I have invited my friend Carrie Lauth, from Natural Moms Talk Radio to join me in a Cross Blog Conversation.

I have lots of things I’d like to ask Carrie as I know she’s a Super-Single-Natural-Unscholing-Work-at-Home-Mom of 4…great inspiration for anyone, right?

I’m sure me and my readers will have fun cross blogging with Carrie. Please feel free to leave your comments here or at Carrie’s blog. This is her first question:

How do you think raising a child in Ecuador differs from raising a child in the States?

My response:

Me and baby in Japan on a trip to the park

As I’ve not lived in the US I really don’t know…lol! However, I can tell you how raising a child in Ecuador is like, and since my son was born in Japan and we lived there during his first year of life, I can also tell you how it was to live with a baby over there.  I happen to network a lot with US moms and when I lived abroad most of my mom-friends were from the US, Canda and Europe. When I read or talk with those moms, like when I read your blog, I have the impression that the US or *that* other country or place should be a great place to raise kids.

I believe that it’s not the place but the people you relate to and the way you build your “customized environment”. For example, a traffic light could a landmark for one person, but a waste of energy for other, a learning resource for other, an opportunity to slow down for another, and a reason to get nervous for others. We homeschoolers tend to take a lot of advantage from the environment, no matter where we live.

Me and toddler in Ecuador on a trip to the beach

I’m quite sure that if I’d be living in the US or in Japan right now I’d probably would be unschooling and working from home. But don’t get me wrong. I do believe that living in an inspiring environment is great for new parents, especially when nurturing traditions as breastfeeding and babywearing can be taught to the next generations. But believe me, I’ve gotten more babywearing/ breastfeeding advice and support from people in the US than from Ecuadorians, and this is a country where you still see a lot of traditional BW, and public BF is considered acceptable.

So I think that the difference is probably that in the US you have organizations, books, information for everything including homeschooling, babywearing, breastfeeding and other parenting related practices. Maybe you are able to trust more the “research” and over here we have to trust more our instincts when taking parenting related choices.

Do you think that living in another country or city would affect you so much that you would do major changes to your parenting or lifestyle?

Christmas is comming and commercials for the best gift, the best toy or the best credit card for the holidays are all over the place. But how do you feel when this ads are targetting your 10 years old child, or even your toddler or baby?

Let’s learn how to keep our comming holidays centered on what matters most to us and to keep our kids from being targeted by publicity.

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has published an online Guide to Commercial- Free Holidays that I so recommend to download. It’s free!

These are some of the topics covered:

- Carving Out Time and Space for Commercial-Free Family Traditions, by Susan Linn, EdD.- Director and cofounder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood at Judge Baker Children’s Center.

- Putting Others’ Needs Above Our Wants. By Enola Aird, JD. - An activist mother, director of The Motherhood Project, and author of Watch Out for Children: A Mothers’ Statement to Advertisers

- Buy Green, Buy Fair, Buy Local, Buy Used, and Buy Less. By Allen Kanner, PhD - Clinical psychologist and founding member of CCFC. He’s a father, a columnist for Tikkun Magazine, and coeditor of Psychology and Consumer Culture, and of Ecopsychology.

- TV-Free Holidays. By Karen Lewis - Mother, activist, and Project Associate for the Tobacco Prevention Project, National School Boards Association

- Gifts That Show You Care. By Nancy Carlsson- Paige, EdD. - Professor of Education at Lesley University. Mother and a grandmother. Author of Taking Back Childhood: Helping Your Kids Thrive in a Fast-Paced, Media-Saturated, Violence- Filled World

- Christmas Coupons at the Kassers. By Tim Kasser, PhD - Associate Professor of Psychology at Knox College. Father and author of The High Price of Materialism

- Giving Gifts That Encourage Creative Play. By Diane Levin, PhD - Professor of Education at Wheelock College and co-founder of CCFC. Mother, co-author of So Sexy So Soon and co-founder of TRUCE

- Give the Gift of Time. By Joe Kelly-The Dad Man- Father, speaker, writer, blogger, activist and consultant. He is the author of Dads and
Daughters: How to Inspire, Understand, and Support Your Daughter When She’s Growing Up So Fast

- The Choices We Make with Our Money Can Change the World. By Nathan Dungan - Founder of Share Save Spend and author of Personal Finance: A Lifetime of Responsibility, a textbook for high
school students

So go ahead and donwload by clicking on the picture below

Guide To Commercial Free Holidays

I haven’t been around for a while…how do I want this blog to get visits and comments then? Lol

My son’s tooth was finally extracted and I’m so glad I took that decision and was able to find a professional willing to do that. Most dentists want to keep filling the teeth over and over again, in spite of the expenses (or maybe because of the expenses) and health side effects.

When the dentist took the tooth out of his mouth the reason of all the problems was evident: the root had fissures so no matter how hard the dentists tried to fill the hole, external material kept entering the duct.

Now that he’s almost recovered we have to work on improving the quality of his bones so this wouldn’t happen again. For this purpose I’m so glad I just got the book Nourishing Traditions and two bottles of high quality Cod Liver Oil that he loves taking. I’m also glad that in Ecuador the cattle is pasture fed and that we’ve recently found a source for raw milk.

Wanna learn more about cavities and nutrition? Have a look at the Weston A. Price Foundation and grab the free book Nutrition and　Physical Degeneration　here.

Due to the size of the book, printing at home could possibly turn more expensive than buying a second-hand copy or even a new one.

Babywearing in Ecuador

I lived about 24 years in Ecuador before giving birth to my boy as a foreign student in Japan. I mean 24 years of almost daily contact with casual Babywearing images and I knew nothing about Babywearing.

I’d even been to the jungle and other traditional communities in the highlands, had studied Kuichua for 9 months (when it wasn’t popular to do so) and loved to make friends with indians and rural people. How comes I didn’t notice my country had lots to teach me on Babywearing?

Sure I know the answer: At the time I was not thinking as a mom.

So there I was in Japan, with a newborn baby in my arms, willing to wear him in any sort of baby sling and trying to remember what I’d sought for 24 years. That was frustrating but I was decided to make things work and started looking for information on the Internet.

I started researching about breastfeeding and quickly discovered lots of information (mostly in English) about what I was looking for. There even was an English word for this practice, which helped my status grow from old fashioned traditional mom to modern and informed woman

I was hooked to Babywearing from the moment I learnt the word (pretty much as with “homeschooling”). It was so amazing there were tons of information on how to wear your baby, the benefits, scientific research and lots of vendors offering different sorts of slings from a wide variety of qualities and prices.

I quickly decided to buy a sling and then another (and then another…). They all were so useful since I was having a busy life and was taking my baby with me everywhere.

I surprised myself with my short learning curve because I used to feel so afraid of holding babies , but this time I was becoming an confident babywearer so fast.

This is how I got to know this nurturing practice. The internet and a couple of DVDs were my teachers. I’d have chosen to have in person instructors but didn’t have the chance. However, I believe that the 24 years experience of daily exposure to natural babywearers were crucial on my decision to carry my baby.

An you, how did you fall in love with Babywearing?

This week in my internet radio show (in Spanish) I interviewed Alma Gordillo from Babywearing International, about the Babywearing Week they’re planning for 12th - 18th November.

Although this is the first year they organize this event, there are already plenty of groups and organizations worldwide planning to participate with various activities. I’m still not sure how to take part on the Babywearing Week and surely want to plan at least a get together with other babywearers in Quito.

I pointed to her that there aren’t any groups from Latin America in their list of participants and we agreed that making babywearing remarkable in our cultures would be a great support for those still wearing their babies traditionally and to help people overcome cultural rejection towards indigenous parenting traditions.

Also, nominations are already open for the Babywearing Week 2008 Awards! I have some names rolling…

Have you already planned something for the BW week?

If you haven’t already found this great breastfeeding resource, this is your chance to grab The Happy Breastfeeder ebook. It is written by my friend Carriel Lauth, a mom of four, with 10 years of breasfeeding experience!

Carrie is not only experienced and advocated, but she also has spent 6 years as an accredited breasfeeding counselor.

You will notice that the e-book set up the goal for keeping nursing for a year, but I can assure you that breastfeeding can usually last for as long as mother and baby want. I myself keep nursing my almost four and still enjoy the few times he asks for “leche”

This ebook will help you overcome the most common breastfeeding problems mothers face during the first months with their babies, and it will keep being a good reference for as long as your child nurses.

The mom-to-mom approach is so important in breastfeeding issues, and Carrie has made sure you get enough encouragement from her and other moms thru their nursing stories.

Want it now? No excuses! Carrie wanted to make sure every mom can afford her 89-pages ebook, so she’s giving it away selling it for only $US1.

I do think that moms need and deserve our 8 hours of sleep. I don’t want to go on explanations and excuses about why we moms deserve such a privilege because I think everyone should have good rest from work and daily activities, and we moms are a group with higher needs of rest.

Do you think a good sleep is something you deserve as a mom? Are you getting your daily and well deserved 8 hours of sleep?
What do you do about that?
Me?…off to sleep…zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

This month I’ve offered my readers at the Spanish blog a cute price for a randon commenter of the blog. So to be fair with my two children I’m gonna offer the same price for one random person among those who comment during October.

The prize? A set of 5 cute knitted finger puppets shipped anywhere in the globe.

Those are very popular at home, and believe me, you’re going to enjoy playing with them as much as your kids (who, me?).

Note: the available animals might not be the ones in the picture.

My almost 4 yo was sick last week and I wore him *inside the house* after a long time. I’ve probably stopped wearing him at home after he turned 2 or even younger. Just don’t remember, but last week I offered him a ride on my back and he was so happy that his sick-boy-face turned into a bright-healthy-child smile
I should’ve taken a picture of him on my back. He didn’t have the look of not having eaten for a couple of days.

It was so fun for me as well and I got to do some housekeeping.
Until what age have you worn your kids *inside* the house?

In the picture I’m wearing my cousin’s son when he was 5. You see I’m pettite

Now it’s a once in a while pleasure, but we still love babywearing!

Blogging about respectful parenting in English? It sounds like fun but also scary for a non English native, but I’ve decided to go for the challenge.

I’ve waited a long time to start blogging in English and gave it so much thought, but I’ve decided that if I don’t start blogging I’ll never start blogging

You know, blogging doesn’t have to be formal or perfect, so I’m starting to feel confident here and excited I’ll be able to share some resources and thoughts to my English - speaking - natural parenting gals.

As you can see, I’ve not finished moving Familia Libre to the new Word Press site, so you might find some links taking you to the old site. Be confident that I’m working so things are better and esier for my visitors.

So please show up and leave your comments, thoughts or just say hi once in a while.

Monica Salazar

PD1. If you read Spanish please visit the Spanish Blog. These two blogs have different content, but with the same respectful parenting orientation.

PD2. See the form on the top, next to the banner? Yes, you’re welcome to suscribe to my English mailing list