Interpretations of a Bilingual Life

Each day that passes adds to what motherhood has come to mean to me. If you are a mother, you probably have an idea what I mean. There are small moments and larger ones that mark how I have and continue to evolve as mami. When I gave birth 16 + months ago I thought, “Wow, I am a mom.” Although that is true, little did I know that, for me, becoming mami would evolve over the course of probably a life time. I have learned that my role as Sabrina’s mother will continue to change, sure some parts of my identity as a mother will remain the same, but in the end she will need be to be different for each phase of her life.

What I love about motherhood is that there is an instant community of women who are there to offer advice, to help you co-mother, and to guide you along the way. Oddly enough, I have also learned that this instant community can also be…hmm…somewhat of a nuisance. Being a mother can make you hold firm that the way YOU are raising your baby must be a really good way, some would say the best way to raise children. That being said, what motherhood has come to mean to me, as I have been guilty in viewing my own child rearing practice as a really good idea, is that we all do what is best for OUR children.

In addition, there are certain behaviors that my daughter displays that I may tolerate, but had she been someone else’s daughter, they may not have been tolerated the same way. In other words, I think this idea of tolerating certain behaviors and not others, plays into how parents decide to raise their children. I’ll end this post with, we all have, more or less, different child rearing practices, different ways of being mami. There isn’t a better way, there are only different ways of being mami.