A Parenting Paradigm Shift {Changes on the Blog}

Queridos amigos,

While on the one hand it bothers me that I’m not currently blogging on a regular basis, on the other hand it doesn’t.

Yes, life with a toddler who now only takes one nap a day instead of two equates to very little free time alone. And, yes, it’s summer and the pace of life just slows down. But, truthfully, those aren’t the only reasons I have fallen out of stride with blogging about my adventures in bilingual parenting.

Over the past few months I have witnessed the evolution and expansion of my parenting paradigm from raising a bilingual child to raising a bilingual child and parenting slower, more simply, and more intentionally.

Oh, my husband, D., and I are still committed to raising our daughter E. in two languages and two cultures. We live and breath español todos los días (I’ve recently begun a Spanish-speaking playgroup in my neighborhood and am pursuing the possibility of leading a Spanish-speaking story time at our local library).

But, bilingual isn’t the only adjective I want to attach to my parenting. There are others.

Intentional.

Simple.

Montessori.

Thoughtful.

Mindful.

Gracious.

Slow.

That may seem like a lofty list of attributes to describe my way of parenting, I know, but I’d call it more the goal I have for myself each day I parent. I don’t have all the answers. I am not a parenting expert. I simply know the kind of mother I want to be for E..

And, since parenting is a learning journey, one in which we learn from one another, I sincerely hope that by writing about the ways I’m pursuing a more intentional way of parenting, I will encourage you to reflect on your own family’s choices, whether that’s to raise a bilingual child, or to pursue Montessori education, or to just simplify the amount of stuff in your home.

I’ve struggled for a few months now with whether or not to expand the scope of this blog for fear I might lose readers; however, most of my uneasiness has been because I want to remain consistent to the blog’s original vision.

But, then, it hit me. (Well, actually D., my faithful sounding board, pointed it out to me.) The very mantra of this blog from day one has been SOBRE LA MARCHA (“on the fly” or “we’ll see as we go.”).

Well, this change of direction for the blog couldn’t be more “we’ll see as we go” than this.

After nearly seven months of replacing Netflix in the evenings with hours of reading more books and articles than I’ve done since graduate school eleven years ago, I feel it’s time to share with you all what I’ve learned about parenting and how I’ve experienced a total paradigm shift.

So, there you have it, friends.

From here on out, this blog will encompass all of those aforementioned adjectives as they relate to my daily adventures with parenting.

I’m still Españolita and my journey in parenting is most definitely still sobre la marcha.

And, I still plan to write about topics and issues related to multilingual parenting, but that won’t be the only focus of the blog.

I understand that some of you may decide that this space no longer meets your needs or piques your interest. I get that. No offense taken. I just wanted to be up front with you all before shifting things a bit here.

So, I hope you’ll join me as I write about intentional parenting and raising a bilingual child.

Here are a few of the topics whirling around my head that I hope to post on soon:

1. Book reviews: Simplicity Parenting, The Joyful Child, Elevating Childcare, No Bad Kids, Your Self-Confident Baby
2. Starting a play group (or, two!) in my neighborhood.
3. Ways I’ve simplified our family life, including, “I’m done with trekking around in the car!”
4. What is RIE parenting?
5. (Forced) sharing is…NOT caring?
6. Lo nuestro and lo mío (communal vs. individual living), and why we choose to live in an apartment in the city
7. Updates in our journey with Montessori: it’s a way of life!
8. Why bilingual is NOT necessarily better (no, she did not just say that?!)

Stay tuned, and happy weekend, friends!