by Meredith (USA) | Aug 22, 2012 | Inspirational, Living Abroad, Motherhood, Nigeria, World Motherhood
I was at a park in the US pushing my two children (who were 13 mos. and 3 yrs at the time) on swings, when I noticed a little girl who looked about 2 years old with dirty blonde hair which looked like it hadn’t been combed in days. Her clothes were filthy and stained with probably whatever she last ate. Her mother was sitting on a bench across the park and the little girl went over to her and started eating Cheetohs (an artificially flavored and bright orange colored cheese chip) right from a bag her mother held open for her. I remember thinking, “I would NEVER EVER let my child look like that or eat Cheetohs!! Doesn’t that mother care about her child?”
Fast forward a few months and my family moved to Lagos, Nigeria. I cannot tell you the “culture shock” I experienced moving there. One of the things which stood out to me most was the child rearing practices I would see along the streets from the windows of my car. There were small children in their school uniforms riding on the back of okadas (small motorcycles). There were children walking to school with no shoes. There were mothers selling their goods from large trays on their heads along with their young children helping them. Shouldn’t those children be riding in a car with car seats?? Shouldn’t those children have shoes on their feet? Shouldn’t, shouldn’t, shouldn’t????
What kind of place was this??? Didn’t these people care about their children??? My head was spinning! (more…)
Meredith finds it difficult to tell anyone where she is from exactly! She grew up in several states, but mainly Illinois. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana which is also where she met her husband. She taught kindergarten for seven years before she adopted her son from Guatemala and then gave birth to her daughter two years leter. She moved to Lagos, Nigeria with her husband and two children in July 2009 for her husband's work. She and her family moved back to the U.S.this summer(August 2012) and are adjusting to life back in the U.S. You can read more about her life in Lagos and her adjustment to being back on her blog: We Found Happiness.
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by Erin M. Threlfall | Aug 21, 2012 | Education, Motherhood, Uncategorized, World Motherhood
How can Parents help their children to experience success at school?
In many parts of the world, this time of year marks the wind-down to summer holidays and the wind-up for back to school preparations. For some of us Moms, this is the first time our little ones will be strapping on the backpack and carrying the lunch box as they newly enter the school system. For others of us, our children are more in-step with the back to school routines and may carry a mixed bag of emotions about their return to the classroom. For both the novice and the expert school-goer, one point remains the same: parents can greatly contribute to the educational success of their little learners. Following are a few suggestions to help your child start the school year off (and keep it going) on a positive note. (more…)
Originally from the US, Erin has credited her intense wanderlust and desire to live around the globe to her nomadic childhood. Every two to three years, her father’s work with a large international company provided the opportunity to know a different part of the US (VA, OH, PA, GA, SC, NY) and eventually Europe (Germany and Italy) and Asia (Thailand and Japan). Though her parents and siblings finally settled down in the heartland of America, Erin kept the suitcases in action and has called Ghana, South Korea, Togo, Bali, and now New York home. Single Mom to a fabulous seven-year-old citizen of the world, she is an educator and theatre artist who is fascinated with world cultures and artistic practices. Her big dream is to some day open a school focused on well-being and inquiry based learning to meet the needs of all her learners. In the meantime, Erin and her Little Man Edem, plan to keep investigating theatre and influencing education, one continent at a time. You can read some of her ramblings and perhaps find the common thread by checking our her personal blog, telling all about This Life http://www.erinmthrelfall.com/
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by Mamawearpapashirt (Singapore) | Aug 20, 2012 | Education, Motherhood, Singapore, World Motherhood
Singapore has been dubbed a tuition nation.
Outside of the country, we are known as the “garden city” or the “little red dot” or even the city that banned chewing gum. But internally, we call ourselves a tuition nation. And I’m not so sure that it’s something to be proud of.
According to a recent online survey of 955 Singaporeans aged above 18, 80% of Singaporeans believe that tuition and enrichment programmes help children do better in schools. Spending on tuition has also doubled in ten years to a whopping S$820 million in 2008. These programmes are seen by many as a constructive way for children to spend their time.
I was most surprised to find that almost three in 10 Singaporeans felt that children should start some form of tuition at pre-school age. It made me wonder how many of us are driven by the fear of our children losing out to others versus a legitimate need, for instance, a child who requires some extra Chinese lessons because the language is not used within the home. (more…)
June, born and bred on the sunny and sometimes rainy shores of Singapore, is a mother of two - a chatty 4 y.o. girl and a toddler boy who babbles. She works part-time as a communication consultant, and she is deeply passionate about family, writing, faith, and good old-fashioned love. She can be found on her blog, Mamawearpapashirt.
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by Kyla P'an (Portugal) | Aug 17, 2012 | Me-Time, SAHM, Technology, USA, Women's Rights, Working Mother, Writing, Younger Children
When I get together with fellow moms these days, I find the greatest thing we have in common is not that we all have kids but that most of us are still trying to figure out who we are now that we HAVE kids.
I think this is because our generation of moms is facing an identity crisis: Torn between the modern women that our foremothers fought so hard to enable us to become and the traditional women society has molded us into being.
A sesquicentennial ago, our foremothers fought to give us a voice in politics with the women’s suffrage movement. Fifty years ago, women struggled to break the academic barrier and make a college education, rather than a wedding ceremony, the social norm after finishing high school. The generation before us sacrificed spending much time with their families, or sometimes having a family at all, in order to prove their value as leaders in the work place.
But what about our generation? What’s our legacy? (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 | Aug 16, 2012 | Motherhood, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood, World Voice
If you are no longer receiving World Moms Blog’s daily posts in your in-box…
10) You missed out on a great post this week from South Korea about the harsh, unfair treatment of single mothers there by our contributor, Ms. V.
9) You missed our 1st giveaway on the new site for a signed copy of the famous Australian photographer’s, Anne Geddes’, latest magazine. Don’t worry — we’ve got another signed copy that we’ll be giving away soon, too, and this week we’re giving away scrumptious, posh baby booties from Vancouver, Canada! See our sidebar for giveaway details…
8) You read the post about the “songe” in France by our contributor, A Lady in France, and you may miss out on more about personal maternal health around the world, if you don’t rejoin us!
7) You have no idea what is different about the Muslim celebration of Ramadan in Egypt. We covered that last week with our contributor, Nihad in Alexandria!
6) You get worked up over human rights, and you missed reading the comments on the post about the forced abortions in China by our contributor there, Mamasgotwanderlust . A post, not for the faint at heart.
5) You haven’t poked around the new World Moms Blog site yet, and you realize it may give you some great blog design tips because we put a lot of thought into it!
4) You have no idea how to handle bullies and stalkers, until you read Holly Pavlika’s (the President of MOMentum) tips for parents on the topic this week. A must-read for every parent!
3) You want to follow the next stories of our “GAVI Global Tea Parties” being held around the world and being filmed for a documentary.
2) You are a mother who has no time to travel, and you enjoy globetrotting vicariously through our contributors around the world and their motherhood experiences. We’re now writing from over 20 countries!
1) You had no idea how easy it was to sign up for daily World Moms Blog’s updates again. And did we mention that Forbes Woman listed us in their “Top 100 Website for Women 2012?” The award still hadn’t sunk in yet! Click the link below to follow daily discussion topics of motherhood, culture, social good and human rights!:
Rejoin World Moms Blog’s Daily Mailing List!
You can still find World Moms Blog at our domain, www.worldmomsblog.com, however, we’ve moved platforms from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. And, we are unable to bring over all of our WordPress.com followers with us! In order to continue with your daily updates, you can resubscribe to World Moms Blog on feed burner at the link above or below link, so you don’t miss a beat! Thank you for your support! (By the way, we’re now selling advertising in our sidebar, too!)
Just click on the link below to resubscribe to us because we miss you!
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And one more for good measure) Mothers, that part of your brain that feels like mush and that you don’t get to exercise is ready to get back in shape again. (At least, that is how I felt from my own experience — what is your experience like?) Come exercise your mind with our thought-provoking global posts!
Thank you, and we hope you’ll “rejoin” us!
Jennifer Burden — Founder, World Moms Blog
P.S. check our sidebar to also sign up for our periodic newsletter! Our newsletter is still in the works, so if you signed up, you haven’t received it yet!
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 World Moms Blog | Aug 16, 2012 | Guest Post, Motherhood, Older Children, Safety, Technology, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood, Younger Children
How would you keep your child safe from a persistent bully and a stalker?
I was thrilled when Jen asked me to write a post about online safety for kids/teens for World Moms Blog. I have two children, a boy and a girl. But it is my daughter’s story I’d like to begin with. My daughter has been modeling and acting since she was 8 years old and is very pretty, so we’ve been dealing with safety issues both online and off since she was small.
It started with a bus driver one afternoon on the way home from school. He found out it was her birthday, as we were carrying bags of presents. For some odd reason, he wanted to give her his 20-year service pin as a present. We gracefully declined. Over a month later, I was rushing up to the front door of my apartment, and he jumped out of his car and said, “I have a present for your daughter. I haven’t had time to wrap it.” He then proceeded to get the present out of his trunk. (more…)
World Moms Blog is an award winning website which writes from over 30 countries on the topics of motherhood, culture, human rights and social good. Over 70 international contributors share their stories from around the globe, bonded by the common thread of motherhood and wanting a better world for their children.
World Moms Blog was listed by Forbes Woman as one of the "Best 100 Websites for Women 2012 & 2013" and also called a "must read" by the NY Times Motherlode in 2013. Our Senior Editor in India, Purnima Ramakrishnan, was awarded the BlogHer International Activist Award in 2013.
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