Author: Oana

Traditional family roles

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Traditional family roles. Admirable idea in theory. A pain in the buttocks in reality. Before you pick up a stone, let me explain. I come from a family where both my mum and dad worked. My dad drank. My mum had to make decisions, not because she wanted it but because she had to. I was raised with a strong mother character to emulate. This might as well could have been imprinted in my DNA. Monkey does what monkey sees.  I need to make decisions and I need to work in order to feel good about myself. This is how I have been “programmed.” And then I married a man who had been raised with an exactly opposite role model. His dad still believes he has to have the last word in absolutely EVERYTHING. His mum never worked after she got married. She was never empowered into making decisions because this was “a man’s job.” Just like a woman’s job was to feed, entertain, educate, nurse and nurture children. Clean the house. Stay in her …

Back from holidays

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At least, for a while :-). It’s been a great summer and because I have been too busy enjoying myself promises have been broken(what, PostADay?, yeah, I know,I screwed up!) and Alexa numbers have dropped. Oh well, not to worry, I have the whole winter to make it up to myself, to Alexa and to PostADay. What have we been up to in the last three weeks? 1. Had another set of family visiting. Brothers in law, to be more exact. Precise on diets but not very good with keeping the time…yeah, I prefer girls, thanks! 2. Spent time with a friend who goes way back to my student days. Reverted to the careless, silly and giggly girls from back then for a whole of two weeks, can you imagine??? 3. Visited more of Greece and loved every minute of it! Greece is gorgeous and I am glad I married a Greek man so O have a lifetime to discover it! 4. ATE!!A lot of good food. Became almost a connoisseur. Which is good when …

Mama’s Visit

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Okay, I have been lazy and haven’t posted for while but it was all for a good reason. We had mum visiting with us for almost two weeks and our mission has been to make sure mum had the time of her life. We took Mum to visit places of interest to her: a day trip to mount Athos and visits to Thessaloniki’s old catacombs. We encouraged her to try new things: gyros(a much yummier version of kebab!), wonderful home made sweets from as many zaxaroplastias(Greek sweet shops) we could and a swim in the sea had been on our to-do-list! Most importantly, we allowed her to spend time with her granddaughter and re-acquaint with Emma as a little girl full of stories, opinions and love for her Bica. Mum left today and we feel our  mission has been achieved in its most important task: Emma begged her till the last moment to stay with us as there is room for her here! There were tears and sadness but more important, there were memories created …

New discoveries

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I am always on the look out for good websites where I can find inspiration and ideas to be a better mum. Today I run into I Can Teach My Child and I was very pleasantly surprised to find a LOT of resources, printouts and parenting tips. The website is very neatly organised into themes and ages so you can find what you’re looking at a click of a button. I’m so impressed with it that I think I’m gonna make it a tradition to write about excellent parenting websites every time I find one! My challenge to you all(and to myself) will be to do one respective website-inspired activity with Emma or apply one tip to my daily life! Happy Sunday, everyone! P.S.-this is not a sponsored post, by the way!