بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
ok! so, where can I begin. Hello Readers. I decided to have a public diary where I can share in my thoughts and experiences in this new journey of mine which they call parenthood. It is not a brand new journey, but a relatively new one, considering the fact that parenthood takes a very long time. It has been 8 months since I became a mother to my precious boy, AZ (short for his actual real name).
Honestly, I always thought that motherhood was an easy job. That was before I became one. That was before I was pregnant and before I got married. I guess I’ve always loved children. I’ve always baby sat the relatives’ babies/children and my youngest brother. I enjoyed being asked to assist.
Let’s make one point clear: baby sitting is not the same as parenting, regardless of how many babies or kids you took care of and assisted at caring for in one way or another (your younger siblings, younger cousins, nieces, nephews..etc you name it – it is different. You just know, in the back of your head, that at the end of the day, they have a main care taker , the one who is held responsible to take care of everything else.
Your own? is a another different story. You keep and care for 24/7, 365 days a year, days and nights – care in all aspects of life.
Reality hit me when I actually became a mom, when I gave birth to my precious boy. From the challenge of holding him (yes, I’ve never held a 0 day old newborn regardless of how many older babies I carried. Newborns looked very fragile for my comfort to carry until I had to hold my own – I remember I asked the nurse not to leave my side and assist me at it, but what a sweet experience. AZ taught me the beauty of carrying newborns), to the challenge of feeding him to the challenge of helping him nap and stay asleep when he needs to. Goodness! what a challenge that last one was and still is. I remember at some point within the last 8 months, I wished that AZ came with his individual manual, to help the clueless mom (me) to care for him and fulfil his needs, especially when he would just cry non stop, even after I did everything for him.
AZ is still an infant, so you might think that this can be an easier stage of parenthood. Maybe it is. AZ only recently started to crawl and I can already see that the amount of work is increasing. For example, before crawling, you could leave him on the ground on his blanket unsupervised for a while. Now, beside baby proofing the place, I am like an owl watching him sometimes to make sure that he doesn’t get himself bumping into things or finding small objects to swallow since he is also at the stage of putting everything in his mouth.
Anyways, I started to look around online, trying to connect with other mothers. I didn’t find Emirati mothers with blogs, but I did find other wonderful mothers from everywhere.
I have to say that Mama B in Ya Mama’s blog was my biggest motivation to start my own “public” blog.
Side Note: I do have a private diary where I document photos, lots of them, with my thoughts and the happenings, but not a public one, only because I don’t feel comfortable sharing personal photos online. I love photography. It is a hobby of mine. I have my 3 Nikon cameras for the more professional photos. Lately, I’ve been using my iPhone for quicker results in hand, so I guess random photos I take of objects or a little of personal stuff can be shared (example, taking and sharing photos of food, places, objects…etc).
I’ve done quick readings to Mama B’s posts in the last few days when I realized that I could connect to her. It also feels like she is me in the future @ parenting. Her kids are older than mine. Her posts give me inspirations of things I will need to consider while raising AZ; For example: which school to choose since I also live in a diverse city were Emiratis are minority. Check her blog out if you haven’t already. It is a nice one in my opinion
Anyways, I don’t want to keep this post long. Just a quick hello to all.
Emirati Mama 