Parenting for Life: Recent Episodes
Parenting for Life
We are two sisters and mothers with a shared passion for transforming accepted norms, beliefs, ideas, reaction and behavior patterns into genuine and authentic self-expression – in so doing (re-)discovering what it means to live fully, in honor of ourselves and our children – equally as one.
Family is the cornerstone of society, the base unit we all emerge from. By challenging and changing ourselves and how we parent our kids, we can set into motion a new paradigm of living that will ripple out through time and space.
Our parenting style is an extension of the personal process of self-investigation, self-exploration, self-understanding and self-creation that we have walked for the past 10 years. Tools such as journaling, self-forgiveness, self-corrective statements, bringing points back to self, redefining and living words, … have become second nature in our daily living. Our parenting style is then not geared towards specific actions – but is instead founded within principled living. Our actions flow from the question we ask ourselves: Who am I in relation to this challenge, opportunity, event or problem – and who do I want to be? What is best for everyone in this scenario?
We parent through exemplifying within ourselves and our living the values we would like to see more of in the world – consideration, care, respect, creativity, dedication, joy, frankness, integrity, generosity, humbleness, courage, expressiveness, clarity, responsibility, fulfilment, stability, intimacy, support, balance, exploration, abundance, understanding, empathy, gentleness, passion, and we could go on and on.
Community style living on a small farm in South Africa allows us to approximate our ideals on a small scale and to explore new (or sometimes forgotten!) ways of living.
Join us in our journey, our ups and our downs as we walk to redefine parenting, motherhood, life… and everything in between.
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New Podcast from Maite:
"After giving birth to my daughter and finding myself with a new body, one that wasn't exactly in a state of health, fitness and well being, a question came up within me: How can I accept my body if I want to change it? We're bombarded with suggestions of accepting ourselves and accepting our bodies, yet at the same time called on to change our bodies for various reasons and in numerous ways. In this podcast I share how I approached this inner dilemma and how resolving it for myself created a new foundation for my relationship with my body. Enjoy! 😘"
How often do we use manipulation tactics to get our children to behave in a way that we think is best? Even when we have on a conscious level let go of the practice of punishing and rewarding, we'll at times notice ourselves trying to assert ourselves as authority, or inadvertently deny them the opportunity to do something their way. In this podcast I share some of my own journey in learning to stop imposing my views, beliefs and ideas unto my daughter, and giving the space for her to develop her own powers of assertion. Perhaps more importantly, however, I share how we as parents can learn to free ourselves from the biases we've accepted and adopted as kids, teenagers and young adults - to learn to take ownership of our decisions, choices and actions and take the paths that honor and are most supportive for our unique and individual selves. Enjoy!
"To date, the most challenging experience I've come across is seeing my daughter being ill and facing the thought of losing her. In this podcast I share what happened to Syntia in recent weeks and how I in turn reacted to what was unfolding. To be honest, this is not an experience I know how to 'solve', I don't have the answer - but I do know that I will continue to support myself in which ever way I can so that I can stand and be here as a support for Syntia no matter what she goes through. There will be more recordings or posts on this topic to follow, but in the meantime - please feel free to share your own experiences, tips and suggestions - I can use all the mommy wisdom in the world on this!" ~ Maite
When I imagined myself one day becoming a soccer mom, I didn't think I'd actually be playing any soccer... Seeing our kids growing up gives us as parents the amazing opportunity of revisiting our childhood, the personalities we created, the beliefs we formed about ourselves, the decisions we made and the chances we never took. In this recording I share how I used this opportunity in relation to soccer, what other significant realizations came to the fore as I pondered my experience, and what this means for us as parents.
What does kindness mean? How have I been living kindness? Have I been truly kind to myself and others, or have I been micro-managing myself to 'fit in'? How we define a word affects our relationship with ourselves, our children and everyone else around us.
Maite opens up her relationship with the word kindness, how she used to live it, the conflict and friction that was embedded within it and how she redefined the word for herself in a way that she is happy to live it in her life.
Every parent knows that there are different types of crying and we make it our mission to become familiar with these differences so we can tend to our child's needs as best as possible. But something that is not often talked about is how we react in different ways internally and emotionally to these different cries. In this podcast, Maite shares about the internal conflict that was triggered within her when her baby was going through intense teething pains and how she managed to work through it.
Here is the link to the EQAFE recording that she mentions in her podcast: https://eqafe.com/p/teething-growing-pains-perfecting-the-human-race-parenting-part-58
Enjoy!