by Purnima Ramakrishnan | Apr 6, 2012 | 2012, Child Care, Childhood, Culture, Human Rights, Humanity, India, International, Life Balance, Social Good, The Advocates of Human Rights, The Alchemist, Women's Rights, World Voice
I am a woman and I am writing from India. So, what is special about that, you may ask.
Save the girl child of India
The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA), has now officially declared that India is the most dangerous place for a girl child to be.
India is the country that gave the world the second woman prime minister (Indira Gandhi in 1966). India has sent its women to space; its women have marked their places in sports, the corporate world, Hollywood and just about everywhere else, too.
But I will not bore you with statistics and data that you can check out on your own here, here and here. The point of my post is to bring to light the reasons behind this statement. First, there are some sociocultural pieces I would like to highlight.
- In India, a girl is ‘married off’ and sent away to live with her husband and in-laws. It is called the joint-family system (couple, children, husband’s parents, sometimes even the husband’s brother’s family in some cases) opposed to the nuclear family system (more…)
by Kyla P'an (Portugal) | Mar 15, 2012 | Economy, Life Balance, Life Lesson, Motherhood, Parenting, Philanthropy, USA, World Motherhood
I’m half-way through reading my six-year-old The Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. If you grew up in America in the 1970s and ’80s like I did, you’re no doubt familiar with the popular TV series, Little House on the Prairie, based on Wilder’s books.
Both series recount life in the American pioneering days of the late-1800s, when homesteading was a common way of life and surviving meant living off the land.
I have always loved reading to my daughter and talking about books together but this book has been a particular conversation piece.
The premise of the book discusses life for a family living far from any modern (1860’s) conveniences. It describes in detail how they did things, like smoked meat and stored food for the winter, loaded a musket for hunting, or slaughtered a pig, and how each day of the week had a specific designation: “Wash on Monday, Iron on Tuesday, Mend on Wednesday, Churn on Thursday, Clean on Friday, Bake on Saturday, Rest on Sunday.”
Aside from needing to explain to my child what many of these tasks are—some of which neither I nor most of my friends even do anymore—it really made me stop and consider (more…)
Kyla was born in suburban Philadelphia but spent most of her time growing up in New England. She took her first big, solo-trip at age 14, when she traveled to visit a friend on a small Greek island. Since then, travels have included: three months on the European rails, three years studying and working in Japan, and nine months taking the slow route back from Japan to the US when she was done. In addition to her work as Managing Editor of World Moms Network, Kyla is a freelance writer, copy editor, recovering triathlete and occasional blogger. Until recently, she and her husband resided outside of Boston, Massachusetts, where they were raising two spunky kids, two frisky cats, a snail, a fish and a snake. They now live outside of Lisbon, Portugal with two spunky teens and three frisky cats. You can read more about Kyla’s outlook on the world and parenting on her personal blogs, Growing Muses And Muses Where We Go
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by Kyla P'an (Portugal) | Mar 15, 2012 | Economy, Life Balance, Life Lesson, Motherhood, Parenting, Philanthropy, USA, World Motherhood
I’m half-way through reading my six-year-old The Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. If you grew up in America in the 1970s and ’80s like I did, you’re no doubt familiar with the popular TV series, Little House on the Prairie, based on Wilder’s books.
Both series recount life in the American pioneering days of the late-1800s, when homesteading was a common way of life and surviving meant living off the land.
I have always loved reading to my daughter and talking about books together but this book has been a particular conversation piece.
The premise of the book discusses life for a family living far from any modern (1860’s) conveniences. It describes in detail how they did things, like smoked meat and stored food for the winter, loaded a musket for hunting, or slaughtered a pig, and how each day of the week had a specific designation: “Wash on Monday, Iron on Tuesday, Mend on Wednesday, Churn on Thursday, Clean on Friday, Bake on Saturday, Rest on Sunday.”
Aside from needing to explain to my child what many of these tasks are—some of which neither I nor most of my friends even do anymore—it really made me stop and consider (more…)
Kyla was born in suburban Philadelphia but spent most of her time growing up in New England. She took her first big, solo-trip at age 14, when she traveled to visit a friend on a small Greek island. Since then, travels have included: three months on the European rails, three years studying and working in Japan, and nine months taking the slow route back from Japan to the US when she was done. In addition to her work as Managing Editor of World Moms Network, Kyla is a freelance writer, copy editor, recovering triathlete and occasional blogger. Until recently, she and her husband resided outside of Boston, Massachusetts, where they were raising two spunky kids, two frisky cats, a snail, a fish and a snake. They now live outside of Lisbon, Portugal with two spunky teens and three frisky cats. You can read more about Kyla’s outlook on the world and parenting on her personal blogs, Growing Muses And Muses Where We Go
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by Jennifer Burden | Mar 8, 2012 | Inspirational, Life Balance, Life Lesson, Me-Time, Motherhood, Parenting, World Motherhood
I recently drove past a sign that read, “Children are great imitators. So give them something good to imitate.” And it got me thinking…
I’m a mother, maybe just like you, who is navigating.
I often feel that everyone always thinks I have my act together. I may run a mom-blog that writes from 22 countries and has an editing staff but I don’t always know what I’m doing in the driver’s seat of my own mom-mobile.
I think the key is redirecting when I gain new, useful information. I’m always actively reading, thinking, trying, asking and watching, like so many of us are.
The questions that I’ve recently been repetitively savoring in my head are:
Why am I saving my own passions for later? When is later? Will I still have the spark for them later? (more…)
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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by Ruth | Feb 10, 2012 | Life Balance, Me-Time, Motherhood, Parenting, Ruth Wong, South Korea, World Motherhood, Writing
I stared at the email I received a week ago. Today’s the last day to make my decision but I might have missed the deadline. I wasn’t too sure – should the cut off time be based on US time while I’m here on the other side of the world? I could have checked, but…
Anyway, that didn’t matter. The fact was, at that very last-minute, I was still feeling unsure about my decision.
So, as I often do in such situations, I said a silent prayer.
Then I clicked on the link and waited… A new window opened.
I looked at the screen; peace descended upon me. The screen is still there. I knew right then what I needed to do.
*******
Three days ago, I renewed my membership with the Association of Image Consultants International (AICI).
You see, I’m trained as an image consultant but it’s something that I never really told many people about. When I first decided to get trained, I thought I would set up an image business. Then I got pregnant and decided to shelf the plan until after I gave birth. Never did I anticipate how busy being a mom would be, especially a first-time mom, and juggling my (more…)
Ruth lives in Singapore, a tiny island 137 kilometres north of the equator. After graduating from university, she worked as a medical social worker for a few years before making a switch to HR and worked in various industries such as retail, banking and manufacturing. In spite of the invaluable skills and experiences she had gained during those years, she never felt truly happy or satisfied. It was only when she embarked on a journey to rediscover her strengths and passion that this part of her life was transformed. Today, Ruth is living her dreams as a writer. Ironically, she loves what she does so much that at one point, she even thought that becoming a mom would hinder her career. Thanks to her husband’s gentle persuasions, she now realises what joy she would have missed out had she not changed her mind. She is now a happy WAHM. Ruth launched MomME Circle, a resource site to support and inspire moms to create a life and business they love. She has a personal blog Mommy Café where she writes about her son's growing up and shares her interests such as food and photography.
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by Kyla P'an (Portugal) | Feb 2, 2012 | Education, Life Balance, Motherhood, Parenting, USA, World Motherhood
A mother’s schedule is a carefully chiseled sculpture. The more children she has, the more detail and precision it requires.
I only have two kids but for the past six years, I have made it my life’s work to supplement my children’s formal education with extracurricular activities. I’m a stay-at-home-mom so for now, this type of planning really is my life’s work. Unfortunately, most classes I sign them up for run in seven to 12-week sessions, which means that three or four times a year, I have to re-sculpt our schedules.
Since you’re reading this post on World Moms Blog, I imagine you may be an empathetic sculptor. We live in an era overwhelmed by activities and many of us fall victim to over-programming.
Since become a mom, I’ve worked really hard to maintain a balance between too much and nothing at all. During the long summer stretch, we’ve vacillated between trying a little of everything: farm camp here, sports camp there, swim lessons at the pond, time with grandparents, family road trips; and summers living wherever the moment took us. If you’re at all like me and cherish routine, I don’t recommend the latter.
When it comes to my kids, who are 6 and 3, my aim is to pepper their lives with a variety of activities rather than dowsing them with the entire spice cabinet all at once.
What I find works best for us is (more…)
Kyla was born in suburban Philadelphia but spent most of her time growing up in New England. She took her first big, solo-trip at age 14, when she traveled to visit a friend on a small Greek island. Since then, travels have included: three months on the European rails, three years studying and working in Japan, and nine months taking the slow route back from Japan to the US when she was done. In addition to her work as Managing Editor of World Moms Network, Kyla is a freelance writer, copy editor, recovering triathlete and occasional blogger. Until recently, she and her husband resided outside of Boston, Massachusetts, where they were raising two spunky kids, two frisky cats, a snail, a fish and a snake. They now live outside of Lisbon, Portugal with two spunky teens and three frisky cats. You can read more about Kyla’s outlook on the world and parenting on her personal blogs, Growing Muses And Muses Where We Go
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