is a question of parental fitness on one or both sides during a custody dispute. While these evaluations can be stressful and overwhelming, there are some important steps you can take to present your case effectively. Here are 4 things you can do to optimize your presentation:

1. Stick with the facts as much as possible. Obviously, there are a lot of emotions involved when you are talking about the welfare of your children. However, presenting yourself rationally and presenting your concerns in a factual manner will be most effective.

2. Avoid over-emotionalism. This is a difficult time for you and there is no need to hide that. However, if you cry through every meeting with the evaluator, he or she may begin to question your stability. Acknowledge the emotional distress but do not allow it to consume you.

3. Put any concern you may have about your partner into the context of how it impacts the children. Regardless of how painful your partner’s actions may be toward you personally, frame your complaint around how the action creates a bad situation for the kids. For example, if your partner is having affairs, explain how the chaos created in the relationship and the home is impacting the kids. If your partner is doing drugs, express your concerns about use around the kids, drug paraphernalia they might find, etc.

4. Provide relevant information updates as they occur. A custody evaluation takes months, so it is likely you will have continuing incidents to report. Make sure you call or email the evaluator regularly as these events occur so that they are fresh in your mind. Again make certain you are delivering factual information followed by your concern about the action as it relates to the children’s welfare.

As a final suggestion, make sure that as you face these challenging circumstances, you are taking good care of yourself! You will need all your strength and faculties to ensure the best outcome for you and your children.

Nothing is more impressive and touching than giving a present that you personally made and prepared. These are also more inexpensive compared to items in a gift shop.

Here are some simple yet brilliant gift ideas:

Speedy No Cook Food Gift ideas

A present from your very own kitchen will not only fill the tummy but will warm the heart as well. You do not have to be elaborate and grand. Little, personal touches will make a big difference. Collate your family’s favorite recipes. Then, you can either print those recipes on lovely paper (with the recipient’s favorite color) or write them onto a gaudy paper.

a. Buy some fresh veggies, spices, or tiny herbs and arrange them in a sweet, nice-looking basket or bin. Insert a card containing your well-loved menu for using each veggies or herb. This gift is ideal for a mommy on-the-go, a new bride wishing to experiment new recipes for her hubby, or for someone who loves to cook.

b. Grab a pack or two of mouth-watering and attractive candy sticks or canes. Dip them in sweet strawberry or chocolate melts (or any flavor of your choice) and allow them to solidify. Wrap in different colors of cellophanes with bows that will serve as coffee stirrers. Place them in an appealing beverage mug. Sweet tooth and coffee lovers will beam with delight with this homemade present.

c. Stuff a heavy, big oven mitten with delectable pistachio nuts or jellybeans (spiced or conventional) and knot with a vibrant trimming.

d. Gifts in a jar are wonderful for families with kids. Fill them with jelly ace, candy sprinklers, or cookies (chocolate chips, macaroons, brownies, or oatmeal). You can slip in a customized recipe for a darling cookie. You can also fill jars or bags with cupcakes, breads and packaged items like boxed milk, liquid or powder juices, tasty soup mixes, or connoisseur peppercorns.

Wonderful Wearables
Wearables make beautiful presents like beaded jewelries, hair clips, hats, t-shirts, and caps. You can expend your artistic imagination and employ a lot of inspired patterns, techniques, and materials to create your own craft.

No Sew Sassy Sachet
There may be colorful, attractive fabrics just sitting on your drawers for some time now. You can use them to make lovely sachets that will hold potpourris. Simple sewing is needed. Even children can try with assistance from adults.

To create a single sachet, set two identical 6-inch box-shaped cloths back-to-back. Glue or stitch the edgings on three sides. Stuff the sachet with roughly half a cup of potpourri. Fasten together the remaining open edge. You now have a superb perfumed sachet. After making several sachets, organize them in bright, colorful heaps and knot them as one using a cheerful string or ribbon.

As far as famous biblical rulers go, Herod is a king mostly known for his ruthlessness and brutality. However, in the National Geographic Presents: Herod’s Lost Tomb game, you get to experience the other nature of this Judean king and try to unearth his glorious past as an adventurer from The National Geographic Society.

In this game, you choose to play either one of the two National Geographic Society members as you try to unlock the secrets on where to find Herod’s missing tomb. You see, other than being a fierce ruler, Herod is actually a masterful architect also, designing many of the world’s greatest structural masterpieces. One mystery surrounding all of these wonders though is where he chose to set his burial grounds. Of course, this won’t be a mystery any longer, since you’re already hot on this historical trail, trying to find all the clues that may point you into the location of Herod’s lost tomb.

National Geographic Presents: Herod’s Lost Tomb is a hidden object game employing classical item-finding as you try to complete all of the listed objects on the bottom of your screen. You will be visiting several archaeological sites trying to find all these objects and with some tools in your hand, try to unearth artifacts listed as gold items which serve as primary clues to aid you in your quest. Tools include archaeological brushes, x-ray machines and metal detectors, and you can always reach into the tool tab of your game menu anytime as long as there’s an important item for you to find.

There are a total of five mini-games too that you will encounter during the course of your adventure. After unlocking each mini-game, you can already play these games whenever you want in the map screen. Mini-games are very innovative and fun to play. While the puzzles are not very unique, the design is resembled to the overall theme of the game, with a historical background too on why you are tasked to play through them.

I have a confession to make: Christmas presents for children make me nervous. It’s not because I don’t adore spoiling my own children, but so often other people get it wrong.

Do I sound like an ungrateful brat? Let me explain. Nine times out of ten, instead of a well-designed, age-appropriate kids’ toy, my children are inundated with junk.

Bead sets that are marked ‘for age 10-plus’ – my daughter is five – weapons that wouldn’t look out of place in the armed forces and soft-toys based on cartoon characters. Never mind the children, no wonder parents occasionally lose their minds over kids’ toys.

Call me old fashioned, but my ethos is simple. Source beautifully crafted kids’ toys that aren’t just one-hit wonders. Anyone can spend a tenner on the latest TV must-have, but wouldn’t it be nicer to invest in illustrated books or finger puppets that are unisex and great for a child’s imagination?

Even if you choose the cartoon they actually like, they probably already have the duvet/ lunch-box/ plastic figures. If not, they won’t care, or – gasp – will have cared, but six months ago and will now think you’re treating them like a baby. Believe me, in planet child there’s not much worse than that.

The most successful Christmas presents for children look gorgeous and come with guaranteed longevity. My daughter’s jewellery box with a wind-up dancing clown is played with every night before she goes to bed, unlike the plastic handbag that snapped in two the second she put her treasures inside it.

My son plays endlessly with his wooden fort, hiding everything from wooden knights to toy cars inside. Like the music box, it also looks good in his bedroom – and most mums will admit this is important too.

My advice is to go for the best example of the classic Christmas presents for children you can find, or dare to be different. Traditional blocks, a pull-along hand-painted animal, a china tea-set or play tent, wrapped simply in brown-paper and tied with a coloured ribbon will look far cooler than the army of flashing chunks of plastic kids’ toys given by almost everyone else. Wouldn’t you be happy if your birthday presents lasted a lifetime?