As the debate on same sex marriages rages in the Indian courts, it’s not just the nation but the world that watches with baited breath, on what the outcome and the aftereffects are going to be. But more than this, what is really evident is that the world is a truly diverse place, and every individual has a right to live a life of dignity and safety, experience love, and joy. What role then can we as parents play in ensuring that our children who will come in to this world a decade or two down the line, don’t have to fight for basic rights but will thrive where there is mutual respect and love?! This thought plays in my mind every time I watch or read the news these days. Moving into a role at work that focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion has only made this a more pressing need for our family – how can we raise our child to be more inclusive?
Continue readingTag: support groups
Hurray HallMark you succeeded in winning one more customer. Since a baby has arrived in our lives, we now celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Which is very welcome of course. I am not even getting into the debate of why just one day to celebrate moms or dads here. But let’s just go with it and get daddy a gift this Sunday. If you are like me and don’t even know what day of the week it is. Or worse that we are already in the month of June. Wait, you did realize we are in 2017 right? Oh gosh! Not to fret. Here are the best last minute Father’s Day gift ideas. Continue reading
Love is a medicine for the sickness of the world; a prescription often given, but very rarely taken.
Cancer. A word that can strike terror in anyone’s heart. We may have never have experienced this disease in our immediate circles but it can still be a very scary & traumatic experience to even imagine. What is more unbearable is to realize that it is innocent children who suffer from Cancer. It really pushes you to question why and what that little child did to deserve a suffering like this?
And when cancer strikes, it doesn’t affect just an individual but the entire family. When a child is the one who has to cope with the disease, it seems so unfair and one cannot even begin to imagine what the parents, especially the mother, are going through. Add to that the burden of poverty which makes the situation even more unbearable.
What the children need besides timely and effective medical intervention is also nutrition. This is to help build their body’s ability to withstand the harsh treatment and build a fighting mechanism. With this view in mind JAMMS – Journey about Mast Moms has decided to associate itself with Accesslife (www.accesslife.org) to ensure that these children get their fighting chance and the necessary food nutrition through the initiative 1100 Meal Mate. JAMM’s network has now been in existence for 1100 days and this initiative is a marker in its history of giving back to society. After all, mothers know about giving of oneself and bringing joy to others.
On completion of this big milestone of 1100 days of existence, JAMMS – Mumbai and Navi Mumbai based Moms support and networking group is aiming to provide 1100 nutritious meals for children suffering from Cancer via Accesslife – a Mumbai based NGO providing stay and support to families with cancer stricken kids.
For these tiny soldiers, healthy and hygienic food plays a very important role to boost their immunity. By being their #MealMate you can be the donor of a meal (Rs. 999 onwards) I have donated to this cause, won’t you?
To donate and be a part of the initiative –
PayTM on 8080222377 or click on the link below for contributions
This is a crowd funding social campaign initiated by #JAMMSNetwork and is on till May 25th.
About JAMMS
JAMM’s network – *Journey About Mast Moms*, is initiated by Ritu (Chief Connecting Officer). It is a multi-award winning Mumbai based Moms support group for networking. It started in April 2014 and has been steadily expanding and evolving since then…
Over 20,000 Moms from various areas connect and communicate online via what’s app & a secret Facebook group + meet offline every month via their complimentary workshops, seminars and events which aid informed/conscious parenting decisions!
Over 365 underprivileged kids received haircuts during JAMMs network first anniversary event – Happy New Hair. 550 needy visually impaired people received white canes & dark glasses during their ‘i-light’ social initiative. The ‘Mast Santa’ social campaign done in Dec 2015 donated unused handbags with goodies to homeless women. ‘Step-Up’ was their April 2016 social initiative where 730 underprivileged children received footwear and over 910 sarees were collected & donated to less fortunate women during their Nov 2016 social drive.
jammsnetwork@gmail.com +91 9930203454
About Accesslife
Access Life Assistance Foundation provides a loving home for the parent or care taker and the child under treatment. Our mission is to offer a home-like environment for these families. We also try to improve the quality of life of these children by providing practical support services. These include educational resources and recreational programs.
We understand the financial pressure children cancer puts on some families. We provide them dignified accommodation at no cost while their child receives the treatment. In a country where care for the needy has long been accepted as dismal, Access Life is working to not only fill in a large unmet need but also to fundamentally change this mind-set. www.accesslife.org
As is the case with every day of the #AtoZBloggingChallenge, I rack my brains all day, start panicking by evening and then suddenly a light bulb comes on somewhere in my brain and I find a topic for the day’s alphabet. But today was a moment I have been waiting to write about even before I started the #AtoZ Challenge and in fact the whole purpose behind my blog I think. Today’s topic was also fueled by this little boy, the reason for everything else right now. <3
Wooden blocks FTW
After losing a small piece of my mind, over why #babyT was not yet stacking stuff (Yes, when you are a mom, such stuff is what nightmares are made of. I exaggerate of course.) I decided to take the plunge and buy him the very expensive Wooden Blocks by Melissa & Doug. We do have several types of blocks already, stacking rings, shape sorters, but i wasn’t seeing him enjoy them nor was he sharpening his fine motor skills. So the wooden blocks happened. And what do we have? I opened the packaging and placed the blocks in front of him and he stacked them. The boy stacked them. 5 in a line. He did!! I went into “hence proved” mode and for the n’th time accepted that natural parenting was the right way to bring up our child. Continue reading
Cloth diapers got me totally cray cray y’all. And I mean they’ve captured my very soul and essence. So obviously the letter C was bound to be my favourite one in the #AtoZChallenge
I’ve written many posts about Cloth Diapering, but still its never enough. And i think you will agree when I say that you have never met (ok maybe barring 1 – 2 people) anyone who cloth diapers and is NOT obsessed with them. I am the biggest example of that and everything mentioned here in this post is about me. 🙂 Quite shamelessly too!
But why are most new moms obsessed with cloth diapers?
Here’s my feeble attempt to justify all my CD obsessions by giving seemingly valid and scientific reasons for the insanity.
My precious laundry pile
This Women’s Day can we judge a little less and accept a little more?
After spending close to a decade in corporate HR, and being forced to organize employee engagement activities, most festivals and “days” have become another tick mark on the to-do list for me. I still have very fresh memories of my last organization where Women’s Day would mean we would plan elaborate surprises for all our women team members and even get each one a gift. Exhausting really, but satisfying and fun.
Over the years and bring on one year of mommyhood, I have come to realize that women are indeed such complex creatures. And truly it is the women who can make or mar another woman. I really did not want to make a post on Women’s day with a negative sense to it, but I have just come off a Facebook support group for mothers, where a poor new mommy has poured out her soul about how everyone right from her best friend, to her MIL (sigh), to her maid question and ridicule her choices. No it doesn’t end there, I even saw some respondents on the group tell her to ‘man up’ and ‘bear it.’
This got me thinking as to why is it that women are their own worst enemies? Why do women constantly pull each other down? Why do women fall into the trap of transferring their own life’s miseries onto the younger lot? Why don’t women just accept and not judge size/ shape/ colour/ length/ breadth/ personalities/ upbringing? I have NEVER seen a man do all this to other men. Some men do make women’s lives miserable, but no, they will never do that to their own tribe folk – other men. Nope. Then why do women?
I have been guilty of it too.. Oh no, I have not come here at 100 am to say I am perfect. Far from it. I enjoy a good gossip session with my girlies as much as that couch on Koffee with Karan. I have vivid memories of college life, where my gang of girls and I would judge almost every girl for what she wore and how she behaved. I am appalled now, really head in hands kind of appalled.
So why do women do it? Is it pure biology – you know the mating game and survival of the fittest, evolution and all that? Possibly. Somethings are genetically hardwired and there’s little you can do to change that. Heck, research shows that women become fiercely competitive and vengeful when they are ovulating. (It is always the periods fault isn’t it?) But ideally, evolved brains, the power of knowledge and social maturity should weigh over whatever pull comes from the genes, no?
A large part is also to do with centuries of living under patriarchal terms… if a woman’s worth comes from her man be it father/ husband or son (picturing a MIL making sure her new DIL is serving her husband well) then for sure women will see each other as competition and try their best to bring that threat down. Women are forever trying to fit into norms about looks and conduct, which have been culturally and socially ingrained in us. We don’t really stop to think and ask why should I be that way? But we just continue to blindly follow some invisible code and when we do that it stresses us, puts pressure on us. And when that happens we look for the nearest weakling to transfer our stressors on to. Read: The MIL who was tortured by her own MIL, now makes sure the newly wed daughter in law is having a hard time too. It is so easy to rip apart another woman’s soul than to look within and see her for what she is or hell, just let her be and do her own thing.
And then there is the woman who is smarter, brighter, more beautiful and more everything nice. Yes more than you. And what do you do? Judge her. Judge her looks – “oh layers and layers of makeup. Or hey even a nose job maybe?”, Judge her brains – “She is just a pretty face”, judge her success – “Oh we all know how she got there.” Yes, we especially love to pull such women down. What ensues is a full on catfight or a totally destroyed woman on the other end? I personally have been at the receiving end of that. Its horrible ladies, its black and its scary what this judgement does to the judged. Just stop.
This is why I am in awe of those women who facilitated and did wonderful things for other women – Women centric organizations, online support groups, non-profit networks, coaches, teachers, family and friends. If you have been at the receiving end of a happy, generous and encouraging woman (don’t count your mom. She’ll do it selflessly. 🙂 ) count your blessings. Firstly, it is rare and secondly, maybe it bodes well for a brighter future.
So this Women’s Day, this exHR specialist isn’t giving you some ol’ fun and games, but wishing ardently that we love more, accept more, understand more and give a better experience to fellow women than we ourselves may have encountered. Because great things happen when we women stand up for each other. And the world better watch out!
Follow me on Social Media
Indiblogger
