Sunday, February 24, 2008

Mom's Breastaurant

Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Fair in Fort Collins, CO, featured this wonderful and practical respite for nursing mothers. How nurturing for both mother and child to have a place where nursing is unhurried and comfortable. It's time this concept spread to more public places, so that breasteeding is the easy and obvious choice for moms and their young.
Please visit www.momsbreastaurant.com for more info.

Ingrid Johnson
www.BabyShaman.com
303.776.8100

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Trusting Yourself As A Parent

There are many influences, ranging from the media to our own relatives, that can steer us away from our own wisdom and knowing when it comes to parenting. At times, it seems the media is bent on portraying "super moms" and "super dads", who somehow emerge from full days of work and still have the perfect meal ready, the 'quality' time to spend with their young children, and of course appear flawlessly groomed and attractive themselves. Any parent who is successful over time knows they have chosen to let go of things they thought were indispensable in order to get it all done.

The tricky part is making the choices on what is truly important to you, what is moderately important, what is marginal, and what you are already willing to cut loose. It varies for each of us, so if your friend with a toddler is refreshed and uplifted by going and having a manicure, you may choose something entirely different. It might be a yoga class, a regular meeting a friend for coffee - what matters is that it works for you. What matters is that you take the time to identify which small things can be added in, changed (sharing a chore with a partner?), deleted entirely - and you may want to revise the list frequently.

Your intuition and inner guidance are valuable and the more you apply them, the more effective you will be. There is not necessarily a lot of external support for doing this, and for that reason, the services I offer can be most helpful in keeping you on track. Consistent support for tapping in to your wisdom - a path for parenting that reflects who you are and what you want for your child.

Ingrid Johnson
303.776.8100

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Appreciation

At any age, we all respond positively to appreciation. Listening to an adult describe the rewards of acknoweldging individuals in the workplace, I immediately think back to my experience this week with a delightful 23-month old boy.

My young friend had a somewhat bumpy transition to being a big brother 2 months ago. Still in the baby/toddler stage himself, he had no way of understanding how a baby sister would impact his life.

As I held his baby sister and quieted her (first time Mom and Dad have left her with other than a family member), her big brother repeatedly wound up her musical mobile, brought over baby books, and waited patiently for me to be available.

When we were getting ready to write about today's events in his journal (I'll write more about that later), I looked at him and said, "I'm so proud of you. You did a great job as a big brother," he absolutely beamed. He was so obviously happy to be appreciated, and of course his behaviors are reinforced and will be seen again.

Don't forget to take the time, whatever the age of anyone you interact with today, to acknowledge and appreciate them, right where they are now, just as they are now. It's a powerful gift for us all to give each other.