CPO Member Spotlight- YodasMom

By CanadianParents.com Community

What brought you to CPO, or how did you find us? 

I was newly pregnant and looking for resources, online baby journals and that sort of thing.  I found a parenting forum out of the states that was terrible.  Particularly because I was at the "everything is medical" stage and none of it related to me at all.  It was kind of like trying to find Canadian pregnancy books.  Eventually, after searching and searching for a Canadian parenting forum I found CPO.

Any favorite Boards?

My favorites keep changing with the stages of my daughter's life and as I become more confident as a parent. I used to spend a lot of time on all the baby related boards, Expecting to Expect, Birth Clubs (March 2007), Breastfeeding Support  and Attachment Parenting but as Indiana has gotten older I spend more time in Around the House  and Cooking, Recipes & Mealtime and of course Toddlers but I use all the boards.  There seems to be a board to cover every topic that I might have a question about.  And once in a while I take a spin through all the other boards that I don't frequent very often, just to see what I am missing.

What are your hobbies and interests?

My hobbies if I had time for them (and I am trying very hard to make time) are writing, painting, crocheting (which I just learned last year) and watching movies.  I love to watch movies.    I'm interested in a lot of things.  I love politics, and wish I had time to be more of an activist.  I just know that a career in politics is in my future no matter how hard I fight it.  And I really love media and culture - I'm actually going to be going to grad school to study media and culture.

How many children do you have?

I have one daughter, Indiana who is 2 and a half and she amazes me everyday.

Do you have a particular parenting style or philosophy?

I try to remember everyday what it was like to be a kid.  The qualities I most hope that my daughter will have are self confidence, compassion, and a lust for knowledge.  In everything I do with my daughter I keep those things in mind.  If something is hindering those things, I try to eliminate it, and if I have an opportunity to demonstrate those things I take full advantage of it.

What are you most looking forward to this Fall? 

Halloween.  Halloween has always been my favorite.  Indiana is finally old enough to choose what she wants to dress up as and to anticipate what's coming - even though I don't think she quite knows what it is.  Also, I will accept any opportunity to dress up in a costume.

Is there anything else you'd like to share about why you like CPO?

 

CPO is the community  that doesn't seem to exist anymore.  When I was a kid, there were whole neighborhoods of families with kids in the same stages of life.  Everyone knew each other and could share experiences, borrow a cup of sugar or count on the next door neighbor to watch the kids for 15 minutes while you ran out to buy milk.  While there may be a few neighborhoods still like that, mostly we all keep to ourselves, and finding other people in the same stage of life as ourselves seems impossible.  CPO is that old style neighborhood for the new millennium.  CPO is the example I use when I talk about the good things that are on the internet and how it can bring people together.  And some people may think I talk about it too much, but other members of the CPO community may not know about the battle with breast cancer that I went through last year.  I didn't attend support groups or even go through counseling during my battle because CPO was my support group and my counseling.  I never felt alone, even though in the world of breast cancer I kind of was alone, because so few women my age get breast cancer.  CPO continues to be my support and many of the women (and men) on the boards are as determined as I am not to be quiet about it and to do whatever they can to make sure that our daughters don't have to go through what I did.