Travel Itinerary for the Week of July 16th!

On Monday we’re going to talk about manners! Courtney Cappallo in Massachusetts is dismayed at how rude and impatient people are, and she has some creative ideas for teaching her own kids how to be polite.

On Tuesday, we are heading to Oregon for a guest post from Sara Padilla. She is trying to raise children who are grateful for what they have, and she ponders the challenges of doing this in today’s society.

On Wednesday, we’re going to Brazil, where Eco Ziva talks about something that is so difficult to practice: environmentally friendly parenting. She tells us what she struggles with the most, and how she feels it can be rectified.

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World Moms Blog

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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JAPAN: Too Soon (Robot Dog)

I had really hoped this year would be the year.

The year I could put the Hina Matsuri (Girls’ Day) dolls out in the living room where we could enjoy them. It’s such a nice tradition: displaying beautifully intricate (and sickeningly expensive) dolls in traditional seven-layered kimonos for the weeks leading up to Girls’ Day on March 3rd, when the whole family pauses to pray for the health and well-being of daughters before feasting on feminine, cutesy foods, like tiny sushi and soup with delicate candy colored balls, followed by pink and green omochi (sticky, sweet rice cakes) for desert.  Ladies magazines are full of hina (imperial princess) themed recipes. This year I think we’ll try the “parfait sushi,” which is sushi rice layered with eggs and other colorful ingredients in a glass so it looks like a parfait. I’m also thinking of ordering a Hina Matsuri themed ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins (known here as 31 Ice.)

Of course, the best laid plans of mice and moms often go awry. Or something like that. (more…)

Melanie Oda (Japan)

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.

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Travel Itinerary for the Week of April 23rd! Updated!

This week we have five countries in five days!

We’re honoring World Immunization Week with Shot@Life and the GAVI Alliance!

We will start the week by running a very special social good post from a devoted reader who has attended two of our community outreach events for life-saving vaccinations for children in the developing world. It will be interesting to read Amy Pohl’s perspective from New Jersey, USA!

On Tuesday, we’re headed to Japan to hear from Hamakko Mommy. She tells us about a lovely tradition in Japan leading up to Girl’s Day, and how her plans to actually observe the tradition went awry right from the get-go.

Also on Tuesday, We also have a second social good post on Wednesday from Ghana, where the GAVI Alliance will be introducing for the first time, 2 vaccines at once in a grand effort to help save the lives of children from pneumonia and rotavirus.  Dan Thomas of the GAVI Alliance will be reporting!

Wednesday, we’re in Massachusetts with Courtney Cappallo. She talks about a day every parent dreads: a child’s first sleepover. Come read about her own experiences, and learn some very useful sleepover tips! (more…)

World Moms Blog

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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