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At Golden Goose Learning Centre, every year, our students put on a musical play and raise money for a local or international charity. Last year for our production of Annie, we raised and sent over $300 to a teenage boy in Jamaica who needed to have leg surgery in order to walk again. We were all so proud! Its such a great feeling to give back and we want our young students to learn that first hand. This year our young actors have been working on The Wizard of Oz! This past March, Alison Cisse suddenly passed away due to a sudden illness at the young age of 36. Alison was a Golden Goose mom who was full of life and laughter. She lived a simple life yet so full of laughter, joy and love. She was a Golden Goose fan and we loved her! Our director Dana Ben Halim, decided that our “giving back” this year would to support her three children’s trust fund: Anissa; 8, Kareem;6 and Mrs. Putchi (Aliya);4. This performance will be honouring Alison’s memory and be a celebration of her life. We would all be so happy if you could come with your family. Because it is the day before Mothers Day, we are asking all moms to wear either pink or red and dads to show their love by wearing something pink or red as well. Refreshments, Mothers Day gifts: Mary Kay make-up, NA Handmade Jewelery, Cake Raffle, Starbucks coffee and more will be available for purchase with proceeds towards our cause. Hope to see you there and to book tickets, please contact us today at: 647 987 4653 or email: info@goldengooselearning.com

The Secret to Calm and Happy Mom

The Secret to Calm and Happy Mom.

The Secret to Calm and Happy Mom

I’m struggling with my 9-year-old daughter lately. She just seems so unmotivated, unfocused and just uncaring. I’ve sat for two-days trying to figure out what to do about ME because lately, avoidance and yelling have been the plan and doesn’t seem to be working. I decided to spend an afternoon at Chapters and ended up spending about 2 hours there with another mommy friend. I wanted to share a story from  a book I found called The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers.

I know this is a bit of cheap way to write a blog; a bit of cutting and pasting, but I thought this story was so good so why not share with the other mommies of the world? The book is written by Meg Meeker,M.D the bestselling author of Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters. She is a mother of four and a physician practicing pediatric and adolescent medicine for 25 years.  In this part of her book she was talking about a mom of two children who would come to her clinic who just seemed so calm and happy.

“Every time Julianne brought her kids in for their checkups, something in her demeanor intrigued me. She was born in Japan, had married an American, and both of her children were stunning. They had thick licorice hair, soft brown eyes, and perfect skin. But her ability to produce stunningly beautiful children wasn’t what made me marvel. It was her demeanor. She had an aura of self-confidence. Not the obnoxious kind, but he genuine sense that she liked herself and she liked her life. Her clothes weren’t flashy and she never boasted about the activities that her kids were involved in. When I asked her about her kids’ schoolwork and behaviours, she neither boasted nor apologized. Instead, she related to me what she did with them and how much they all enjoyed their time together.  This type of report is rare in the histories I make.”

I continued to read as this mom intrigued me. I wanted to learn how she was so calm and happy.

“You seem as though you don’t struggle with feeling competitive with others, you appear to genuinely have fun with your kids, and I don’t sense that your kids are spoiled. They always act respectful to you  and to me, and not stiff. Do you have any secrets that I could share with other mothers? (What I really wanted to say was ‘with me?)”

“I guess I take after my mother. She loved being a mom. My sister and I were her whole life and she enjoyed being with us. I never felt pushed to be anything other than who I was and I always knew that she enjoyed our company. I adored my mom. I was so grateful that she cared so much for my sisters and me and I supposed that I learned from her that being a good mom is an extraordinary joy. When I became a mother, I wanted what she had and I think I do. It’s simple really -I like myself as a mother. I’m important to Jade and Tommy. I am their life and I like that.”

Pretty inspirational. I mean I’m going to continue reading the book, but I think that story was enough to keep me going for a few weeks. Do I love being a mom…yes…all the time?? umm no. Well why is that?  Because I expect my children to be like me or better? Probably. Okay fine: yes! Will that allow us to enjoy time together though if they feel like they just can’t be themselves?? Not really. Just all these thoughts going through my head and getting me thinking on what energy I bring to my surroundings. How much quality fun time do I spend with my kids and how can I make that a habit?  I certainly haven’t figured it out yet, however it did enlighten me on a few things. If you’re a mom reading this, please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

What happened to “Hello?”

Today I went to Costco to pick up a few things. My kids love the burgers there so while I was lugging them out of the frozen food section I heard a woman behind me speaking: “Do you use these often?” Oh, I thought, she’s  probably a mom asking about the quality of the burgers.  I turned around, smiled and started to answer her question bringing a bit of my extra sales technique as I do love these burgers. But then, as I was speaking, her face seemed so familiar to me. Wait a second…I know you! I was still talking about the burgers though; funny how our minds process things in miliseconds, because I certainly felt the brakes go off here! “Claudia, you don’t remember me??” I haven’t seen Claudia in two years however we used to chat every day outside of a school I used to work at. We knew eachother when we were pregnant  and would stand in the parking lot for almost 20 minutes sometimes until the last car left. Claudia stopped and looked at me like I was a bit strange: “Yes of course I remember you, why do you think I am asking you a question?” she smiled with that matter of fact. Oh, well…’how are you Claudia? Nice to see you, how are the kids?” I started to ask.

As I walked away after answering her question about the burgers and having a brief talk about her upcoming birthday party, I  thought: ‘are we all really all that busy?” What has happened to society in this Go! Go! Go! world? Do I do that? Am I that fast that I can’t even stop to say ‘hello, my old friend, how are you?” Has it come to this, that we know each other, share smiles,have nice conversations but the mad rush is more important than asking about each other? Has our human nature of saying ‘hello” been forgotten? Is my human touch fading away in this?

The simple greeting – just saying hello – I agree,is the glue that holds society together.  It has always stood for co-operation and peace, as it creates a bond: before you say hello, you are strangers. In some countries hello translates to ‘peace be upon you’ and is a blessing to the person you greet.  Afterwards, you are friends, family, colleagues and more.

So what are your thoughts on this? Do we pass this natural lesson of saying hello to others to our children in the midst of our rush to get it all done? As our world keeps getting faster and faster, as humans we have to adapt, and the survivors are known as those who can “keep up!’ Faster, faster, keep up, stop for a rest???next, next, next! Once in a while perhaps we need to stop, reflect and remember that  we are human first.