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What's a mother to do?

Parenting: Writing the book By Jolinda Pizzirani Last year I published a book about parenting. It was written as a collaborative effort between my sister and me, who raised our families under two sets of distinctively different conditions. My sister, Jeanice, raised her three daughters for 13 years as a single mother, while I brought up my two children with the help of my (native Italian) husband. Jeanice’s motherhood difficulties -- with having to work multiple jobs to support her family and the typical problems of being a divorceé -- contributed to her knowledge of how to handle many diverse situations. My own child-raising years were affected by our many relocations on the one hand, and my husband’s heritage on the other (for which, by the way, I am most thankful). My husband’s career in the hotel industry led to us moving frequently. New cities, new homes, new schools, new friends – all these tend to make life difficult if you do it once or twice in life. But we began to be called “gypsies” by our closest family and friends, and our children eventually grew quite tired of it. All of my husband’s relatives live in Italy, and he is a very family-oriented individual. He still has a heavy Italian accent, even after 26 years in this country. But his upbringing and knowledge from traveling the world while employed on cruise ships contributed to the wonderful way our children turned out. Everyone knows about Italians and their tempers, though, and my husband was no exception. Yet when it came to disciplining, I was always the stronger one. Now that our kids have grown up, my husband admits freely that my strong discipline during their childhood was for the best, even if he had doubted it at the time. Even better, both of our children have also told me that they really appreciate the way I taught them the proper way to behave – especially when they see a child who is a screaming, yelling brat! Despite the diverse challenges Jeanice and I had, all of our children grew up to be wonderful, well-rounded young adults. Apparently this impressed the people we encountered, because over the years, many friends, acquaintances and family members asked us for advice and help in raising their children. Jeanice and I finally decided that if we could help other first-time mothers by answering questions, giving guidance and reassurance, it would be a very worthwhile endeavor. I had already written three novels (of a metaphysical nature) while holding down a full-time job, but had not had any luck getting them published. Then a year or so ago, I was contacted by a publisher who had read an excerpt from one of my books on the Internet. His interest in publishing one of my novels led to my sending him our just-finished book on raising kids. To our delight, the book came out in print in April of 2000, and my novels will be published soon. Our strong convictions about how to properly raise a child stood us in good stead, and it is that advice we give freely in this book. We purposely wrote in a lighthearted, easy-to-read style that would appeal to other mothers. We added true, humorous (and often touching) anecdotes while we tried to present our advice, helpful hints and suggestions for succeeding in the role of parent. It deals with subjects ranging from “Birth” to “Breastfeeding”, from “Step-parents” to “Santa” and from “Toilet training” to “Teenagers.” My own main personal recommendation? Smile, laugh and be supportive and happy together. Life is short. Don’t waste a minute of it. About the author: Jolinda Pizzirani, a Santa Barbara native, now lives in San Jose, California. She has grown children aged 21 and 24. She is the co-author of "What's a Mother to do? The ABC's of Raising a Child”, Hollis Books. Her sister, Jeanice Lugo is the other co-author. Jolinda’s email is jolindap@nohaucorp.com © 2001 Siliconmom

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