Potty training has to be one of the most stressful tasks for both toddler and parent. If you’re new to this like I am then you know how difficult it can be to have your child transition from the comfort and security of a diaper to the potty. Though your friends and family may share with you what has worked for them know that there’s no … Continue reading The Mamí Chronicles: Potty Training Your Toddler
*The following essay was originally published on MUTHA Magazine* I haven’t always had the best relationship with my mother. There were times when I felt like I hated her; despised her even. There were times when I needed her and she wasn’t there. Times when I wanted her to fight for my sister and me, but instead she chose herself. My father says that we … Continue reading NOT MY MOTHER’S DAUGHTER: On mothering and changing my legacy
The other day as I was preparing dinner I asked my husband what he thought about the recent rape allegations that have resurfaced about Bill Cosby. His response was eerily similar to the responses I have heard come from other men.
“If these women were raped why are they talking about it now? Why did they wait so long to come forward?” he said.
“Is that really your response?”, I replied. “What if it was your daughter, who years after being raped or assaulted broke her silence and finally decided to talk about what happened to her, would you still have the same response? Does the length of time it takes a person to break their silence make their claims invalid?” He remained quiet. Continue reading On Bill Cosby, Rape, and why some men just don’t get it
I’d wake from my sleep and find her in her room standing in her crib, eyes wide open and full of tears. When I’d reach out to hold her or console her the screaming and crying got worse. It was as if she’d seen a monster and I was it. It was the most terrifying thing I’d ever experienced. As her mother, my first instinct was to try and soothe her, but everything I did just made it worse. Continue reading (The Mamí Chronicles) Night Terrors, Toddlers, & What you should know
It has been two years since my daughter was born and every night while putting her to sleep I think about the person she will one day become. I think about the daunting task parents have in raising confident, kind, and productive members of society. I sit in her dark bedroom and also think about the challenges she will one day face and my heart … Continue reading The advice I wish someone would have given me as a kid
The worst thing parents and care takers can do to their children, in my opinion, is to feel sorry for them. As a Brooklyn born Puertoriqueña, I call it the curse of the “bendito”. In my family we have used the term bendito way too many times. From when little Johnny falls and scrapes his knee to when Doña Maria’s roof caves in from a tropical storm. The phrase is used in pretty much every situation to denote sympathy or frustration and while some things do garner sympathy the truth is that there will be many experiences we have no control over. We have to teach our children how to rise above their circumstances. Continue reading (The Mami Chronicles) On Parenting: How to raise confident kids
July 27, 2014 Today is your birthday. There was no big party this year just a small and intimate celebration with your grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins. We spent it with the people who love and care for you most. As I sit in your dark bedroom rocking you to sleep, your tiny hands hang flaccidly against your side as you nestle your body … Continue reading The Mamí Chronicles: A letter to my daughter on her 2nd birthday (July 27, 2014)
She will learn from early that she carries history in her hair. Generations of thick tangled tresses. Genetically made up to be wild, not tamed or managed or straightened. Tautly twined coils stretched like the goatskin that cover djembe drums each lock relentlessly rebelling. Defiant like sugar cane, too relentless to conform, to transform, to be altered into something that she wasn’t really destined to … Continue reading For colored girls
In January of this year I self published my second book, through my own publishing house, CreativeInk Publishing. When I wrote Letters to My Daughter I knew that it was going to be a book worth recognizing because I put my heart into writing that book. As a virtually new mother (my daughter is 19 months old), I wanted to leave her legacy that she … Continue reading Letters To My Daughter Is An International Latino Book Awards Finalist
You are: in the strength of my bones in the curve of my muscles in the crown of my hair in the nape of my neck in the gentleness of my hands in the richness of my blood in the light of my shadow. No longer driven by the restless urge to create. Like nights, spent under Parisian skies viewing paintings at the Louvre. Bathing … Continue reading The Chosen (Part II)
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