by Diana | Oct 15, 2012 | Childhood, Education, Homeschooling, Life Balance, Loss of Child, Motherhood, SAHM, Working Mother, World Motherhood, Younger Children
It was about a year and a half ago, when we decided to homeschool my daughter, now almost 3. At the time, we knew we’d start at preschool age and get in a few months to a year before adding to our family.
Life has completely tipped upside down since then, after losing our twin boys at 20 weeks into my pregnancy. We’re in the middle of an international adoption but even that is uncertain at the moment.
For now, Bella is an only child with no siblings in the near future. Although this wasn’t our plan, I’ve decided to work with it as best I can. Having her at home with me offers more time to bond and for me to share those little moments that go by so fast. We chose to homeschool since the preschools in our areas aren’t impressive, and we do it mostly by ourselves with no co-op near us. We do have friends that are homeschooling their children that we occasionally get together with, but for most days it’s simply Bella and I at home or out taking “field trips” to nearby farms, zoo’s museums, etc.
When we started homeschooling last month, there were the fears and worries I’ve read from almost every homeschool parent at some point: (more…)
Diana blogs on raising a toddler daughter, the loss of her twin boys, and their families' adoption in progress on the aptly named Hormonal Imbalances, as well as Babble, Oreck, World Moms Blog, and Attachment Parenting International. She's been syndicated on BlogHer and The Huffington Post. Smaller glimpses into her day are on Twitter and Facebook, and on <a href="http://pinterest.com/lifeasasahm"
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by Tina Santiago-Rodriguez (Philippines) | Sep 27, 2012 | 2012, Being Thankful, Breastfeeding, Child Care, Humanity, International, Motherhood, Natural Disaster, Nutrition, Philippines, Tina Santiago-Rodriguez, Tragedy, Womanhood, Working Mother, World Events, World Motherhood, Younger Children
Last week, a few breastfeeding advocate friends of mine alerted me and other moms to the fact that September 24th through the 30th of this year is World Milksharing Week. According to the official website, World Milksharing Week is held annually during the last week of September with this goal in mind: “to celebrate milksharing and to promote human milk as the biologically normal nourishment for babies and children.” You can read more about how the idea for this came about here. The theme for this year’s Milksharing Week is “Sharing Milk, Nurturing Community.”
Even though I consider myself pro-breastfeeding (I don’t think I can qualify as a true-blue advocate yet) and even have quite a number of blog posts about it, milksharing is something that I never really gave a serious thought about before. That was, until I read about breast milk donations, especially during times of emergencies. (You can read a bit about them here and here.) I realized that breastfeeding truly does save lives and formula milk donations could prove hazardous to the health of children affected by disasters such as typhoons and earthquakes.
Think about it: When people are stuck in evacuation centers or refugee camps, there is usually a shortage of food supplies and clean water. Diarrhea outbreaks are very common and spread easily due to the lack of proper health care and sanitation systems. According to this article on Protecting babies in emergencies: the role of the public, “babies who are not breastfed are very likely to contract diarrhea-causing illnesses from unclean water and, with a weakened immune system and limited treatment, many will die.” (more…)
Tina Santiago-Rodriguez is a wife and homeschool mom by vocation, a licensed
physical therapist by education and currently the managing editor of Mustard, a
Catholic children's magazine published by Shepherd's Voice
Publications in the Philippines, by profession. She has been writing
passionately since her primary school years in Brunei, and contributes
regularly to several Philippine and foreign-based online and print publications. She also does sideline editing and scriptwriting jobs, when she has the time. Find out more about Tina through her personal
blogs: Truly Rich Mom and Teacher Mama Tina.
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by Patricia Cuyugan (Philippines) | Sep 12, 2012 | Being Thankful, Child Care, Family, Grandparent, Life Balance, Life Lesson, Motherhood, Moving, Parenting, Philippines, Working Mother, World Motherhood, Younger Children
I grew up without a nanny. Here in the Philippines, a family with small kids without a nanny trailing after them is a rare sight. My mom, who is a housewife, was relatively young when she gave birth to me, so she was more than capable of raising me on her own. A couple of months after my first birthday my brother was born, and so my mom had two of us to care for. She continued to do this all on her own, without the help of a nanny.
Since I grew up solely under the care of my mother, I was determined not to leave any of my children with a nanny once I had my own.
It seemed simple enough when I was young and carefree. Then my son happened. At the time, my husband (who was still my boyfriend back then) and I were still in college. We had no steady jobs and no home of our own. And so it was decided that we would live with my parents. It was an ideal arrangement since my mom would be home and ready and able to lend a hand, answer any questions, or step in when I’d be too tired to function.
Throughout my pregnancy until my son’s first birthday, my mom and I worked in tandem caring for him every day. As if I couldn’t get any luckier, my husband has always been very hands-on with our child. Yes, he gave him a bath and changed his diapers, fed him and played with him. Name it, my husband’s done it. (more…)
Patricia Cuyugan is a wife, mom, cat momma, and a hands-on homemaker from Manila, whose greatest achievement is her pork adobo. She has been writing about parenting for about as long as she’s been a parent, which is just a little over a decade. When she’s not writing, you can usually find her reading a book, binge-watching a K-drama series, or folding laundry. She really should be writing, though! Follow her homemaking adventures on Instagram at @patriciacuyugs.
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by Jill Barth | Aug 30, 2012 | Life Balance, Motherhood, Parenting, USA, Working Mother, World Motherhood
The Caretaker’s Dilemma: Where am I needed most?
The world (particularly here in the USA) is full of “working moms,” and yet we regard ourselves and others with emotion, anxiety and something bordering on distrust.
If you’re a working mom (or if you are married to one) you know what I mean. You’re chatting with another mom at the park, and while your kids (and her kids) climb up the slides, the conversation turns personal. She tells you that she’s watched her kids climb the slide for the last six hours and in turn, you tell her that you saw patients (or graded papers, or drove to a client, or filled orders) for the last six hours.
And though at this moment both sets of kids feel the same sense of security married to freedom, both of you feel like maybe the activities that comprise your everyday conflict with your children’s needs.
Which brings us back to why we work in the first place, really…Not to give our kids more stuff, but to give them more of what they need: experiences, education, food and shelter. And, when the time comes to buy stuff (which, for most of us with kids happens quite a bit, actually) we like to have the means to make a choice about what we bring into our home. (more…)
Jill Barth lives in Illinois with her husband and three kids. She reminds you to breathe. She is a freelance writer and consultant. Also, she is the green content Team Leader and columnist at elephantjournal.com and reads fiction for Delmarva Review.
Jill's writing can be found on her blog, Small Things Honored.
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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 World Moms Blog | Aug 11, 2012 | Being Thankful, Child Care, Eva Fannon, Kids, Life Balance, Saturday Sidebar, Scoops of Joy, Truly Rich Mom, Working Mother
This week’s Saturday Sidebar Question comes from World Moms Blog writer The Alchemist. We know that in reality, all moms are “working” moms, but she is wondering…
“Are you a stay-at-home mom, a working mom, or a work from home mom? Do you want to make the switch now or someday in future? Why or why not?”
Check out what some of our World Moms had to say…
Lady E of Indonesia writes:
“I am a working single mother. I struggle, on a daily basis, to find the balance between meeting the needs of my son and my job while still trying to care for myself in the process. I am incredibly lucky because my son is a student in the wonderful International school where I teach, so I get to see him throughout the day. While I have always yearned for the opportunity to be able to focus only on my son, I know that I derive a great deal of fulfillment from my work. While the grass does often look greener on the stay-at-home Mom side, I cannot imagine my life any other way.” (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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