Family Encourager

A few days ago, I spend a large part of my morning in a well known technology specialist store. I sat patiently observing the activity around me. The service I was there for, was mind numbingly slow and I had nothing else to occupy me, but to people watch. It made me wonder what my life has become with all the technology available to me. How my generation, whose formative years had very little technology available, has evolved. What have we gained or lost with the latest advances? Are we better or worse off when we had none of these gadgets in our life? I remember when spending time with a friend, meant you had to get dressed and use a form of transportation, to meet up. Now, you can have a social interaction in your living room with a virtual visitor, who lives thousands of miles away. When I had my first job, a fax machine was magical in comparison to the telex before it. Now, I can send a multitude of people the same note with a press of a b...

Like all humans existing in the developed world today, I am an avid user of social media. I, of course, being of a certain age, am unable to stay on top of this phenomena that has us in its clutches.  My teenage son is never far from what he calls "checking his social media". Yet again, I recently observed that my octogenarian father is not that far from his social media either. They both use it in different ways, my son to keep up to date possibly with trends and the latest gossip. My father for entertainment and to ward off loneliness. This blog will not be about, the pros and cons of social media and what it brings to our life or not. It is more as a self observation on what does social media make us. Are we more honest or less so knowing that our audience is not in the same room with us? As we go on with our daily life, we cannot help but compare and contrast what   we have, who we are, what our children are achieving, our total existence...

A few months ago, after a few entries to the blog, a friend asked me "what's the point of your blog?" I would like to address that here and possibly tackle the question "what's the point of this modern life?" It's a huge question I am aware and countless answers, views, and approaches to answering it. I will give mine here, its my blog after all! The point of my blog, I would like to think is, as I have written in my profile. To possibly advise, inform, and above all entertain. We, women, lead intricate, adventurous, abundant, bustling, overwhelming lives. We fulfill a mixture of roles that differ in character from mother to sex vixen.  We wake up every morning with our feet barely hitting the ground before accomplishing a load of tasks. So I would like to believe, that we need that five minutes to read a short blog entry, that may or may not emulate our life. It might make us feel less lonely, give us a much needed snicker, or show us a whole ...

As I have mentioned on many occasions I am an expat living abroad. Definition of expatriate (expat for short), "a person who lives outside their native country". I have been doing that for most of my life and now so are my children.  We live in a place that is described as "Disney World for adults" or "Singapore on steroids" or "a place full of contradictions". Its an amazing city, full of new exciting improvements, constant dynamic change, and continuous out of this world ideas that actually get accomplished! The drawback (you may ask)? Its in the desert, we get extended boiling hot summers. It makes us, expats, and the local population run away for the summer school holidays. That is my excuse for not sharing a new blog entry with you for so long! I am hoping you can forgive my absence! Having lived in my little Disney inspired fast paced city for over 20 years, I wanted to share the expat experience with all of you. How my c...

I entered into a competition I did not know existed. I became a mom and I became a stay at home mom (I really don't know what that means, I am rarely at home, I run in and out all day).  Anyway, back to the topic at hand, that competition I mentioned, I was not aware there was a competition between moms that stay home to raise their children and moms that raise their children while holding down a career. I discovered early on that mommy wars are very real and can get nasty. All moms are working moms aren't they? I have not met many moms that raise a family without putting in the hours. There is always a perception that a mom with a career is not available, not attentive, not involved, or not hands on. That is not true, I have come across career moms who make it to the school concert, are always there for their kids, who know what is going on at school, who remember celebrations, and school work, and make sure that everyday they participate in their children's life....

I normally do not quote the bible, but I found this as fitting my topic today. "Judge not, lest ye be judged". I do not know about all mothers, but I do know myself and those mothers in my life, and I know that from day one of finding out we are with child, guilt finds a home in our psyche. We feel guilty about what we are eating, drinking, what activity we are pursuing, amount of sleep, even down to the quality of the air we are breathing. It is a time when soon to be moms need all the support they can garner. They are entering the land of the unknown. A place of wonder, joy, fear, anxiety, endless love, terror, amazement. They are going to feel clumsy, unfit, unqualified, hopeless, and total failures on varied occasions in the first few months of motherhood. Do these poor lost souls need further criticism and judgment from experienced moms? The answer is an unequivocal "No",  yet that is what too often happens. This judgment continues forevermore.  ...

By popular demand, I have been asked to tackle the issue of marital "communication"(or lack of), depending who you talk to. For all you newly weds, or in the first throes of a relationship, stop reading now! For all you old marrieds, most of you will know what I am talking about, and you are probably wincing now. Thinking; is she crazy? I have been married long enough to know that men and women speak a different language, but not long enough to understand all the male dialect. Will that ever happen, you ask? Maybe, maybe not. Having lived a life full of movement and change, I have met a multitude of fascinating ladies, of different ages and cultures. It has been eye opening and adventurous, learning how they met their significant other, how their life had developed through the years, and the beauty and the annoyances of a partnered life. Yes, male species of the human kind, women share their stories, that is why we live longer! We all came down this path in...