The Travel Mom Blog #TravelMom

A year ago I was about 20 weeks pregnant with my third child and painting t-shirts for the initial Women’s March that took place on January 21st. I painted t-shirts for my sister, for my friends, for my two little girls, and for myself, trying to infuse as much love and power into each brush stroke and each word that I painted. We would be marching together, strong, raising our voices as one. We marched over here in Sacramento with thousands and thousands of women, men, and children, carrying banners for truth, equality, love, and justice. It kicked off what I now see as a year of hope, a year of despair, a year of strength, and a year of rebuilding. 2017 was a transition year, where the population began to question everything again. 2017 was a year of sinking deep to climb up higher, a year of profound reflection.

During pregnancy, women experience many changes with their body. I recently posted a question on my social media website and received so many answers on the changes women received during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Here are the answers:

When I was born, all 5 of my senses (eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and touch) worked! At the age of 18 months, I lost one of my senses due to a fall. My sense of HEARING no longer worked. Of course, being the ornery 2 year old I was, I did not let it affect my way of life.

 Crashing back to reality after our honeymoon bliss accompanied with overindulgence resulted in my husband and I signing up with a Personal Trainer to whip us back into shape. With A LOT of sick, sweat and tears, together we achieved our fitness body peak. I’m not going to lie, it was incredible! I honestly felt on top of the world, I had even more energy after the gruelling workouts and I wasn’t starving either – BOOST!!

I’m not sure if that’s a woman nature but we often tend to look after everyone around first before thinking about ourselves. Especially moms like us, doing everything for, around and with kids, completely neglecting our needs. No time for healthy food choices, no energy for exercises and no way to pamper ourselves whatsoever. Well, sometimes we don’t even have time to think about it all...Can you relate?

The other day my three year old looked at me and said: “Are you happy Mama?” I responded with “of course I’m happy love!”, and she went back to playing. But I know the phrase wasn’t an innocent one, as my eldest is very observant and in tune with the emotions flying around her. So I started to ask myself if she possibly thought I was unhappy... I’m not unhappy, not at all, but I do have a lot of anxiety that I repress as much as possible, and there has been a lot going on over the past few months: new baby, new home, some financial struggles, my partner working two jobs, and then starting the therapy process for my eldest’s own anxiety issues. Her simple question really got me thinking about how we communicate with our children and how this may or may not affect them adversely.

The holidays are a fun time for everyone. Families come together, memories are made, and of course the food! But while the kiddos tend to make a list of presents they want for the holidays what about dad? If you have a father like mine, then you know he’ll play his cards close to his chest and never tell you what he wants. But I’ll let you in on a secret, get him the right gift and he’ll probably jump for joy higher than anyone! So here are 5 gifts that are sure to make any dad on your list one happy camper come the holidays.

My whole world as I knew it was flipped upside down when I was gifted with the precious responsibility of Motherhood. “Congratulations Charlene, you will now be known as Elijah’s mummy” the Health Visitor said. In that moment I didn’t realise the fear this instilled in me. The loving bond I have with my son is nothing I’ve ever experienced before but does Charlene just disappear? What about my life goals and dreams that I still want to accomplish?

Which of my traits do I hope my kids will pick up? I don't have kids yet, and honestly I probably won't for a few years. But I think about my future kids fairly regularly. I think about what my kids are going to be like, and how I'll be as a father. And every time I think about it, there's one question that stumps me: Which of my traits do I hope my children will pick up?

It’s all over the news: Weinstein, Spacey, the president, the #metoo campaign, and people speaking up and speaking out about sexual harassment, assault, and violence. Now is the time to not only talk about what continues to be normalized behavior in our society but also to talk about how we can make REAL change. As parents we talk about looking for signs of abuse, and preventing abuse, but how can we actually help our children see and know the signs of danger? How can we also help our children to NOT become perpetrators of assault and harassment?