World Moms Blog

On Monday, we will be in Illinois with Polish Mama On The Prairie. This Mama describes a trip across the country with her family, and talks about what it’s like to really feel like you’re at home.

On Tuesday, we head to South Carolina, where Maggie Ellison talks about how she was able to free herself from the negativity generated by other people, leading to a more positive existence for herself and her family.

On Wednesday, we fly across the Atlantic to read a bittersweet post by Asta Burrows. Asta talks about the joy of first discovering a pregnancy, followed by the heartbreak that happens when the pregnancy does not work out.

And on Thursday, we head back across the pond to Toronto, Canada, to hear from Kirsten Doyle of Running for Autism. Kirsten talks about an issue that faces all parents at some stage or another: when bad things happen in the world, how do we explain it to our kids?

On Friday Eva Fannon leads us in the Friday Question. Be sure to check it out and chime in with your answers!

In writer interviews this week, we will hear from Courtney Cappallo of Massachusetts on Tuesday, and on Thursday we will get to know Jill Barth from Illinois.

In news, Jennifer Burden is headed to the Blogher ’11 conference later this week. We cannot wait to hear all about it!

This coming week, I’m excited to be representing World Moms Blog at the Blogher ’11 conference in San Diego, California.  As I’m busy preparing for the adventure, this week I’m going to keep it short, but hopefully, slightly entertaining.

The writers’ interviews that we’ve been posting as additional posts on Tuesdays and Thursdays have been really helping us get to know our new writing community better. We’re even finding many more things out about our seasoned WMB writers that we didn’t know!

It occurred to me that some of you might be thinking, “Who the heck is running this ship?” And, also, maybe the thought never even crossed your mind. ha ha. So, anyway, this week, as your World Moms Blog founder and editor, I’m answering one question from our normal interview.  And, here’s how it goes… Read more…

This week’s Friday Question comes from World Moms Blog writer Maggie Ellison.  She asked our writers,

“Do your kids help with household chores?  If not, do you plan on giving them any as they get older?  If so, at what age?  Do/will they get an allowance?”

Here are responses from some of our World Moms…

MamaRobinJ of British Columbia, Canada writes:
“I look forward to the day I can give my son responsibility for cleaning the floors! 

He’s three, but he does help a little bit and we’ll definitely keep him involved. We started long ago with getting him to pick up his toys and if he makes a mess he has to help clean it up, especially if he did it deliberately. He also loves to “help” so we let him and show him how (for the things it’s safe for him to do). As he gets older, we’ll expect him to contribute to stuff around the house, but to me that’s just an expectation as part of the family – I don’t plan to attach an allowance to it. Interested to hear other moms’ perspectives, though, especially if they have older kids and know how well that will or won’t work!” Read more…

Where in the world do you live? And, are you from there?

I now live in Chennai,India. I am from a smaller town, around 350 miles from here. I lived in the same house and even had the same room for twenty-five years of my life.

I did my entire schooling, college education and even post-graduate education there. After getting married, I settled down here in Chennai with my physician husband and son.

I have never moved much in my life, have strong roots and hopefully don’t intend to move out of this home anytime soon.

What language(s) do you speak?

I speak English, Hindi (India’s National language) and Tamil (my mother tongue). I read and writer the same three languages. I am not great at picking up languages, rather I should say, the necessity has never been there. Read more…

Both times I was pregnant, my husband and I easily agreed upon possible  first and middle names for girls (using the American format of first name, middle name, last/surname). So, of course, we ended up having two boys for whom we had no ideas.

When we learned we were having our first son, I asked my husband if he wanted a namesake, meaning our son to have my husband’s exact name in its entirety.

I grew up around the tradition of naming children after parents. My brother is actually a “third,” with my father being the “junior” and my grandfather being the “senior.” Having a son and father use the same form of the same name can be confusing. However, there is something special about the tradition of keeping a family name alive. If my husband wanted that father-son bond, it was fine by me.

My husband’s family keeps names alive in a different way… Read more…

Inspired by Dr. Lanham’s post last week about preparing for a child to leave the nest, I got thinking about what my own identities are beyond just being a mom. Aware that we all go through metamorphoses, we grow, evolve and change identities many times in life, I wanted to make sure I was in touch with who I am because I know it’s more than “MOM!”

Before having kids, I spent most of my life trying to grow up. In my twenties, I got bitten by the bug and started traveling internationally, specifically, backpacking. One of the things I found most thrilling about traveling was the ability to “reinvent myself” at every new destination. I keenly remember trying hard to avoid labels; especially the label of being American. I even went so far, while traveling in the Middle East, as to sew a patch of the Canadian flag on my pack. I discovered a lot about myself that decade. Read more…