Parenting like the Parisians - a contributor post

I've written about French parents before. So it's not too much of a secret when I tell you that I am a Cuban American parent who j'adores French parenting (whew)! That's a whole lot of culture in that one sentence. Maybe that's because in the world of parenting, my style seems to fit in with that of Parisian parents.

 

Let me explain...

 

My ideas of being a mom, when I had my first bébé, didn't seem to fit what I had always seen. It didn’t seem very American. Much of what I knew about parenting in the states included sacrifice and identity loss. Many conversations I heard revolved around how much of yourself you had to give up, when you have kids, in order to be a good parent. I spent all of my 20's being focused on me. When I got pregnant, I believed this changed.  To completely focus on another would happen naturally when I gave birth. Like I would deliver a baby, a placenta, and a complete selfless attitude in one push. That didn't happen. Rats. By these standards, I was not a good parent.

 

Tips for parenting two children under two!

In the last few weeks of my second pregnancy, I remember thinking one constant thought. When this kid comes out, I'm going to have two kids under the age of two running around on this earth. And the idea of that immediately wall-slammed me to this thought: I wonder if there's a way to keep this second one in my belly a bit longer, at least until he's on solids.   Unfortunately, our ObGyn said this was not "advisable."   So, when he came out a week shy of forty, husband and I hit the ground running with our pre-planned ideas of how to parent two children under two while trying not to go Cuckoo Clock bonkers in the process.

Pumpkin apple pecan waffles!

 

Living in the Dominican Republic has many summertime perks. We don't do summertime sadness here because, well, it's always summer. You can go to the beach in the middle of January and not freeze your patoots off. It's a nice change for this January baby to be able to plan a birthday that will not be cancelled due to the looming and fast approaching winter snowstorm of the century. Buuuuut, with an eternal summer comes an extinct autumn. I've got that autumn-time sadness. So because the Dominican Republic won't give me fall, I've got to go get her. This past weekend, for our family breakfasts, I decided to make pumpkin apple pecan waffles. We purchased a waffle maker from another abroad teacher moving to Bangladesh, so I was super thrilled to use our new to us waffle maker for my fall recipe.