Welcome to the August 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Sibling Revelry

This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have written about siblings — their own, their hopes for their kids, and more. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

***

A few months ago I read this great article, Why I’m choosing to write a book instead of having a second child. I really related to the writer, who talks about her crossroads between having a second child and pursuing other opportunities… She speaks to many emotions I also struggle with, including the conflict between my deep love and dedication to my daughter and the limitations on my time to pursue some of my deepest passions.

Like the author, I also agree that:

All of this is not to say that women can’t have multiple children and successful careers… But when I take a hard look at my life I have to admit that I have a finite amount of time and energy and everything is a tradeoff.

Some women are amazing at balancing their home-work lives, but I’m not so much… I still do have dreams I would like to pursue as my daughter gets older. If I had more children, I know that I would want to be there for them the way I am for my daughter now and that would mean sacrificing my other dreams.

I consider myself an aspiring activist and strive hard to doing things to help other people and the planet. As a mom, I feel this renewed sense of urgency towards those goals. The responsibility I feel towards my daughter and the other children of the world is stronger than my desire to bring more children into this world.

"Reflecting on the social pressure on mothers to restrict themselves to only raising children, my mother always said that a mother also owed it to her children to go out to make sure that the world was good enough for them."

So for now future as a mother is to focus on my daughter and making sure that I do my best give her a better world then the one she was born into.

So I wrote this little piece for the July Carnival of Natural Parenting, but slipped up because it was supposed to be posted before 9 a.m. today. I thought I’d post it anyways, since I spent the time writing it. You should really check out there website if you are interested in reading other articles from natural parenting families or are interested in participating yourself.

Every Sunday, our family ventures down to Balboa Park; a big tourist spot but also many locals favorite park for jogging and hanging out on the weekends.

In a little spot called the International House Cottages, you can find a community of little houses surrounding an open lawn area. Each little house represent a country. Inside there are pictures, maps, and mementos of each country, its people, and cultural history. It’s like travelling the world without ever leaving the neighborhood. On Sundays the lawn program is hosted by a different house throughout the year. The houses are run by volunteers who have a passion for sharing the beauty of their culture with others. We love spending Sunday mornings tasting different foods and hear music we’ve never heard before. 

Introducing our daughter to diversity from a young age is so important to us because we want it to be something she is comfortable with. We want her to enjoy spending time with people of different cultures, religions, and lifestyles and not something rare and “different”. As she grows up, we hope to teach her how important it is to be accepting of everyone, but the greatest lesson with be her experience.

As ideal as it would be to travel the world, we don’t all have that chance. Nor do we need it in order to celebrate other cultures and to learn about and appreciate their traditions.