by World Moms Blog | Dec 8, 2012 | Eva Fannon, Older Children, Polish Mom Photographer, Saturday Sidebar, Siblings, World Moms Blog, Younger Children
This week’s Saturday Sidebar Question comes from World Moms Blog writer Karyn Van Der Zwet. She asked our writers,
“What is your theory on spacing births within a family, and what age gaps did you end up with?”
Check out what some of our World Moms had to say…
Dee_Harlow with her twins.
Dee Harlow of Laos writes:
“When parents of a single child see me with twins, they always ask what it’s like to have two? We always tell them to make sure that by the time the second child comes, the first one is old enough to pick the baby up. Believe me – you need the extra pair of hands and eyes.”
Documama of USA writes:
“When we weren’t trying, I got pregnant, and when we were trying to, I didn’t, yet we ended up with four kids spaced almost evenly 2 years apart! It looks like it was a plan, but we learnt pretty quickly that we only had so much control of how things worked out. I have to say the two year gap seems to work well, they are close enough to play together but when the baby is born the toddler was also young enough to forget quickly that they had just been usurped. A bit chaotic when you have a mess of babies on your hands, but I did feel like my 30s would be my child bearing decade, and then in my 40s I could get back to me a bit. Getting there!”
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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 Purnima Ramakrishnan | Dec 7, 2012 | Childhood, Competition, Culture, Education, Eye on Culture, Family, India, International, Kids, Life Balance, Life Lesson, Motherhood, Purnima, School, The Alchemist, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood, Younger Children
Purnima’s son dressed up as a ‘Rockstar’ for the Fancy Dress Competition.
Here in India there are a lot of competitions conducted for children in a healthy way. Our son recently took part in a competition in early November. You see, it is Children’s Day on the 14th of November and the kids who win are awarded on that day.
It was a fancy dress competition. He was all dressed up. He had reached the final round after clearing two intermediate rounds. He dressed up as a ‘Rockstar’ for the first round and then as ‘The Earth’ for the second round. For the finals, the topic was a bit tricky. We had to dress up depicting any opposite. So I was thinking of good and evil and hot and cold and such things. But he came with Indoor and Outdoor games. Maybe they are not really opposites, so I got a confirmation from the teacher-in-charge and then dressed him up to depict Indoor and Outdoor games.
And just when we were waiting for his chance to get on stage and perform, there was a mother, whose child’s only competition was my son. She came up to us, and tried to discourage my son and demotivate him. I tried to shield him away from her and her stinging words. She joked about it so that I wouldn’t take offense and complain…but tried to do the damage nevertheless.
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by Ana Gaby | Dec 6, 2012 | Cultural Differences, Family, Family Travel, Indonesia, International, Motherhood, Multicultural, Parenting, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood
I wish I knew the kind of mom I want to be. Sometimes I want to be Mamá Estupenda; other times I would rather be the Fab Mommy.
I never thought I would struggle finding or rather redefining who I was until I had kids.
Sure, being a teenager and later on a college student you try different fashion styles, change majors, travel and backpack and find what you are really into. Once you join the workforce, you’re lucky if you are able to work on what you love and find what makes your heart ignite with passion, or your mind wander. You strive to succeed. This is what it was like for me: I knew what I wanted to do with my life, how I wanted it to look on paper and what I wanted to say about myself when I introduced myself.
But then, I had Evan, my firstborn. And my perspective radically changed. My priorities shifted in a way I never thought possible, and what used to matter to me (or I thought mattered to me) didn’t even fit into my “spit-up-and-diaper” filled schedule. My resume, my fab “pick-a-new-friend line ” that I had mastered at the many wine and martini filled soirees I’d attended pre-kids: These were no longer on the menu. (more…)
Ana Gaby is a Mexican by birth and soul, American by heart and passport and Indonesian by Residence Permit. After living, studying and working overseas, she met the love of her life and endeavored in the adventure of a lifetime: country-hopping every three years for her husband’s job. When she's not chasing her two little boys around she volunteers at several associations doing charity work in Indonesia and documents their adventures and misadventures in South East Asia at Stumble Abroad.
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by Natalia Rankine-Galloway (Morocco) | Dec 3, 2012 | 2012, Child Care, Cultural Differences, Morocco, Parenting, Tunisia, Uncategorized, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood
Photo by Elizabeth Atalay
It was too hot for October as I pushed the baby’s stroller towards the busy intersection, nervous about navigating the after school traffic.
As I approached the T junction, I could see a woman striking her arms out wildly from the driver’s seat of her car, stopped at the red light. She looked as though she was battling someone in the passenger seat with all the strength the confined space would allow.
I had been reading and thinking a lot about women and women’s rights in Morocco since my arrival a couple of weeks prior and in the split second it took me to walk from the trunk to beside the window, I had concluded she was an abused wife, fighting back.
Prone as I am to flights of fancy, I had her whole heroic back story firm in my mind as I walked level to the front window and realized that she was in fact landing punches on a boy; about 12 or 13 and looking utterly deflated as he half-heartedly held his arms up against his mother’s blows. (more…)
Natalia was born a stone's throw from the Queen's racetrack in Ascot, UK and has been trying to get a ticket to the races and a fabulous hat to go with it ever since. She was born to a Peruvian mother and an Irish father who kept her on her toes, moving her to Spain, Ireland and back to the UK before settling her in New York for the length of middle and high school. She is still uncertain of what she did to deserve that.
She fled to Boston for college and then Washington, D.C. to marry her wonderful husband, who she met in her freshman year at college. As a military man, he was able to keep her in the migratory lifestyle to which she had become accustomed. Within 5 months of marriage, they were off to Japan where they stayed for a wonderful 2 and one half years before coming home to roost. Baby Xavier was born in New York in 2011 and has not slept since.
A joy and an inspiration, it was Xavier who moved Natalia to entrepreneurship and the launch of CultureBaby. She has loved forging her own path and is excited for the next step for her family and CultureBaby.
Natalia believes in the potential for peace that all children carry within them and the importance of raising them as global citizens. She loves language, history, art and culture as well as Vietnamese Pho, Argentinian Malbec, English winters, Spanish summers and Japanese department stores...and she still hopes one day to catch the number 9 race with Queen Liz.
You can find her personal blog, The Culture Mum Chronicles.
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by World Moms Blog | Dec 1, 2012 | Saturday Sidebar, Truly Rich Mom, World Moms Blog
This week’s Saturday Sidebar Question comes from World Moms Blog writer ‘A lady in france‘. She asked our writers,
“What are those aspects of mothering that inspire you?”
Check out what some of our World Moms had to say…
World Mom, Mom Photographer with her sewing machine.
Mom Photographer of California, USA writes:
“That picture is me trying to figure out the sewing machine. I am very inspired and motivated to learn to sew because my mom used to be a professional seamstress and she would make all kinds of clothing for us. she would always amaze me how good she is in doing it and how little effort for her it is to look at something at the store and then come back home and make almost exact thing (even better).”
ALadyInFrance of France writes:
“I’m so grateful for my own mother’s encouragement when I had my first child and would ask her for advice (out of insecurity, not necessarily lack of knowledge). She would say, “You’re her mom and you know best.” I think we have to remember that we moms know our children best in order to be their advocate. ”
Karyn Van Der Zwet of New Zealand writes:
“Those mothers who are serene and calm always impress me.”
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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 World Moms Blog | Nov 24, 2012 | Human Rights, Purnima, Saturday Sidebar, The Alchemist, Tina Santiago-Rodriguez, World Moms Blog, World Voice
This week’s Saturday Sidebar Question comes from World Moms Blog writer Purnima. She asked our writers,
“How do you intend to spend your year end holidays?”
Check out what some of our World Moms had to say…
World Mom, Jennifer Prestholdt and her family celebrating their holidays
Hamakkomommy of Japan writes:
“Christmas in Japan can be kind of sad if it falls on a weekday. This year, I am planning to spend the day with a fellow gaijin friend and her family. New Years is the main holiday here. The days leading up to it will be spent cleaning (apparently the lucky new year god doesn’t come to dirty houses.) On Jan 1st, we’ll head over to the in-laws house around 8 AM for a traditional meal, the traditional sake, followed by the traditional sake-induced speech my father-in-law gives every year. After that, we usually head to a local park for kite flying (which is done on New Years for some reason.) Kids get money from relatives, so we’ll probably end the day at the toy store with temper tantrums and hangovers.” (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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