July 16, 2021
Mother’s Day is upon us and we wanted to celebrate it in classic Storyo no-bullshit-all-vulnerability fashion!
Firstly, we’d like to acknowledge and send aroha to all those without mothers, those that can’t or don’t want to have kids, those that don’t have relationships with their mothers, and anyone and everyone in between. To every parent and child out there; you are valid, loved and seen ❤️
To be frank, we’re tired of commercialisation of every holiday and ads about “being the perfect mom” or that “being a mom is the only fulfilling thing a woman can be”. That’s only one part of a larger story; only one role of the many. The mums we have interviewed are authors, artists, business owners, engineers, activists, advocates, sex workers, and leaders in their communities.
At Storyo we’re about raw & genuine stories of everyday failures and triumphs. To honour the wahine with children we have previously interviewed, we wanted to get their perspectives and feelings on parenthood. Here’s what they had to say…
I read Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and proudly decided to take up the mantle. It fits perfectly with my Type A personality; the reason they call it a human race is because someone has to win. If I didn’t have enough time on this earth to win, then my kids would have to do it for me. So while my other parent friends are complaining about too much homework from school, I’m thinking of whether I can squeeze in piano lessons on the same day as extra math tutoring.
So no, I’m not a perfect mom, but I hope to raise awesome kids that will change the world (that is if I don’t get to it first).
What do we hope to instil in our kids? That’s a hard one. We’ve always talked about sex positivity, body neutrality, and consent. As parents of two cis-gendered boys, we were determined not to raise another lot of assholes. As mixed-race kids of two immigrant cultures, they innately understand the significance of race in their everyday lives, but do they know the different ways that other races are marginalised? As children of two reasonably successful middle-class people, will they understand the hardship and struggle for what they need? The oldest has just reached teen-dom, so I guess the proof is yet to come.
NB: The other stories are still published on StoryO’s site
Vivian Chandra 