by World Moms Blog | Nov 19, 2011 | Babies, Communication, Culture, Education, Eva Fannon, Eye on Culture, Family, Husband, Indonesia, International, Kids, Motherhood, Multicultural, Parent Care, Parenting, Saturday Sidebar, Saudi Arabia, Scoops of Joy, South Korea, Third Eye Mom, USA, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood
This week’s Saturday Sidebar Question comes from World Moms Blog writer, Diana @Hormonal Imbalances. She asked our writers,
“Are there any differences in your culture on how boys and girls are raised? For example, is there a change in discipline when dealing with one gender versus the other? Education? Expectations in behavior? Changes in rules as they grow up? Do you agree or disagree with your culture’s parenting methods?”
Check out what some of our World Moms had to say…
Mama B. of Saudi Arabia writes:
“Where to start? I am going to generalize now so… in general, in our culture there is a big difference between what is expected of boys and what is expected of girls. As far as discipline goes, girls get the iron fist, while boys get a slap on the hand. (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
by Melanie Oda (Japan) | Nov 17, 2011 | Childhood, Family, Japan, World Interviews, World Moms Blog Writer Interview, Writing
Where in the world do you live? Are you from there?
I live in Yokohama, Japan, which is part of the greater metro-Tokyo area (but don’t tell anyone I said that! Yokohama citizens have a lot of pride.) I’ve lived in Japan for eleven years, ten of those in Yokohama.
My family moved around a bit when I was a child, but when people ask me where I’m from I say “Georgia.” It sounds pretty and it’s more or less the truth; I lived there for seven years. When Japanese people ask me where I’m from I simply say “America.”
What languages do you speak?
I speak English and Japanese. My spoken Japanese is fluent I guess, though I would never be mistaken for a native. Japanese is a notoriously difficult language to read and write, with two different phonetic alphabets consisting of 47 letters each, plus about 2000 commonly used Chinese characters (called kanji). With both alphabets down pat and a little over half the kanji, I’m proud to say I can read better than my first grader. (more…)
If you ask Melanie Oda where she is from, she will answer "Georgia." (Unless you ask her in Japanese. Then she will say "America.") It sounds nice, and it's a one-word answer, which is what most people expect. The truth is more complex. She moved around several small towns in the south growing up. Such is life when your father is a Southern Baptist preacher of the hellfire and brimstone variety.
She came to Japan in 2000 as an assistant language teacher, and has never managed to leave. She currently resides in Yokohama, on the outskirts of Tokyo (but please don't tell anyone she described it that way! Citizens of Yokohama have a lot of pride). No one is more surprised to find her here, married to a Japanese man and with two bilingual children (aged four and seven), than herself. And possibly her mother.
You can read more about her misadventures in Asia on her blog, HamakkoMommy.
More Posts
by Karyn Wills | Nov 17, 2011 | Family, International, Kids, Life Lesson, Motherhood, New Zealand, Parenting, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood
Call it Mummy amnesia, but I’m certain that our older two children were, well, older when they began to insist on doing things “myself.”
Our lovely Mr Butterfly is the grand old age of two and has insisted on doing things himself for a few months now. Once again I am faced with the mixed emotions of delight (that he wants to do things for himself and often can) and horror (at the things he wants to attempt).
Climbing has been a regular fixture in our family. Mr Hare (nine) spends a good portion of his life a-top tall trees, and Mr Owl was months old when he began climbing chairs to get on to the top of the dining table. I have strategies (mostly involving selected blindness and deep breathing) for dealing with the climbing.
It’s been a long time since we’ve fed Mr Butterfly, and cleaning up the mess beneath his chair, on his chair, beside his chair, on the front of the table, the side of the table and the top of the table, are simply part of my regular after meal routine. We have plasters and hugs a plenty, so in our house small people using scissors and knives is really no big deal. (more…)
Karyn is a teacher, writer and solo mother to three sons. She lives in the sunny wine region of Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand in the city of Napier.
More Posts
by Sophie Walker (UK) | Nov 15, 2011 | Motherhood, Sophie Walker, UK, World Interviews, World Moms Blog Writer Interview
Q: Where in the world do you live? And, are you from there?
A: I live in London, with my husband, two daughters and two step-sons and I think, for a change, I’ll be here for a while. Working as a journalist for an international news agency has meant travelling a lot: I lived for several years in Paris and in Washington DC and flew to cover stories in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. My family need stability for now. But I may get itchy feet again at some point in the future…
Q: What language(s) do you speak? (more…)
Writer, mother, runner: Sophie works for an international news agency and has written about economics, politics, trade, war, diplomacy and finance from datelines as diverse as Paris, Washington, Hong Kong, Kabul, Baghdad and Islamabad. She now lives in London with her husband, two daughters and two step-sons.
Sophie's elder daughter Grace was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome several years ago. Grace is a bright, artistic girl who nonetheless struggles to fit into a world she often finds hard to understand. Sophie and Grace have come across great kindness but more often been shocked by how little people know and understand about autism and by how difficult it is to get Grace the help she needs.
Sophie writes about Grace’s daily challenges, and those of the grueling training regimes she sets herself to run long-distance events in order to raise awareness and funds for Britain’s National Autistic Society so that Grace and children like her can blossom. Her book "Grace Under Pressure: Going The Distance as an Asperger's Mum" was published by Little, Brown (Piatkus) in 2012. Her blog is called Grace Under Pressure.
More Posts
by World Moms Blog | Nov 13, 2011 | Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland, USA, World Moms Blog Itinerary
This week we start off in Massachusetts with Kyla P’an. Kyla’s post, written in response to Tara B.’s post last week, talks about how Kyla’s relationship with religion has shifted over the course of her life.
On Tuesday, we head to New York to hear from Maman Aya, who has been trying to take a break! As all of us moms know, this is virtually impossible! Maman Aya tells us about a family vacation that has kept her almost as busy as she is at home!
On Wednesday, grab your passport for a trip to Switzerland! We will hear from new writer Kristin Kolb, who recently had to dig up her own passport for a trip across the ocean sans kids. She talks about how she helped her family cope with her absence.
On Thursday, we travel to another part of the world as we visit with Karyn at Kloppenmum in New Zealand. She broaches the subject of independence in our children, and the conflict we sometimes feel when our babies start doing things themselves.
And on Friday, we head off to Norway to hear from Asta Burrows. Asta looks back over her first year with World Moms Blog and reflects on the milestones that have happened in her life since writing her very first post.
We have two new writer interviews this week! On Tuesday we hear from Ms. V of South Korea, and on Thursday we hear from Melanie Oda from Japan.
On Saturday, check out the Saturday Sidebar with Eva Fannon, where the World Moms give their thoughts on an important topic, and chime in with your answers to the week’s question!
— World Moms Blog
Our World Moms Blog logo was designed by the creative Erica Joyner Designs in Virginia, USA.
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
by Jennifer Burden | Nov 12, 2011 | Health, Motherhood, Saturday Sidebar, Social Good, World Voice
Why write about World Pneumonia Day? I mean, pneumonia is curable, right? What’s the big deal?
Yes, pneumonia is often curable here, in the United States, but did you know that around the world a child dies from pneumonia every 20 seconds?
EVERY TWENTY SECONDS.
Dies. Dead. Stops living.
Did you know that pneumonia is the world’s biggest curable health problem?
Are we doing enough????
I was invited by the Global Coalition Against Child Pneumonia to take a conference call this past Thursday that included Dr. Richard Besser from ABC News, Dr. Orin Levine of the International Vaccine Access Center of Johns Hopkins University and 6 fellow bloggers. We listened and discussed the global problem of pneumonia, one of the leading causes of death in children under 5 years old.
During the call I found my eyes tearing up at parts, (more…)
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.
More Posts - Website
Follow Me:
