Meet Amy! Selfless in her love for her children and unapologetic for how grateful and overjoyed she is to be called “Mom” – and we love that. We admire her dedication to family and togetherness (Family Party Night with rotating party planners – genius!) and her eager growth mindset. And oh how she celebrates and revels in her children’s childhood – a lovely reminder of how play is the work of childhood (and parenting).

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On Parenting

What do you love most about parenting?

• So much. The constant learning. The constant struggle. Parenting is the most challenging, yet most rewarding, experience I’ve ever had in my life. My kids make me stop and think. My youngest literally makes me stop to smell roses. I see the world so differently. I focus, I savor, I indulge in all things in nature simply because of my two daughters. Before them, I would just walk by.

Biggest parenting challenge right now:

• Homeschooling during this pandemic. We are usually a low technology family and the need for my kids to be connected online for school has been a major shift for us. The impact is especially pronounced for my 6-year old, where the screen time is clearly overstimulating. We have had to take extra steps to slow down and get outside in nature multiple times a day.

What’s something that worries you about raising children these days?

• The world seems to be less and less empathetic each day and at times, it feels like people are growing further entrenched in their views. I hope my children will find a world that has reprioritized the value of an open mind. One of the most important skills I think I can teach them now is how to be empathetic.

5 surprising things about parenting:

• On your children’s learning: They have a level of creativity that I could only dream to have again.
• On school: There is no single ‘best’ school – only a school that creates the best environment for your child. Kids learn in different ways, and good schools recognize that.
• On toys: Less is so much more. The less you have, the more their creativity runs wild.
• On food: My philosophy with food is to never make ‘kid’ food. This has made my life so much easier. I have food allergies and already have to make separate meals to adjust for my allergies. If I had to make separate food tailored to a ‘kid’ palate, I would have no free time and always be in the kitchen. They eat what we eat. This also makes traveling internationally with kids a piece of cake.

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

• More: I wish I would slow down more, get on my children’s level, and explore and wonder the way they do.
• Less: Overprotecting my kids. I am a natural worrier. I wish I could let go of some of my worries and give them the freedom they need to learn from their own experiences and failures. I find myself saying “Be careful” much more than I should.

On Your Family

Describe a favorite family tradition.

• Every Thursday night we have a Family Party night. We alternate party planners. Each person chooses their theme, decor, dinner menu and dress code. We’ve had everything from a family movie night where kids created a movie theater environment, printed tickets to be scanned, created a concession stand menu, designed seating and chose the movie, to an indoor camping experience with scary story-telling sessions. We also had a Mexican fiesta to celebrate my family’s heritage. The girls made Mexican food, agua frescas, dressed in Ballet Folklorico dresses and played the Coco soundtrack as our dinner music.
• We also really, really enjoy cooking together as a family. It’s very typical for all of us to be in the kitchen at the same time during meal prep, with all hands in. We also have a Children Cook for Parents night once a week. The kids choose the ingredients, create the menu, do all the cooking and set the table. It’s been really fun to see what food combinations they come up with. They are always so thoughtful and never forget about food allergies in the process. It has been a real blessing watching their independence blossom during this time at home and seeing them take responsibility for routine chores.
• Cooking has also been excellent for our children’s sensory processing. Our youngest is very tactile and learns by having her hands in things, feeling different textures and using all her senses. We find cooking has been great for calming her and helping her to self-regulate when she is off.

What is your children’s favorite toys these days?

• My kids are in mega creation mode right now – they’re creating all sorts of things with whatever we have at home.
  • My youngest daughter found an old cardboard box, some string, a few LEGOs and some paper and made a puppet theatre to present a puppet show at one of our family parties.
    • She created an opening in the box, poked holes at the top, drew out some characters and cut them out.
    • Then, she strung the characters through the holes at the top of the box and tied the strings to long LEGO pieces to use as a controller for her puppets.
  • My older daughter is into creating stories and making books out of them. She creates these stories out of nothing and continues on them for days and days. I love seeing where they go.

What was one of your favorite toys as a child?

• It feels silly saying this now as a grown-up, but I LOVED my Cabbage Patch Kid doll. I can still remember it so clearly. That feeling of pure joy when I played with it; it was like being a mother for the first time. The birth certificate made it so real!

What are your children’s 3 favorite books?

• Both of my girls love The Magic Treehouse series, The Boxcar Children and Sophie Mouse books.

*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.