The Blog
SINGAPORE: Some Things Only Happen In Movies
I was watching Disney's Tarzan with my baby girl one day and it reminded me of this case study that I had read in one of my psychology textbooks when I was studying as an undergraduate. The town folks at Aveyron discovered a young boy about the age of 12 years old...
MASSACHUSETTS, USA: The Sleepover
A rite of passage for American children is a sleepover. A sleepover is where a guest or guests are invited to stay overnight at the home of a friend. My six-year-old daughter will have her first sleepover this month. Few words strike more fear into the heart of a...
SOCIAL GOOD: Tragedy, Hope and Raw Determination!
Have you ever been to the movies and seen a trailer for a film that you previously had no interest in seeing and then suddenly thought to yourself “That is a film I CANNOT MISS”? That was the idea behind GAVI’s most recent production. It’s a three-minute film by a...
JAPAN: Too Soon (Robot Dog)
The year I could put the Hina Matsuri (Girls’ Day) dolls out in the living room where we could enjoy them. It’s such a nice tradition: displaying beautifully intricate (and sickeningly expensive) dolls in traditional seven-layered kimonos for the weeks leading up to Girls’ Day on March 3rd, when the whole family pauses to pray for the health and well-being of daughters before feasting on feminine, cutesy foods, like tiny sushi and soup with delicate candy colored balls, followed by pink and green omochi (sticky, sweet rice cakes) for desert. Ladies magazines are full of hina (imperial princess) themed recipes. This year I think we’ll try the “parfait sushi,” which is sushi rice layered with eggs and other colorful ingredients in a glass so it looks like a parfait. I’m also thinking of ordering a Hina Matsuri themed ice cream cake from Baskins Robbins (known here as 31 Ice.)
WORLD IMMUNIZATION WEEK: Reinventing the Party
“A couple of months after the party, I received an e-mail from Jen with the subject line: “Want to be in a Global Documentary with me and World Moms Blog?” In the e-mail, Jen told us she was working with the GAVI Alliance (Global Alliance for Immunizations & Vaccinations) in Switzerland for the same movement, but this time the project was a global grass-roots advocacy effort and would be filmed.”
Travel Itinerary for the Week of April 23rd! Updated!
This week we have five countries in five days! We're honoring World Immunization Week with Shot@Life and the GAVI Alliance! We will start the week by running a very special social good post from a devoted reader who has attended two of our community outreach events...
Saturday Sidebar: Who does the housework?
This week we’re talking about housework. MamaMzunga of Kenya asked our writers, “How do you divide up housework? Does it fall into predictable gender divisions? And, maybe most importantly, do you think it's divided fairly?” Check out what some of our World Moms had...
SINGAPORE: Filial Piety Is Probably Overrated
When children are born, parents have every obligation and responsibility to look after them. After all, parents are the ones who made the decision to bring the kids into this world, not the other way round. So when old age comes, as it surely will, I don’t want it to become my children’s obligation to look after me or my spouse when we are old.
NIGERIA: Guest Policy
At first glance, I appear to be a typical Indian-American woman. My parents immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970’s. My father is a physician. My mother holds strong opinions on the merits of silk versus French chiffon saris.Until recently, I lived in New Jersey, and...
ARKANSAS, USA: Love Comes in Every Color
The month of April marks 45 years since The United States Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Loving v. Virginia. This isn’t a landmark case that we are all familiar with, such as Roe v. Wade or Brown v. Board of Education. However, for me, the Loving case is partially responsible for the birth of my children and my upcoming marriage. Their decision, which ruled in favor of the Lovings’ (an interracial couple) and declared the state of Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law to be unconstitutional, opened the doors for people of different races to legally date, cohabitate and wed in the United States.
HUMAN RIGHTS: Non-Legally Married With Children
“Then we had children: boy/girl twins and then another boy. That was and still is the area that most concerns us about not having a legally recognized marriage. Our children are not legally both of ours! In the state we live in, we have no ability to grant each other legal custody of our biological children. “
PENNSYLVANIA, USA: Learning to Live in The Now
“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.” - Dr. Seuss I have often heard people say “God doesn’t give you anything you can’t handle” or “things happen for a reason” and even “you may not understand it now, but God has a plan.” Religious or not, I am...
Travel Itinerary for the Week of April 16th!
On Monday we will be in Pennsylvania, where Twinmom112 talks about the struggles she and her husband endured in order to finally be blessed with their twins. She ponders whether it would be worthwhile to go through it all again, and how to make peace with the decision...
Saturday Sidebar: One child….or more?
This week World Moms Blog writer Ms. V. asks, “Monetary costs aside, what do you perceive as the pros and cons of raising an only child?” Check out what some of our World Moms had to say... Mamma Simona of South Africa writes: “I've found that only children are...
CANADA: 3rd Caption Contest with JC Little of the Animated Woman!
The winner of a World Moms Blog t-shirt from our previous caption contest is reader, Elizabeth's Boys, who commented, "AHHH!!!! You’re getting my best dress from Target all wet!" It's time for another caption contest with JC Little, the Animated Woman, of Montreal,...
WASHINGTON, USA: Honoring the Salmon
Once salmon run and finish spawning, they are pretty much spent. They die before their eggs hatch, but hang out near the eggs to protect them. And the dead salmon decay around their eggs and add nutrients to the water that their eggs, and later the fry, can use! Isn’t that pretty amazing?!
It made me think how I as a mother also try to do everything in my power to help my girls learn and prepare themselves for their lives ahead.
NORWAY: Preparing for a second baby
We are so excited about having number two – but at the same time, it is slightly scary. Maybe ‘scary’ isn’t the right word, but we know it will change our current life, and especially the life of our wee lad who has just turned two. How do we go about preparing him for this big change, and how do we best take care of him through all this? I am quite tired at the moment, and have a feeling it is going to get worse (I am not one of those mothers who ‘glow’ during pregnancy and get extra energy; I am quite the opposite! ) – and I can’t blame ‘the tummy’ for being tired all the time, as I don’t want him to ‘dislike’ the baby even before it is born!
HUMAN RIGHTS: A Voice for Children in Vietnam
“On a hot, steamy day in August of 2008, my husband and I stepped off of an airplane in Saigon, Vietnam. Mere moments after touching down in this faraway land, we found ourselves standing outside of an orphanage in the sweltering summer heat, waiting to meet someone we had only seen in pictures.
And that’s when it happened; my life changed in two very important ways. An eleven-month old child was placed into my arms, and in an instant I was simultaneously transformed into a first-time mother as well as an advocate for the voiceless children of the world. “
SOCIAL GOOD: Breathing into Relationships
“Ajita, the Nepali woman, spent most of her time in the kitchen cooking, remaining very quiet and eating by herself in the living room. I felt discomfort arise at what seemed to be a cultural tradition, the woman preparing and serving the food but not participating in eating the meal…When I jumped up into my head, thinking about all of the ways I could address this “issue”, I was self absorbed. But when I chose to breathe into the discomfort I was feeling it slowly shifted into gratitude for the gifts that Ajita and her family were offering to us.”
ISRAEL: Television Is Ruining Our Happiness
I have a love/hate relationship with TV. I either love it, as in addicted and couch potato like. Or I hate it, as in I want to throw the TV out of the window and never bring one back into my house. Unfortunately, my husband is addicted to his sports teams so a...
Travel Itinerary for the Week of April 9th!
Put on your seatbelts, because we're off to Israel on Monday! Susie Newday talks about that thing that we sometimes love, sometimes hate, and always worry about in terms of its effect on our kids - the TV. A message of unity and seeing things beyond how you see them...
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