For my first post, I thought I would introduce our family. When I first told my children that I was starting a blog about parenting and confirmed that yes, they would be a part of my postings, they were horrified! The gasps! What if their friends read it? What if word got out of secret family meetings?
The fact that their friends would be less likely to look up parenting blogs than they would be to voluntarily clean their rooms and serve their parents breakfast in bed completely escaped them. So, we decided to come up with fictional names to protect the guilty. (They each chose the names themselves.)
My name is Gianna, that is true. I am a working mother of three who just turned 40 (sigh, that's another article in itself). I am happily married to my college sweetheart and we celebrated 16 years of marriage this past spring.
The oldest of my three children is my daughter "Jessica". She is 12-1/2 going on 20. She is going into her second year of middle school and loves the internet and her i-pod, but still loves webkinz too. She is very outgoing and loves spending time with her friends.
My second child is "Sarah". She just turned 10 and loved being included into the "tween scene" her older sister has been a part of. She loves music, has a passionate personality, and wants to do everything her older sister does.
Our youngest is a son named "Christopher". He just turned 8 and even though he is the only one who looks like me, he is very much his father in his personality. I recently told a friend of mine that he has every quality in him that I fell in love with in his father. He is quite a charmer, very outgoing, and has the attention span of.... a gnat. But in a good way!
My husband also decided he wanted a pseudo name for my project, so we will call him "Brad". He is a devoted husband and father who works hard and makes sure he spends time with the kids too. Sure, we have our differences from time to time. I won't paint us as a perfect family, but we do love each other and we have a happy life.
My goal here is to share my experiences as a mom with you - the good and the bad - and hope that from that, you can see that we are not alone. And if you get some tips along the way, then that is a bonus! I will love to know that I have helped at least one person struggling with something out there.
And maybe, once in a while, I will bring a smile to your day! And that will make me smile too.
