Family Life

I am a Canadian Mom #TGCBB

The Great Canadian Blog Bash

Happy Canada Day! I’m very excited to be linking up my very first blog post with this year’s Great Canadian Blog Bash!

What a great day to launch a new Canadian blog!

My maternity leave ends this month, and I will officially be a stay at home mom. In some ways this was an easy decision. I love my daughters with all my heart, and I want to spend time with them, teach and guide them, and watch them discover the world. But it’s also a hard thing to let go of my career and professional identity for the next little while at least. I know I can’t just be my kids’ mom. I was a lot of things before becoming a mother – a daughter, a sister, a wife, a friend, a social worker, an avid reader, a traveller, a gamer – and that’s why I decided to start this blog. I’ll be writing and sharing about the things I’m passionate about.

  • My family and life on the West Coast
  • Natural parenting
  • Cloth diapers
  • Breastfeeding
  • Babywearing
  • Cooking
  • Crafts
  • Geeky stuff

What a great day to think about what it means to be Canadian, and in particular what it means to be a Canadian mom. My job is to raise happy, healthy, socially responsible, and principled adults, and my Canadian values are the foundation for that task. Off the top of my head, those values include fairness, compassion, and inclusiveness. Notice I didn’t say tolerance? I want my kids to do more than just tolerate people who might be different from them. I want them to appreciate those differences, genuinely enjoy diversity, and care about other people simply because they’re people.

I try to broaden my children’s worldviews by introducing them to new things and new ideas. Sometimes it’s as simple as offering different foods or attending cultural festivals. Both my girls love going for sushi, though the wasabi is a little beyond them for now! I encourage my 3 year old to make friends with kids from different backgrounds and do my best to role model an open and inclusive attitude myself. I discuss these kinds of issues with my husband and friends in front of my children, and to the extent that she can understand, I discuss them with my 3 year old. (At 10 months, the baby is still a little young!) We talk about what things make Tee and her friends similar, and what things make them different. We talk about why it’s important for her to be kind to everyone. And because she has a new little sister, we talk about fairness and sharing. A lot.

What Canadian values are important to you? How do you pass your values along to your children?

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10 Comments

  • Hey, nice to meet you through TGCBB, and welcome to the blogosphere!!! I’ve been around for a while but it’s still a ton of fun and now it’s become my job as a SAHM. 🙂 I agree with you about the values you’ve listed here and I don’t think it’s ever too early to start teaching them. Thanks for sharing and joining the party! 🙂

  • Welcome to the blogging world!

    Growing up in Toronto, I was lucky to be surrounded by many different cultures – most of my best friends were not born in Canada, and I love being a part of their traditions.

    I like that Canadians are kind, polite people. It’s nice to have that reputation and I’m going to make sure my daughter follows it!

    • Absolutely! Growing up in Vancouver, we had similar opportunities to learn about and participate in other traditions. I especially love seeing all the beautiful wedding traditions from around the world.