Changes, Choices, & Lessons Learned: A Reflection about becoming a Parent and how Natural Mommas Evolved

Budding Parenting:

As we grow up we always are looking up to our parents and others around us, as our teachers and mentors in our life.  So now that I’m a parent myself I have a whole new perspective and respect for such roles.  There are many days thus far in my three years or so of being a parent that just zoom by, where my son teaches me more about life from a completely new perspective!  I love every minute of it and wish I could burn every moment (well, almost every moment) in my memory forever!

He’s essentially a clean slate.  What he’s learning is mostly through observation, exploration, touch, and experiences from those around him.  So it’s a pretty wild experience to truly watch in front of my eyes, how he assimilates life from his innocent perspective and melds that information into his own ideas about the world!  For him to then translate this into his own ways/motions/sounds, etc. is even more astounding to watch and be a part of!  At the end of the day, he amazes me beyond words; and his ever expanding imagination and zest for life is the perfect daily reminder. 🙂

Zooming By….

Becoming a parent changes a person in SO many ways!  Before I had D, I always heard the same cliche comments – “time goes by so fast – cherish it”, “I can’t imagine what my life was before (he/she) was born”, etc. and I just brushed it off because I couldn’t truly yet relate or understand.  However, now that I’m experiencing that chapter of life, I TOTALLY get it all!  Cliche or not – it’s all true – becoming a parent is a life-altering, once in a lifetime experience, and the most rewarding role ever!  The gift of life is a magical one and the best gift ever!  Whether your family grew as grass-roots or by other means – at the end of the day, we’re all family and all beautiful humans!  So whichever tree your family may have stemmed from, you’re always family for life and beyond, no matter what!  Without family, who are we anyhow?

Difficult Choices (IE. Being an Adult):

Now to shift subjects to the role of a parent – it’s one of the most toughest jobs yet also the most rewarding too!!  Decisions you face as a parent could be a matter of life or death for your child and we must live with those choices, whatever the outcome may be – forever.

Things I never used to think twice about and assumed I would just do the ‘norm’ (what I had as a child) are decisions I now research about (such as vaccines, and many other health decisions), to reach my own informed and educated decision for my child.  I want to make sure that my personal decision is something I feel comfortable with in all such possible ways and outcomes.  That’s what an educated decision is all about and I believe that especially as a parent, I have every right to choose differently if I deem necessary.  I want to ensure that others around us are also not at risk, and that is also taken into account during the decisioning process.

Never Ending Decisions….

Such decisions that you can’t reverse, which are some pretty tough life-long decisions, are the most stressful and scariest decisions I’ve had to face thus far in my life.  Things I always followed the norm about, such as using Johnson’s & Johnson’s baby wash/lotion/oil on babies. However, after doing some research I opted out using their brand all together.  I also opted out of many other popular baby toiletries too – due to their countless harmful chemicals, which are known to be harmful on humans and the environment.

Since my early discoveries shortly after pregnancy about harmful chemicals I was putting on my skin daily, I became a personal advocate for safer, chemical-free products.  Learning all this new information about harmful chemicals we use in everyday household cleaners and personal products, I wanted to have a fresh start raising my son in the most chemical-free environment I can control.  It truly just takes discovering a few key ingredients to avoid and why and from there it becomes common sense to switch wherever possible.

Lessons Learned & Lessons Shared:  

1.  Becoming a Mom truly sparked my interest and motivation in wanting to change things for the better; wanting to know more about how to help our future generations make healthier and better choices for the world.  While also helping save our precious planet Earth too!  I have always been passionate about what I believe in.  I also thrive in finding ways to make life easier and greater for the future, especially when things seem gloomier by the day…

2.  It’s been about three years since I first began switching over to less chemically filled products.  I now make and use about 85% of my own toiletries, cleaners, laundry soaps, etc. and I absolutely LOVE it!!  I will never turn back after realizing how much time and money I’ve saved and I hope I can help transform others too :).  I would happily choose the smell of vinegar and lemon when cleaning rather than choking on the harsh chemicals from commercial cleaners, and I’m sure you would too!

I have a natural passion to spread what I’ve learned with others and love trying new avenues for a healthier and smarter future.  We are all more than capable to return back to our natural ways and methods like our ancestors, but this time with a whole new innovative swing to it (hooray for the internet)!  🙂

3.  I also love the feeling of knowing exactly what I’m applying on my skin or breathing in!  Being able to count all the ingredients of the items I use in the bathroom while getting ready.  Compared to using a long list of unpronounceable ingredients, some with numbers at the end {which can never mean anything good, right?} and the list of side effects from said ingredients is way more longer than this run-on sentence!

……I could go on but I’ll cut myself off for now and will return to this in more depth in a future post.

At the end of the day…

We are all parents of some form in this world, together on Earth; we’re all caretakers for the next generation and beyond.  We are all human so we are very capable of ensuring satisfaction as well as being let down too.  Knowledge is limitless – the possibilities of learning are priceless and never ending.  We all must teach and share with each other what we’ve learned, experienced and beyond to move forward to a brighter future!

Spreading knowledge with each other and beyond, for the sake of sharing, for friendship, for survival, for health, and beyond – it’s endless!  Let’s not close our world up any smaller than it already is – let’s reach out more each and every day to others – for we are all here for the greater good and to help each other out and grow stronger together (not against or apart).

In Conclusion….

I would love for Natural Mommas to be a space to share various talents, tips, tricks, you name it, with others.  I am wholeheartedly passionate about something that has become a part of our ever changing lifestyle and would love for others to learn more about how they too can benefit in endless ways!  I don’t have any special secrets or formulas –  just a strong passion to help others to also lead a longer, healthier and beautiful life.  We’re all the same at the end of the day and sharing our endless talents and knowledge with others which makes us that much more interconnected.

Passing down traditions and talents from generation to the next is a huge past time that will soon be lost if we don’t start to truly become more interconnected.  Let’s no loner be ‘strangers’ with our neighbors and become acquaintances with one another and have each other’s backs.