SPECIAL POST: Plea for Japan from Sunny Springer and WMB

Our writer, Sunny Springer, is still searching for news of her friends and their families in the Fukushima area of Japan, her home country. As suggested by Sunny, World Moms Blog is providing a link to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ donation page for the Japan earthquake and tsunami disaster relief.

Sunny also asks that we keep Japan in our thoughts and/or prayers at this time.  We are thinking of you and Japan, Sunny.

We hope our global community will consider Sunny and World Moms Blog’s plea for Japan, if possible.  To donate, please click here.

— World Moms Blog

Photo credit to http://www.33ff.com/flags/worldflags/Japan_flag.html.

NEW JERSEY, USA: Technology: Good or Bad?

It’s 3:30pm. My youngest son of five and I have just piled through the front door, bags of groceries in my hands and his lunch tin in his. He scrambles off to the kitchen, and the first thing he does is to not look for a snack. Instead, he starts playing a game on my computer at the corner of our kitchen.

3, 2, 1…There it is: “Can someone please turn on mom’s computer for me?”, he yells, banging his fists on my desk. There is something wrong with this picture, I realize. (more…)

A Japanese Mother’s New Traditions

Japanese Toy CatalogueToy magazines are popping up in the mail almost everyday. As soon as my youngest son learns that a new one has arrived, he goes through every page so diligently, devouring detail upon detail. When he finally returns them to the pile at the corner of my kitchen, his fingerprints are on every page.  The important pages are bent, and some items are marked. It’s plain to see that the holidays are coming soon….

And, I am looking forward to them. Maybe it’s because my children are going to be off from school—I can sleep in with them. Or maybe it’s because I am still new to the whole beautiful idea of the holidays in the United States.

Growing up in Japan, I did not celebrate Christmas as a child. Though my family is Catholic, and we always attended mass on the night of Christmas Eve, there was no family feast or exhilarating exchanging of gifts. Besides, school was still open on the morning of Christmas Eve. It wasn’t that surprising, considering we would go to school six days a week in Japan.

(more…)