Every Saturday and Sunday morning just after we wake up, my son and I play "Russia”.  Playing Russia involves me telling my son the story of the first time I laid eyes on him in an orphanage in Ivanovo, about four and a half hours northeast of Moscow and how, three months later, he became my son and we became a family.  There are some terrifying moments along the roughly one year road to adoption.  And international adoptions add a certain “je ne sais quoi” frisson to the whole process.  I spent that whole year a little out of... More »

My older son, Matthew, is one of my greatest joys and one of my greatest sources of stress.  He is a little dynamo who does not stop challenging my husband and I, both mentally and physically, each day.  Matthew has a severe allergy to peanuts and has severe, fast-onset asthma. He has had an epi-pen since 6 months of age when we first discovered an anaphylaxis reaction to dairy.  Since the diagnosis of peanut allergy at age 4, he has carried his epi-pen on himself in an epi-belt at all times. He wears a medic alert bracelet proudly and... More »

Ever feel like no matter what you do it just isn't enough?  Or, you finally think you've got "it" right and another expert comes out with a book?  I am a good mom...most of the time.  I adore my kids. I encourage them. I nurture them. I acknowledge and respect them.  But, I often feel that this is not enough...or at least that's the message. Every time I open a newspaper there is someone else telling me what I am doing wrong or at least advising on how to do it better.  As moms, we want to give our kids... More »

A Globe and Mail column by Margaret Wente on Saturday almost ruined my Mother’s Day. It started a heated debate between my husband and I that threatened to turn the day decidedly cool. Rather than let that happen, I requested 30 minutes of time to myself, so that I could share with urbanmoms.ca readers what frustrated me about this column. Wente was writing about “Mommies on strike” and the effect of the low fertility rate on Canadian society. She theorized that the reason women are not having babies is that “for upper-middle income families, the financial disincentives to childbearing... More »

I was at a marketing conference the other day and was priveleged enough to hear Jeffrey Allgrove, the President of Unilever, speak.  As many of you might already know, Unilver produces Dove skin care products and you are likely aware that in the last few years Dove has launched their Real Beauty campaign.  I know I have discussed this campaign on urbanmoms.ca before but I had to do it again.  I love this campaign!  Some consumers and marketers claim the campaign is a manipulation.  That Unilever is a powerhouse who is simply using this power and women's desire for... More »

As promised, here are the results of our recent Palm sponsored Mother's Day survey.  Thanks to all of you who participated!  We had a great response and found out some interesting information.  The survey was conducted between April 10-17, 2006 with a sample size of 861 Canadian mothers.  First off, I wanted to highlight a few interesting findings.  The majority of moms across the country indicated that they consider themselves just as much an individual as they are a mom.  This reaffirms what we have been hearing from you!  Moms aren't defined by their motherhood and the women we were... More »

We received for Christmas 2004 the most unique present a family could dream of: a 3 year trip to Canada for the 5 of us!  It didn’t take us long to make up our French minds : Yes we would grab the opportunity to open our minds wide, we would accept the expatriation offer and move from Paris to Toronto. “What school will our three kids go to? English, French speaking, Bilingual? Private, public, catholic?” Despite hours of exploration of the Canadian educational system on the internet, this remained a tricky question until we met the principal of the... More »

It was an unseasonably warm, sunny spring day, and my daughter had just been dismissed from morning Kindergarten. Almost all the children ran to the playground together, horsing around, playing tag, climbing on the monkey bars. My daughter and one little boy ran off together to play. I chatted with a few of the other moms. Then, my daughter and her friend came running back towards us asking if they could go to each other's house for a playdate. Smiling, I turned to the other mom and said, "I've been promising her for weeks now to schedule a playdate..."... More »