Meet Amy and Samir! The funny, soulful and fearless entrepreneurs behind Magicall. They showed us how the strength and power of a family unit knows no limits. And how an evolving pandemic continues to shape our perspective as parents and how we’re models of resilience. From “Five-Star Toothbrushing” to the sanctity of snuggling, we learned so much from their warrior journey and it beautifully reminded us to savor the magic in human relationships.

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On Parenting in a Pandemic

3 things you’ve learned about your children and your family during this pandemic:

• Savor simple joys together. Over the past couple of years we’ve had countless kitchen dance parties, home-cooked Indian dinner nights, ‘80s TV sitcom marathons, hikes in nearby Discovery Park, guitar sing-a-longs in the living room, video game battles, and Saturday morning board game face-offs in jammies. All those seemingly small moments have blurred into one giant memory of togetherness.
• Kids read our emotional cues. If we’re showing anxiety, kids notice and take it on in their own ways. If we reassure them that we’ll get through things, they believe us. What an awesome responsibility.
  • Especially during the early days of the pandemic, staying calm while also being transparent about the cautions we needed to take to stay safe and making space for their big feelings was a constant dance. Maybe it always will be.
• We need our village. Whether it’s your biological family or chosen friend-family, ask for help when you need it, and offer support to others in your trusted circle.
  • When I (Amy) was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer during the pandemic, we moved from Seattle to Minneapolis to live with my parents for six months for my surgery and recovery. Rather than going through it in isolation and fear, we were surrounded by love and support. (I’m doing well now.)

Pandemic learnings – daily habits or routines you’re going to:

• Keep: Meditation and mindfulness for both myself and the kids. Daily shower. (Amy pretends she’s at a spa!) Weekly neighborhood walks with friends. (We need connection.) Weekly Magicall video chats with grandparents. (Magicall is our family’s start-up, a video-calling app for far-away families to stay connected. We’ve found that missing family is a pain point that just never goes away.)
• Miss: Baking with the kids. (Funny how baking treats from a Harry Potter cookbook now feels so indulgent.)
• Let go of: Homeschooling. We partnered with our dear neighbors and had a beautiful, challenging, intimate, rewarding year of learning together. The work it took to piece together curricula, prepare each day, and keep everyone motivated was a lot to handle.
  • Our kids are back at our neighborhood public school this year, and we’re so thankful for those teachers, administrators, and the opportunity for our kids to be back in a bigger social circle. School lunch! Group projects! P.E.! Playground time! It all feels like a big gift.

On Parenting in General

Biggest parenting challenge right now:

• Each of our kids has unique personalities, strengths, and challenges. Learning how to support each child specifically – really listening and seeing each individual child – can be challenging.

5 surprising things about parenting:

• On your children’s learning: Our kids are motivated by vastly different things, even though we think our parenting approach is similar with both of them.
• On school: Our traditional school approach doesn’t seem to bring out the strengths of creative children with learning differences. We wish we could change that.
• On toys: Pillow forts are more magical than video games.
• On food: Making a meal that everyone likes can feel unachievable.
• On childcare: Living near family would be incredible because no one else cares about your kids as much as you do. If that’s not possible, find a babysitter who is nothing short of Mary Poppins.

What’s something that worries you about raising children?

• How social media and the metaverse (!) will impact their friendships, self-perception, and the world.
  • Right now, our kids play Minecraft with friends, but other than that, we’re still in the simple glory days of physical park playdates and LEGO-building. The boundary-setting and conversations around personal devices sounds really overwhelming. We hope they’ll always want to go on hikes with us in an actual forest!

What do you wish you’d more / less of as a parent?

• More: We want to find more meaningful community engagement for our kids. We talk about the importance of caring for others and donate to a homeless food program, but we’d like our kids to have more hands-on, relationship-building experiences with those in need.
• Less: We wish we’d let them do more for themselves. We’re getting better at this one. But, sometimes it’s so much easier to just make the oatmeal yourself instead of watching their sloppy process!

What do you love most about parenting?

• The sacred moment of snuggling with them right before they fall asleep. Their little bodies are so warm, and it’s a time when they share so much: from big, raw, challenging feelings to loving, calming, goofy, and affectionate feelings. It all spills out of them, and we feel honored to be their safe place. We wish that for every child.

On Your Family

• Describe a favorite family tradition: Samir started something called “Five-Star Toothbrushing” when the kids were little and resisted toothbrushing. The gist: he set up a silly challenge to make it a “five-star experience” rather than something they dreaded. After they brushed, he’d say something like, “Tonight’s challenge is to get to the other side of the room while balancing a book on your head!” He’d always participate, which they loved. It took less than a minute and always worked. Best part: they still request it!
• 3 favorite books that your children are reading now:
  • 7-year-old: Wonder, Dogman, Diary of an Ice Princess
  • 10-year-old: Harry Potter, Mysterious Benedict Society, The Name of this Book is Secret

On Work

How has the combination of juggling working-from-home, the pandemic and homeschooling all at the same time changed your outlook on raising children?

• When you’re all home all of the time, you can’t hide joys or frustrations about school, work, or the news cycle since everyone is within an earshot. You can’t compartmentalize life.
  • While that closeness was challenging, sometimes claustrophobic, and something we wouldn’t want to do again, we do think it helped us get to know one another in deeper and more nuanced ways.
• Our kids got to see that we’re human and that we get overwhelmed. But, they also got to see that we have tools that we can access: fresh air walks, breathing exercises, etc. We noticed our kids starting to use some of those tools when they would get frustrated with each other or with school.
  • Showing (vs. telling) can be a powerful approach while raising kids, and being home together presented many opportunities to do so. That said, we’re so grateful to have them back in school, and now know, more than ever, that both we and our kids thrive in community, not isolation.

What was the single most challenging thing for you in managing working-from-home and homeschooling at the same time?

• Early in the pandemic, Samir quit his job to launch Magicall and Amy became the marketing director while homeschooling our kids. The product launch was so fun to work on, but time management was tricky to say the least. Luckily, the business itself is joyful and still going strong. Upside: the kids do Magicalls with family and friends, while we work and gain user research insights from them!

*Plinkit is proud to share these parent profiles as they authentically represent the diverse voices of our Plinkit readership. The views and opinions expressed in these parent profiles are those of the authors and may not necessarily reflect those of Plinkit Pte. Ltd.