I recently attended my dear friend’s birthday and it made me realize how different our lives are now. All my closest friends have become new moms, with “mini-me’s” in tow who are adorable and so fun to play with!

I am so fortunate that most of the women in my circle are Amaterasu fans since its ‘conception’. One of my friends, Leanna wore the Liquid Brow Liner, Mascara, and Eye Pencil during her birth, which sustained and survived a 16-hour labour! Her family told me the nurses at BC Children’s Hospital were fascinated as they have never seen makeup stay on so perfectly before. We always joke that we should send all Moms to the delivery room with brochures!

The conversations with my girlfriends have also changed and now seem to revolve around parenting skills. Children are such a precious mixture of innocence and wisdom and have so much light but also some kind of “truth radar.” I feel it is so important to connect with children and let them know you genuinely care and want the best for them and they will feel that.

Serendipitously, I came across a podcast recently with Dr. Gabor Maté who is a physician here in Vancouver. He does a lot of amazing work with addicts from the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood, and his primary message overall is that most of our health and mental issues can be traced back to early childhood.

I delved a little deeper to learn about Dr. Maté and knew right away, I needed to read his books. One I was really drawn to is titled: Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers. I watched his video on this topic via YouTube and was thrilled with his teaching and have been sharing it with friends and family. I believe most parents do try their best, however, our current social and educational system are set up to accommodate our hectic working lifestyle and not always our children.

For this Mother’s Day, I would like to share this title with you. It illustrates why some of our modern methods may not be the best for kids as it goes against their natural instincts to bond and learn. He also included countless studies to prove his points. I highly recommend it.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there! You are all doing an amazing job.

Sara Au Yeong