Being a MOM, sharing some tips and reality…

“God doesn't require us to succeed, he only requires that you try.” 
― Mother Teresa

Amazed at how life changed after being a Mommy, to two beautiful kids. I am thrilled… but feel unsure like many in my boat.. I am sure would agree.

The journey from an independent working woman to a full time Mommy has deprived me of the many abilities to have a full time career,  having to not deal with routine to do things at odd hours, or simply do nothing or anything. They were past luxuries!

This post is not about the rumblings of a Mommy, but about little things that women can adopt to change their living.

Here is a list of habits I inculcated in my little ones to ensure that they become independent soon:

This is a piece of my journey I will be glad to know your tips, feel free to leave your list in the comment section at the end of this post, may be we can together arrive at a better comprehensive list. Looking to learn more from you. 

Please contribute your learning!

- Provide ample mingling opportunity- start from as early as 1.18 years to 2 years.

Kids learn to manage themselves in groups this has benefits later on when they go to school. An early start in this arena helps them learn an important life skill- Team bonding and you can peacefully be rest assured that your toddler will know how to survive in groups as he grows.

- Encourage your little one to start eating and bathing independently

This can be started right after potty training your young one as by that time they start to follow instructions. This will teach them self-dependence and in a way helps to foster good hygiene habits.

- Self reading and self-play

I started by initially reading rhymes and pictorial story books to develop interest, slowly they picked up.

Now I buy them interesting books and they like to explore. I am blessed with two kids so introducing self-play was relatively easy, games like UNO, Carom Board, the good old SNAKES & LADDER, LUDO, CHESS etc. believe me kids love these activities. We only need to introduce them in the right way.

- Minimize dependence

Now this might be a little unconventional but I think it works wonders to ask the little ones to do tasks on their own as much as possible, things like dropping to school bus, applying paste on tooth brush, socializing independently etc.

Some might differ as we are traditionally taught to be servicing our kids, so per that standard we might be giving them a dose of extra freedom, but I believe this teaches kids to be responsible for the freedom they received and teaches an important life skill- Ownership.

If they commit a mistake they pay for it and learn to rectify errors on their own!

Now these were some things for the kids, what about us the moms.

It’s fine to want your dreams, to be living

Have a mission apart from being a Mommy.

“A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires.” 

― Paulo Coelho

See my next post on “So you think you are a Mommy born to be? Are you truly connected?”  Next on my blog watch this space!

Who are the rapidly evolving Indie Author's?

I first read this word on a Google+ community post, being new to the jargon's of the publishing world I imagined it to mean an author from India LOL, ......truly my ignorance! 

Not convinced and secretly convinced about the bizarreness of my definition I finally hit Google search and wow the new world was reveled!

Image From The Net.

I researched and stumbled upon few very interesting facts about the so called "Indie Author".

I am sure there are people out there wondering like I did, hence sharing my insights, maybe it will help the beginners like me!

Know the world of the new and rapidly evolving Indies through my eyes!

Author's, many of us would eventually anyways fall in this category.

Who are the Indie Authors?
 Indie is a short-form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to the fields of literature, Art etc., however for the sake of this post let us talk only about "The Indie Author", in my opinion it can mean any of the following categories of writers:

- Debut writers who take the self publishing route, and manage all the activities associated with publishing on their own like Editing, proofreading, cover design, buying/owning the ISBN, Printing, Sales and Marketing, Book Promotions, Book Distribution etc.They have the option to hire experts to do some of these activities, but they are independent -  Indie and choose their own course!

- Writers/Authors who choose the vanity publishing houses to publish their books. Since these are small independent publishing houses they are Indie.

- Authors/Writers who are published by the traditional top six Publishing Houses, but their books are now out of print choose this course to make the content available on Kindle/Nook etc. E-book formats.

- Authors who have published one or two books through the traditional publishers, and later choose to go the independent route. (This is done since the indies get to keep better profit margin from their book sales, also since they manage most of the publishing activities on their own they cut on costs, their are no middle men to eat up on the margin cost.) quite a few advantages in contrast to the traditional path.

There is quite a bit of debate all over the publishing world about "who the Indie is?", the above is my gathering from researching, It would be great to hear, what you think about the 'Indie Author'?.

Few interesting recent facts about the Indie Publishing arena:

-Penguin announce their own self-publishing arms

This discovery genuinely amazed me, I wondered: why would Penguin want to do this? It sounded crazy, but then I realized that the paradigm shift from Traditional to the Indie route is immensely evident in the publishing world. The Indie advantages seem to be overtaking the traditional publishing good charms. It in a way is a question of survival in the digital world, this I feel is where the Indie writer dominates.

- Are there doors that are closed for an Indie Author?

In my research one aspect that was evident is the fact that as an Independent Author we do not have all the doors open for us. Sad but true many writing organisations do not consider you to be a true Author if you are only self published. 

We cannot be nominated for an Edgar and many other such literary honors!

This can be debated hence, I would be glad to hear what you think?

My bottom line after this research is that it ultimately boils down to your aspirations as a writer, if you want the awards and do not care about other things like freedom of expression etc. then Indie route is not for you.

There are authors who simply want to write good books and get them out there for people to read they do not really care much about the literary credits. 

They are content, being truly Indies!

It is an authors pick ultimately!

An Author's Hope....
"When I am dead, I hope it may be said:
'His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.'- Hilaire Belloc