When years ago, I was asked to write an article about motherhood, I started by describing how much mothers are venerated in this world. What came to mind were Madonna paintings, statues of Mother Mary, all the symbols in art and culture where mothers are depicted in an aura of holiness and reverence. The person …
How often do we use manipulation tactics to get our children to behave in a way that we think is best? Even when we have on a conscious level let go of the practice of punishing and rewarding, we’ll at times notice ourselves trying to assert ourselves as authority, or inadvertently deny them the opportunity …
This post is a continuation to the post ‘The thought of Losing My Child’ and ‘Fear of Losing my Child – Self-Forgiveness (Part 1)‘. After sharing my experience during the time Syntia had tickbite fever, I received awesome support from several moms, including Leila’s post ‘The death of my child, the death of me’. After …
This post is a continuation to the post ‘The thought of Losing My Child’. After sharing my experience during the time Syntia had tick-bite fever, I received awesome support from several moms, including Leila’s post ‘The Death of a Child, the Death of Me’. After taking everything in and introspecting on my experiences more, I …
To date, the most challenging experience I’ve come across is seeing my daughter being ill and facing the thought of losing her. In this podcast I share what happened to Syntia in recent weeks and how I in turn reacted to what was unfolding. To be honest, this is not an experience I know how …
In this video Leila shares her experience with Postpartum Depression and how she has come to look at it as being an Existential Crisis that envelops one’s whole life and the definitions we’ve ascribed to ourselves. Rather than being a short-term ‘localized’ experience, the Raw Truth of ourselves steps forth and we have the opportunity …
In this video Leila discusses some of the aspects that may be involved in the experience of feeling like your child is abusing you. Remaining conscious of the variables that define the balance in our parent-child relationship will assist in tweaking our own approach and behaviour. Whenever a conflict or friction arises, we have an …
In this video Leila shares her experience in comparing herself to other mothers and getting stuck in bouncing up and down in lifting herself up and breaking down. She explores why jealousy and competition thrive when we are actually inherently insecure about ourselves and the responsibility we carry. What have your experiences been with dynamics …
Every parent knows that there are different types of crying and we make it our mission to become familiar with these differences so we can tend to our child’s needs as best as possible. But something that is not often talked about is how we react in different ways internally and emotionally to these different …
![Cesar gave Syntia his train tracks about a year ago, and before they were hers, she would play with them together with Cesar. She's had a ton of time to learn the different pieces, how to put them together and build a track, but for some reason, she DID NOT want to build a track by herself and most of all preferred to just watch as someone else built the track for her.
Lj and I knew she was perfectly capable of building a track for herself and we tried to support her to start small and show herself that she can do it. Or that we'd be here if she gets stuck, but she can at least try on her own. Any such attempts, however, were met with an absolute and firm refusal. So, we did it with her, or for her.
We started wondering, is this little girl really just taking advantage of us at this point? Are we entertaining this too much? Should we push harder? We knew she could do it, she knew she could do it, but for some reason she just didn't want to do it, at least, not yet.
And then one day, out of the blue, she takes out her blocks and starts building a track... by herself. Lj quietly waived me over, pointing at her, then signing 'shhht', lol - didn't want to disturb the moment. The track you see in the pic is the first one she built by herself. It wasn't a "beginner's" track like a simple circle or a straight line, it was a more intricate design laid out exactly and precisely how she wanted it to be, including all the elements she wanted to have as a part of it. Kabam, out of the blue.
There are other things where Syntia 'took her sweet time', like learning how to walk and potty training, where it was clear at some point that she was able to do it, but for some reason, pulled back or didn't want to do it all by herself just yet. It's so easy as parents to freak out over that, to think that children should develop skills in a particular way, like 'starting small' or doing something by yourself as soon as you're able to. But not all kids are the same in this. [Continued in comments..]](https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/135216034_868657797266702_107582540258970761_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8ae9d6&_nc_ohc=YW0BFh5jCagAX8o4-_O&_nc_ht=scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=00_AfAu5PXgozAsoNXkk2oVpvh6PLzszyXUuzDSKFLhABau9A&oe=647E3CD2)
