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 …
“Leila, my eyes are sick”, Cesar, my 4 year old son, tells me. My first instinct is to go into full-blown paranoia – there’s something wrong with him!! I stop for a moment and take a breather. I’ve been down this path before, going into fear only veils me from what is really here. Almost …
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 …
This post is a continuation to the post ‘Zombie-Mode| How we Choose to be Incapacitated’ wherein I opened up my ‘Zombie-Mode’ experience that I would find myself stuck in from time to time. It’s an experience of feeling tired, lethargic, wanting to ‘save your batteries’, feeling listless, bored, uninterested, wanting to do nothing. Interestingly, it’s …
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 …
At times parenthood means sleepless nights, irregular sleep patterns, and being pushed to the brink of exhaustion. You’ll feel tired cause you are tired and really need to take it easy. But there are other times when we feel tired, feel like we have no energy and feel like we just want to slouch around… …
Living in a community comes with a set of challenges. One of those challenges is the use of space. Lj, Syntia and I share a house with (currently) 4 other people. The kitchen, lounge, bathroom, laundry room, porch and garden are all communal areas. To ourselves we have a 40 square meter room that we …
That moment you realize that you should probably start keeping your make up on a higher shelf level #candidmoment #makeup #toddler #preschooler #kidsofinstagram #instakids #lipstick #pink #motherhood #nothingssafe #artistic #beyondgender #parenting #consciousparenting #awareparenting #fun #children #childhood #boundtohappen That moment you realize you should have moved the make up then and there… #postponement #procrastination #makeup …
When we come into this world, we assume all is as it should be. We have absolute trust in our parents and our environment. We enter this world, into the current that is our life. As the water flows, we are carried through different sceneries, different environments and different motions as experiences. Along the way, …
![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-dfw5-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/135216034_868657797266702_107582540258970761_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=c4dd86&_nc_ohc=Z1V8WJUUqosAX-4LmjA&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=00_AfCJjAXVxtNiIi6gvUUl0MZd6cdkXtaHW6r2JeZgYPVE-A&oe=64DB2E92)
