A couple links that are worth checking out:
I think this should be YM’s new theme song. 😉
Also, in case you didn’t catch the link posted on YM’s Facebook*, there is an offer for a free sample of Huggies diapers here (Canada & US only, unfortunately).
Yes, YM has a Facebook – add us!
YoungMommies HelpSite’s Profile | Create Your Badge
Until next time,
~Kris~
(always a young mommy at heart)
So on the YMBoards we’ve been chatting about the weather and about whether or not kids go outside to play at recess. I just had to laugh at some of the replies that seem totally foreign to me… 0 degrees is a mild winter’s day from my point of view!!
Here’s a look at what constitutes a “cold morning” here in Ottawa, Canada’s capital. 😉
My youngest, Avery (4) bundles up. Lucky for us he’s co-operating this morning and we don’t have to shove him in his clothes, kicking and screaming.
Trundling to the door – he goes to Junior Kindergarten, hence the backpack.
He got so warm, he actually asked to go outside while Daddy was putting on his layers – sorry, I didn’t get a good shot because of all the ice on the screen door. 😛
And here’s the official temp, minus 29 degrees (celcius) without the windchill!!!
Brrrrrrr!
Out of my 5 pregnancies, only the last one was really “planned” (and it was so difficult to get and stay pregnant that the experience was all-consuming for over a year!) . The two before that were kind of “let’s see what happens” and the 2nd one was an “I would like a baby at some point so I’m choosing not to use birth control” and the 1st one was a birth control failure.
Do I love my kids any differently? No, I love them both. Actually I feel I even have a bit of a stronger bond with my daughter (my first) because I was a single mom with her for 2 years and we were all each other had for that first little while. We went through a lot together and we’ve come a long way.
Expressing this to my daughter, now entering her preteen years, is a different matter though!
She has started pulling the “You didn’t even want me, I was an accident” card and as much as I try to reassure her that I am glad I had her, I don’t want to lie.
It’s true, I did take pills specifically for the sole purpose of preventing her existence! I can’t deny that. I can’t pretend that at 17 years old, I said to myself “Hey, a baby would be great right now!” But that doesn’t mean I love her any less now that she’s here! In fact, I’ve really empathized to her that she must have been “meant to be”.
My daughter has changed my life in so many ways, and mostly for the better. I still went to university, even if it was a year late. I still started off a good career. I still found a spouse I fell in love with and wanted to spend the rest of my life with and who accepted her as a child of his own with no biological ties.
And I’ve tried expressing to her that without being made a mommy at 18, I would have never created YoungMommies.com and helped any of those women who have come to the site and groups for support. Her reply was “well, someone else would have made it” and I’m sure that’s true, but it wouldn’t be the same.
Once I decided for sure that I did NOT want to have an abortion, I made a full commitment to be the best parent I could be. And I’ve loved her like crazy even before she was born.
And I hope that even though right now she feels less wanted because of how she came to be, that she understands someday how much she was needed and how much she was loved.
So with the crazy pace that things are changing, with all our social media tools out there, will networking between moms become easier? Will we be able to connect with other women like us and will we be able to take it beyond just supporting each other in an emotional sense?
I’m on the lookout for women’s businesses to support, like buying Christmas gifts from home-based businesses instead of at the “big box stores”. Maybe I should start looking at Etsy, there seems to be a lot out there. I received my order today from Mabel’s Labels and am super pleased. Maybe YM can do a fundraiser with them next year?
Another topic for discussion – what about websites for women run by men? I have big issues with this. I saw a local website recently and out of curiosity checked out their forums but when I saw the Admin posting (with a pic of *himself*), I was totally turned off immediately. I have similar concerns about sites like iVillage and the brand new Momversations.com – who’s behind the wheel? Who is truly benefiting from this?
I guess I’m more of a grass-roots girl myself, but I fear that the social media & networking advantages we have today may just get turned into yet another money-maker for “the man” and will use women’s needs and internet usage for their own benefit – much like advertising brands prey on women’s insecurities.
How can we use the internet to make sure all of women’s energy (as we blog and post and network and support each other) comes back to help ourselves in the long run??
