by Lauren @Hike.Blog.Love. (USA) | Dec 18, 2012 | Autism, Family, Friendship, Kids, Parenting, Philanthropy, Social Good, Special Needs, World Motherhood, World Voice, Younger Children
The author holding her son after completing the Best Buddies 5K in August 2012.
I hold my breath as my five-year old son zooms around the playground. There are children laughing and squealing all around us. Games of tag and the sound of ring-around-the-rosey sung in unison fill the evening air.
My son continues to run in circles as if he is the only child on the playground. Another child approaches him and catches his attention. He stops. My heart starts pounding and I convince myself to wait and watch before jumping in to help him navigate this brief social encounter. It’s over as quickly as it began and he is back to zooming around the playground.
Some of the moms and other children begin to stare. Most smile politely and continue on with what they were doing and I sink back into my seat, wondering what the future will hold for my son. This is a typical day in the life of my five-year old son who is diagnosed with autism and cognitive delay. While my other typically developing five-year old son is eager to play with friends on the playground, my son with special needs is satisfied to stay within his comfort zone of isolation.
Could you imagine a world without friendship? I certainly could not.
So one day I asked myself if my son is truly happy playing alone with only brief and superficial social encounters. Doesn’t he really crave friendship like his brother? Although my son is limited verbally, a single conversation was enough to clarify that he did indeed want to make friends. As his mother, I was determined to help him do it. (more…)
Lauren is a lover of nature, an avid hiker and mama to two boys adopted from across the globe—one who happens to have autism. She is passionate about special needs adoption and the great outdoors.
You can find Lauren blogging about all of her adventures at "http://hikebloglove.com", Hike Blog Love. where she hopes to inspire others to get outdoors and explore. She fiercely believes that adventure is for all.
More Posts
by Alison Fraser | Dec 14, 2012 | Africa, Being Thankful, Canada, Communication, Culture, Family, Friendship, Girls, Human Rights, Humanity, Inspirational, International, Kenya, Life Lesson, Motherhood, Parenting, Philanthropy, Social Good, World Motherhood, World Voice, Younger Children
Teddy Bear Picnic Fundraiser
Global awareness has been identified, by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, as key to the success of today’s young people. I have always prided myself on my commitment to raising my three young daughters to understand the challenges that people all over the world face on a daily basis. Despite my best efforts, I felt like I was failing. Of no fault of their own, given their young ages, I felt that they were slowly being swallowed up by a world driven, at times, by materialism and egocentrism. As their mom, I knew it was my responsibility to raise them as globally aware citizens. But how?
The major stumbling block at the time was their young age. How would I ever manage to teach my daughters to be empathetic when they were all under the age of 6! After much thought, I realized that the only way to accomplish this was to truly involve them in the process right from the start. So, no fancy and sophisticated fundraisers, no black tie events, no galas…but a teddy bear picnic: absolutely! (more…)
Alison Fraser is the mother of three young girls ranging in age from 5 to 9 years old. She lives with her family in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Alison works as an Environmental Toxicologist with a human environment consulting company and is an active member of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC). She is also the founder and director of the Canadian Not for Profit Organization, Mom2Mom Africa, which serves to fund the school fees of children and young women in rural Tanzania. Recently recognized and awarded a "Women of Waterloo Region" award, Alison is very involved in charitable events within her community including Christmas Toy and School Backpack Drives for the local foodbank.
More Posts - Website
Follow Me:
by Nihad | Nov 16, 2012 | Communication, Husband, Language, Life Balance, Marriage, Motherhood, Sexuality, World Motherhood
We share a lot of parenting advice on World Moms Blog. However, how happy we are at home can have a great effect on our children. If you have a partner, today I’m focusing on how we can strengthen those relationships!
Love is an emotion that we need and seek since our first minute on earth. Children have basic emotional needs that must be met if they are to be emotionally stable. They feel their value and self esteem when they are loved and appreciated.
Even adults need to feel loved to continue their lives normally and to feel happy and fulfilled. The book “The 5 Love languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts” by Garry Chapman is about how to express our love in relationships and I would like to share some ideas of the book with you. This book has totally changed the lives of many couples who were struggling in their relationships.
The author is a marriage counselor and from his 30 years experience in the field of marriage counseling he noticed that there are 5 common ways of expressing love – which he named “love languages”. As people speaking different languages cannot interconnect and build strong relationships, individuals who are not aware of their love language or their partner’s love language will not be able to have a healthy and fulfilling relationship. So people who are in relationships need to know their partner’s love language to meet their need of love. (more…)
Nihad is an Egyptian woman, who was born and has lived her whole life in Alexandria, Egypt. She says, “People who visited this city know how charming and beautiful this city is. Although I love every city in Egypt, Alexandria is the one I love the most.”
She is a software engineer and has worked in the field for more than twenty years. But recently she quit her job, got a coaching certificate and she is now a self employed life and career coach. She says, “I believe that women in this era face big challenges and they are taking huge responsibilities. That's why I have chosen my niche -- women looking for happiness and satisfaction. I help and support them in making whatever change (career change, life change, behavior change, belief change…) they want to bring more satisfaction and happiness in their lives.”
Nihad is a mother of two lovely boys, 15 and 9 years old. She states, “They are the most precious gifts I have ever had. I madly love them, and I consider them the main source of happiness in my life.”
Our inspiring mother in Egypt can also be found at Aurora Beams Life Coaching.
More Posts
by Kristen | Oct 22, 2012 | Being Thankful, Competition, Friendship, Motherhood, Parenting, World Motherhood, Younger Children
As I stood in the kindergarten pick up line, I told another mom I was about to start the potty-training process with my littlest guy. I told her it had been a while since I had done it and would love any advice. I’ve used the excuse of putting it of because of our recent move [from Switzerland back to the US] for too long and it was time for both my son and me to face the beast.
She mentioned that her son had potty-trained himself. Um, that’s amazing. All I could think about was the pile of “accident undies” on my laundry room floor and my son’s attempts to empty the potty on his own (and the multiple, potential spills on the floor that would come with it). Happy for her, sure! But wishing it could be that easy for us too.
Funny enough, just days before my friend and I had been talking about the process of kids learning to ride bikes. She noticed that our oldest son was riding without training wheels. Her son was struggling to give up training wheels. I told her that my husband had been building up to teaching our oldest but that 5 minutes after removing the training wheels he was off on his own. No help needed. We could take no credit! We barely got a picture of the accomplishment because he was off!
Isn’t motherhood like that though? Some things come so easily to one child or mother and to others it is so painfully hard.
Breastfeeding, potty-training, giving birth, discipline, homework, feeding, you name it and it’s likely for some those things have come easy with minimal heartache and for others, they have struggled so much with few positive results. (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.
More Posts
by Salma (Canada) | Aug 3, 2012 | 2012, Canada, Family, Life Balance, Marriage, Parenting, Salma, Working Mother, World Moms Blog
Yesterday was a bad day, I cried because I didn’t know what else to do. The month of June was a crappy month-all of it. July showed some promise, but it blew away with the wind, I guess. I’m hoping that August will give me a break, but I’m not holding my breath. They say “behind (or beside) every successful man is a good (strong) woman…” I can’t agree or disagree with that statement, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.
You see my husband relies on me for practically everything- it is our relationship- our life. When we left Toronto 1 year ago, I was right behind him picking up the pieces (packing, making plans & arrangements), AND leaving behind my friends and a job at one of the top universities in Canada. My husband never really caught a break in Toronto, and needed (for his sanity and mine) to leave and find something that would benefit our family- he found it in Calgary.
I never questioned it, because we never questioned our bond in accepting the inevitabilities of life. After all he left his family to live with me in a foreign land. Now that I have been out of my comfort zone for one year, I have to admit, I hate it. While my husband has gained success and is happier in this new city, I don’t fit- I just can’t seem to catch my breath.
Success is a funny thing, and that’s the problem. Even without meticulous calculations you could look at our lives here now compared to our life in Toronto and conclude the obvious- we have gained more success. We have more money in the bank; we just bought a house that, if purchased in Toronto, would be half a million dollars; our kids are growing up and staying out of trouble; and our marriage is stronger than ever- Thank God for all of this. So what’s the problem you ask? Read on! (more…)
An Imperfect Stepford Wife is what Salma describes herself as because she simply cannot get it right. She loves decorating, travelling, parenting,learning, writing, reading and cooking, She also delights in all things mischievous, simply because it drives her hubby crazy.
Salma has 2 daughters and a baby boy. The death of her first son in 2009 was very difficult, however, after the birth of her Rainbow baby in 2010 (one day after her birthday) she has made a commitment to laugh more and channel the innocence of youth through her children. She has blogged about her loss, her pregnancy with Rainbow, and Islamic life.
After relocating to Alberta with her husband in 2011 she has found new challenges and rewards- like buying their first house, and finding a rewarding career.
Her roots are tied to Jamaica, while her hubby is from Yemen. Their routes, however, have led them to Egypt and Canada, which is most interesting because their lives are filled with cultural and language barriers. Even though she earned a degree in Criminology, Salma's true passion is Social Work. She truly appreciates the beauty of the human race. She writes critical essays on topics such as feminism and the law, cultural relativity and the role of women in Islam and "the veil".
Salma works full-time, however, she believes that unless the imagination of a child is nourished, it will go to waste. She follows the philosophy of un-schooling and always finds time to teach and explore with her children. From this stance, she pushes her children to be passionate about every aspect of life, and to strive to be life-long learners and teachers. You can read about her at Chasing Rainbow.
More Posts - Website
by World Moms Blog | Jul 21, 2012 | Bilingual, Culture, Family, Friendship, Gardening, Motherhood, Older Children, Parenting, Saturday Sidebar, Working Mother, World Motherhood, Younger Children
WMB Writer Kyla P’an and her kindred spirit in parenting, Rachel Osen.
There are so many different parenting styles in the world, which makes World Moms Blog writer, Tara B. ask,
“Do you have a kindred spirit in parenting? Aside from the bond of motherhood and the fact that all moms want the best for their kid…is there someone you know who operates just like you on the basic nuts and bolts of day to day parenting? If so, how did you find him/her?”
Check out what some of our World Moms had to say…
Kyla P’an of Massachusetts, USA writes:
“Yes, my friend in Montana, Rachel Osen. I don’t know if it’s because our kids are the same genders and exactly the same ages, or if it’s because our pre-children adulthood was so parallel, but she’s one of the few people I can be so open with about the trials and tribulations of parenting. I feel like we protect or guard our true selves all the time, much like Ruth Wong discussed in Motherhood is NOT a Competition, but I never feel that way with Rachel.” (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.
More Posts
