by Maggie Ellison | Feb 22, 2012 | Entertainment, Family, Humor, Kids, Motherhood, Parenting, USA, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood
My son is 7 1/2 and has been taking showers on his own for a while now. Recently, he has been taking baths. The last 3 times, he has completely soaked the bathroom. The floor was flooded, the counters were wet, and I just couldn’t imagine what he was doing in there.
He’s really into weather and the ocean, so I always say, “No tsunamis in there.” He knows I mean that he can’t make big waves in the tub that cause the water to spill out.
He’s an honest kid, so I believed him when he said he hadn’t been making tsunamis in the tub after the first time I found the bathroom soaked.
After his next bath, it was the same thing. Water was everywhere. I started thinking he was just walking around the bathroom when he got out and not drying off. I thought of this soft ball that he throws in the tub. I figured that maybe he was throwing it out and getting everything wet. I meant to ask him about it, but I was busy so I dried up the floor and forgot to talk to him. (more…)
Maggie is so grateful to be raising her 2 children with her husband in the low country of South Carolina. Life at the beach is what she’s always known, although living in SC is new to this NJ native! The beauty of the live oaks and the palmettos takes her breath away on a daily basis and being able to go to the beach all year is a dream for her. Art and music have also always been a part of Maggie’s life, and she is happy that her family has the same love and appreciation for it that she does.
Maggie and her family are also very active. Her husband coaches both kids in soccer, and they like to spend their time outdoors kayaking, biking, swimming, camping, etc. They try to seize every moment they can together, and they feel that it’s not just the family time that is important. They want their kids to know a life of activity and respect for the outdoors, expose them to new things and teach them about the world! Maggie and her family are no strangers to overcoming life's challenges. They've had to uproot their family several times when jobs have been lost in the economic crisis.
They also lovingly face the challenges of having a child diagnosed with special needs. Through all this, Maggie has learned to celebrate the good times and never take them for granted. Her family is everything to her, and she is incredibly grateful for every day she has with them and for every moment she has shared with them. Not a day goes by that she doesn’t tell them she loves them and how lucky she is to be her kids’ mommy. How sweet!
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by Mama B (Saudi Arabia) | Feb 21, 2012 | Education, Motherhood, Saudi Arabia, World Motherhood
This is a follow-up to a post I wrote a short while ago titled ,”The Choices We Make (For Them)“. To summarize, in January we moved back to Riyadh, the city we used to live in. My kids want to go back to the schools they were in before.
I want them to go to a small school with a higher standard of education. The old schools are big and chock full of students (My son S had 28 classmates, My daughter J had 18). This school is small and has relatively few students. In S’s case there’s only one other student in 3rd grade!
Well, I made the choice! I chose the small school for both my kids. Needless to say, neither child was thrilled. But I am the adult in charge of making these decisions for them. The decisions that will make them sad and angry at me and say things like “it’s so unfair” and “I want to be with my friends.”
When I told them the decision they instantly crumpled. (more…)
Mama B’s a young mother of four beautiful children who leave her speechless in both, good ways and bad. She has been married for 9 years and has lived in London twice in her life. The first time was before marriage (for 4 years) and then again after marriage and kid number 2 (for almost 2 years). She is settled now in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (or as settled as one can be while renovating a house).
Mama B loves writing and has been doing it since she could pick up a crayon. Then, for reasons beyond her comprehension, she did not study to become a writer, but instead took graphic design courses. Mama B writes about the challenges of raising children in this world, as it is, who are happy, confident, self reliant and productive without driving them (or herself) insane in the process.
Mama B also sheds some light on the life of Saudi, Muslim children but does not claim to be the voice of all mothers or children in Saudi. Just her little "tribe." She has a huge, beautiful, loving family of brothers and sisters that make her feel like she wants to give her kids a huge, loving family of brothers and sisters, but then is snapped out of it by one of her three monkeys screaming “Ya Maamaa” (Ya being the arabic word for ‘hey’). You can find Mama B writing at her blog, Ya Maamaa . She's also on Twitter @YaMaamaa.
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by World Moms Blog | Feb 19, 2012 | 2012, International, Motherhood, World Moms Blog Itinerary, World Motherhood
Start off the week with World Moms Blog in the Middle East! Deborah Quinn (Mannahattamamma) in the United Arab Emirates describes,
“I wasn’t prepared, myself, for the way that wealth is on display here: that the Porsche Cayenne is basically the Chrysler mini-van of the Gulf…”
Deborah tells us all about why she is often asked by her children, “Mommy, are we rich?”
On Tuesday, we hop on over to Saudi Arabia, where Mama B. gives us a follow-up to her previous article, The Choices We Make (For Them), about choosing the best school to meet her son’s needs. Can’t wait to hear what she decided! (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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by Wall Street Mama (USA) | Feb 17, 2012 | Breastfeeding, Motherhood, Working Mother, World Motherhood
Two years ago when I had my son, I was determined to make breastfeeding work. I heard about all of the great benefits through friends, baby books and doctors. I knew that my maternity leave would be fairly short and along with figuring out breastfeeding, I planned to pump as well. Well, both breastfeeding and pumping came with lots of surprises – some good and some bad!
I am pregnant again and due in June, and I am contemplating what will work best the second time around.
The question I keep asking myself – will my 12 weeks of maternity leave be sufficient for breastfeeding? Or will I resume the torture, headache and embarrassment that came with pumping in the workplace?! (more…)
Wall Street Mama was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago and moved to NJ when she was a teenager. She fell in love with New York City and set her mind to one thing after college – working on Wall Street. She has spent the last 16 years working on the trading floor at three major banks. As an Institutional Salesperson, she is responsible for helping large corporations and money funds invest their short term cash in the fixed income part of the market. She lives in the suburbs of central NJ with her husband of 11 years, their amazing 21 month old boy and their first baby – a very spoiled Maltese. She has baby #2 on the way and is expecting a little girl in June 2012. She is a full time working mother and struggles with “having it all” while wondering if that is even possible.
Wall Street Mama was married at the age of 25 but waited to have children because she felt she was too focused on her career which required a lot of traveling and entertaining. When she was finally ready, she thought she could plan the exact month she was ready to have a child, like everything else she planned in her life. She was shocked and frustrated when things did not go according to her plan. Fast forward four years later, after a miscarriage and several rounds of failed fertility injections, her little miracle was conceived naturally. She never thought in a million years, that she and her husband would be in their late 30’s by the time they had their first child.
Since the financial crisis of 2008, she has endured some of the most difficult years of her life. The stress of trying to conceive was combined with some of life’s biggest challenges. She and her husband, who is a trader, both lost their jobs on Wall Street the exact same month. Her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and she ended up passing away while she was 6 months pregnant. At times it didn’t seem like things would ever get better, but she has learned that life is cyclical and what comes down must again go up.
Leaving her baby boy with a wonderful nanny each day is difficult, but at times it is easier than she would have expected. She still enjoys the seemingly addictive draw of working on Wall Street. The past few years have been dramatically different from the “good days” but she is focused on trying to achieve what she once had before. She is currently working on launching her own blog, Wall Street Mama, in an attempt to guide others who are focused on continuing their career, yet struggle with leaving their little ones at home. She is weathering the ups and downs of the market and motherhood, one day at a time.
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by Madpsychmum (Singapore) | Feb 16, 2012 | Child Care, Education, Motherhood, Parenting, Singapore, Working Mother, World Interviews, World Moms Blog Writer Interview, World Motherhood
Where in the world do you live? And, are you from there?I was born and bred in sunny Singapore.
What language(s) do you speak?
I speak English, Chinese and a little Cantonese
When did you first become a mother?
In July 2010
Are you a stay-at-home mom or do you work?
I used to be a stay-at-home mom for a while when my girl was young but now I’m working full-time.
Why do you blog/write?
Because I enjoy documenting my little girl’s growth and wanna share things I learned about breastfeeding, weaning, child development that I have learned over the course of my journey.
How would you say that you are different from other mothers?
I suppose I’m not any different from other mothers. I’m just as protective, just as crazy about my kid, just
(more…)Madeline lives in Singapore, a tiny cosmopolitan island in Southeast Asia. She is a mother to a beautiful and intelligent little girl born in July 2010.
Madeline used to be a stay-at-home mother while she was completing her graduate studies in psychology at a local university. On completion of her studies, she has now joined the workforce and is working in the Ministry of Education (Singapore).
Madeline is passionate about children and education and hopes to make a difference in the lives of children living in Singapore. Also an avid traveller and hardcore advocate of breastfeeding, she regularly documents her overseas trips and nursing room reviews with incredible detail on her blog, MadPsychMum @ University of Motherhood.
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by Kristen | Feb 16, 2012 | Childhood, Motherhood, Parenting, World Motherhood
I was recently venting to a Swiss mom friend about my youngest graduating into the “Terrible Two’s.” She looked at me completely puzzled. Turns out, it isn’t even in their vocabulary here.
Whether it’s in your vocabulary or not, if you are a mom and you have a child that is beyond, say, 18-months, it’s likely you are no foreigner to the new behaviors that blossom as our little ones approach two. I remember when my first son hit that phase and most of our friends had younger babies.
I remember how they looked at us with wide eyes and then back adoringly at their own innocent offspring. And they didn’t know they were thinking out loud but I guarantee they were…at least in my mind. It was as if they were saying, “Oh my, they have lost control of their little one. Whew, we have this under control. Ours will NEVER be that out of control.”
And oh how shocking when theirs, too, embarked on the same behavioral detour. Luckily, they got to watch my child do it first and they had evidence that we were still living and breathing to laugh about it on the other side.
My youngest son, Owen, has been approaching the edge of the ledge since about 15 months. He is a (more…)
Kristen is a stay-at-home to two little boys, Jackson (4 yrs) and Owen (nearly 2 yrs). She was born in New York, but eventually made her way down to Texas. She and her husband, Seth, met in Dallas and were married in December 2005. Nine months into their marriage Seth received a call that he had landed his dream job, one catch, it involved world wide assignment. The adventure took them from Texas to Washington, D.C., on to Bogotá, Colombia and then back to Washington, D.C before bringing them to Bern, Switzerland! Kristen and her family have currently lived in Bern for more than 1 year, where her husband works for the US Department of State. Four moves and 2 children in nearly 6 years of marriage have made for quite the adventure in motherhood! Kristen finds motherhood to be one of the most humbling and character building things she has ever experienced. The responsibility of raising boys with integrity and respect at times feels daunting, but she couldn’t imagine doing anything else!
Kristen is a Speech Language Pathologist but has taken time away from working to focus on her family. Although she enjoys the travel and adventure involved in her husband’s career, she often finds herself feeling far from home and working to make the most of time abroad!
On her blog, Seasons Worth Savoring, Kristen writes about daily life with two little boys, including her experiences as she navigates a foreign culture and walks by faith. In her free time, or rather in her busy time with two boys attached to her legs, Kristen enjoys cooking, photography, antique and thrift store shopping, working on crafts, and blogging.
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My son is 7 1/2 and has been taking showers on his own for a while now. Recently, he has been taking baths. The last 3 times, he has completely soaked the bathroom. The floor was flooded, the counters were wet, and I just couldn’t imagine what he was doing in there.
