by Astrid Warren (Norway) | Nov 1, 2010 | Culture, Family, International, Motherhood, Norway, Parenting
In January 2010 my life was turned upside down by the arrival of the cutest wee lad!
Before he was born I had quite unrealistic expectations to motherhood. I have, of course, heard people talk about how hard it is, the lack of sleep, the crying baby, the stress, but they also mentioned the love I would feel, a love greater than all others. And, I thought that love would give me all the energy needed to get through.
I also had big plans for maternity leave – in Norway most people take 56 weeks leave: a minimum of 6 weeks for the mother, a minimum of 10 weeks for the father, and the rest of the weeks can be shared equally (and this is with 80% pay). My husband is taking 4 months off, and I got the rest. Anyway, I had big plans. I would go for long walks and get back into my normal clothes in no time. I would read a lot, do lots of knitting, sort out all the filing, make all the baby food from scratch and so on. I was planning to be very social and meet up with lots of friends and lots of other things. I was going to be a “super mummy”!
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Astrid is a Norwegian thirty something, married, working mum to a wee lad who is almost three and a baby born in 2012! She grew up in Norway, but moved to London, England after she met her husband. After living there during her twenties, she has since returned to Norway and settled down in her nation's capital of Oslo to raise her family.
She finds herself slowly turning into her own mother as her free time is spent reading, walking, knitting and meeting up with other mums for coffee. (Ok, she still secretly loves going to the pub, too!). However, there isn't much time for any of the above, as she now enjoys spending most of her time crawling around on the floor, while playing with her children! Check out her blog, Quintessentially Burrows. She's also on Twitter @MrsSWarren.
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by Jennifer Burden | Nov 1, 2010 | Being Thankful
It’s here, November 1, 2010, the launch day of World Moms Blog!
Monday through Friday we hope to entertain you, make you laugh, make you cry, share the feeling that you’re not alone in mothering, open your world and some days even inspire you.
World Moms Blog aspires to be wonderful to read and inspiring to mothers, while providing our global moms with a large platform to tell their unique stories and succeed as writers.
We are grateful for the mothers who volunteered to write for us. We couldn’t have launched without you! And, we look forward to welcoming new mothers who will join us in telling their stories in the future.
We can’t leave out the friends of World Moms Blog who are currently scouring the globe to search for additional writers and sharing our website with new readers. Thank you!
On that note, World Moms Blog is officially launched!!! Cheers everyone!
World Moms Blog graphic design by designer Erica Joyner, http://ericajoyner.tumblr.com/.

Jennifer Burden is the Founder and CEO of World Moms Network, an award winning website on global motherhood, culture, human rights and social good. World Moms Network writes from over 30 countries, has over 70 contributors and was listed by Forbes as one of the “Best 100 Websites for Women”, named a “must read” by The New York Times, and was recommended by The Times of India.
She was also invited to Uganda to view UNICEF’s family health programs with Shot@Life and was previously named a “Global Influencer Fellow” and “Social Media Fellow” by the UN Foundation. Jennifer was invited to the White House twice, including as a nominated "Changemaker" for the State of the World Women Summit. She also participated in the One Campaign’s first AYA Summit on the topic of women and girl empowerment and organized and spoke on an international panel at the World Bank in Washington, DC on the importance of a universal education for all girls. Her writing has been featured by Baby Center, Huffington Post, ONE.org, the UN Foundation’s Shot@Life, and The Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists.” She is currently a candidate in Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in the Executive Masters of Public Affairs program, where she hopes to further her study of global policies affecting women and girls.
Jennifer can be found on Twitter @JenniferBurden.
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