Cross Blog Conversation

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?