“My Mommy cried last night,” I heard a five-year-old in my class confess to her friend as they ate their snack at their little kindergarten size table. “Why?” Her friend inquired with concern and shock. By this time, I was…
The Gift of Experience, It’s Like a Vacation
Until this past summer, our family’s home base has always been France. Spending all those years travelling in Europe has left its mark on our kids. Their favourite food of all time is gnocchi. It’s not French, but it was…
(Embarrassing) Gender Roles
I consider myself a feminist if I were to put a label on things. But it’s seems a bit ridiculous that there even has to be a word for it. Of course women are equal. Obviously we can do whatever…
Love yourself.
Preface I’ve come to learn that people can take on different personalities when they are operating in another language. This is true for many bilingual people I’ve met, and very true for myself. I’ve spent the last eight years either…
A Trip to the Congolese Hair Salon
In order to get your hair done in the 3rd world, you basically need to be at peace with the fact that things may go terribly wrong. You need to go into the situation acknowledging that it’s ‘just’ your hair,…
Body Image From an African Point of View
“It’s too much!” That was our cleaner. She walked in the door and saw me on the spin bike. Again. It was my fall routine since the moment my bike arrived from Indonesia: Netflix in the living room, with me…
Loving the Skin You’re In
Our family had just relocated to Indonesia, and we were on our first vacation in our new country. We were spending two glorious weeks on the island of Bali with our daughters, who are 2 and 4 years old. Unfortunately, they…
How I Got Skinny at Four Seasons Bali
We were nearly two weeks into our Balinese vacation and that meant almost 2 weeks of restaurant eating, happy hours, and bikini wearing. I felt like my holiday over-indulging was starting to catch up with me, and putting my bathing…
Picasso in the Making-4 Cats Art Studio Montgomery
My oldest daughter loves crafts, painting and being creative. She’s almost 4 and if you say the word paint, she’s smiling ear to ear. Our family was going on week 3 of 4 of our visit home in Canada and…
Raising Kids in Europe: It Really Does Take a Village
Raising my kids in France means that I’m not exposed to many parenting styles from back home. I know what my extended family does with their kids, and I remember what it was like when I was growing up; but…