With Democracy Now! live in the background, Amma gets ready for a new day with this 360-degree revolution workout. Stop, drop and exercise your arms and legs, back and abs, with no impact to feet or knees, no need to go anywhere, no special clothes or even socks and shoes.
This 16-minute workout takes 16 minutes of your time. And you can listen to the news while you stretch and strengthen and prepare for a new day.
How can women have access to the entire health, social support structure that makes normal delivery normal?
Aravinda of Ask Amma sat down with childbirth educator Nutan Pandit at the Human Rights in Childbirth Conference that took place at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai in February 2017.
Aravinda of Ask Amma sat down with Dr. Neil Shah at the Human Rights in Childbirth Conference and asked him to explain his position that in the matter of maternal and child health, the hospital could be a risk factor, and what he recommends for higher quality outcomes in childbirth.
Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai, February 2017.
A young boy asks his father, “What happened in Kashmir?”
Those of us sheltered from the daily horrors that have become a way of life in far too much of the world may be unprepared to answer honestly when our children ask us questions like this. How do we reveal much less “explain” the violence in the world, when we don’t quite understand it ourselves?
Fred Rogers said about talking to children about such events – “look for the helpers.” In any horrible scene (e.g. that you might read in the news) there will also be people who are helping, even if it is only the reporter bringing public attention to it.
Going one step further, one can try to be a helper – even from a distance, as this father tried to do.
“B, We have to go a protest today. Do you want to come too?”
“What is this protest, Acha (Dad in Malayalam)?”
“It is about a place called Kashmir. A lot of people have been killed and blinded there by the police and the army.”
“What happened there?”
“Ok, Let me tell you…..”
Arpitha Shankar, Amma to two daughters, aged 4 and 2, in Bangalore, shares her family’s experience trying out baby wearing using a sari wrapped around baby’s Appa!
Our daughter loves to be carried everywhere… although we used to enjoy it when she was a baby, as she became heavier, carrying her for long periods left us exhausted quickly especially when we used to go for short hikes. Thats when we came across baby wearing. The DIY youtube videos are so simple to follow and a cotton saree is enough to make a comfortable sling to carry her around. The first time around we didnt get her to sit in a deep seated position so that her legs are in M position, but nevertheless, both my daughter and husband were ecstatstic. The best thing was being handsfree and doing the other chores freely with the baby happily in the sling.
Vel and his 4 year-old daughter are ready for a hike!
Ask Amma thanks Arpitha, Vel and their daughters for sharing these lovely photos.
Food Colors and Food Culture
“No race ever yet ate black bread when it could get white; nor even brown, yellow, or other mulatto tint.”
Dr. Woods Hutchinson in McClure’s magazine, 1906.
In the mass conversion towards refined and processed foods that has swept much of the world over the past few generations, many foods normally occurring in a wide variety of earth tones, became white, as if a formidable fairness cream had descended upon the food industry. White flour, white sugar, white bread, white spaghetti, white rice, white upma ravva, white urad dal occupied the markets. At first a status symbol for those who could afford them, refined foods later became a status symbol for those who need not eat the coarser grains because they lived a delicate life and could hire workers to do their heavy lifting for them. Eventually they themselves became cheaper than their whole grain counterparts, while the nutritious polish and peels were diverted to the livestock industry.
Thirty years ago, Sidney Mintz unpacked the social, economic and political context of food in his seminal work, Sweetness and Power. The history of whiteness and power with respect to food offers much to explore. While evolutionary biology may account for our predilection towards the quick calories that processed foods offer, taste and food habits evolve under a variety of influences and cultural messages. Read the rest of this entry »
With best wishes for father’s day, some inspiration from father of thirteen, Leonhard Euler:
Euler claimed that he made some of his greatest mathematical discoveries while holding a baby in his arms with other children playing round his feet….
Thanks to J J O’Connor and E F Robertson, School of Mathematics and Statistics, Scotland.
My son, who is 3.5 years old, has in the last few weeks been having a lot of discipline related issues at preschool. He screams no for everything and yells back at the teachers and his friends and refuses to participate in any group activities. He chooses to cry rather than talk to show his frustrations. What is making this worse, is that he doesn’t behave like this at home at all. Dad and I keep getting calls from school about his “bad” behavior. They want us to control his behavior as they are concerned that the other kids will pick this behavior from him. I have tried talking to him, explaining to him, bribing him, pretending to be upset with him and nothing seems to work. There have been no changes in our family or routine.
– Mama of two in Austin
How can our children learn to read in Indian languages? Where do we find children’s literature in our native languages?
Many Ask Amma readers who are well-versed in several languages would like their children to grow up with them as well. As some of us know, being children of multilingual parents, if we live in predominantly monolingual environments there is a risk of losing touch with our multilingual and cultural heritage and with the wit and wisdom expressed in particular languages. If we speak these languages every day then our children grow up understanding them but what about reading and writing?
Prasanna Rakshasadu (The Peaceful Rakshasa). Fun topic and font make a difference for beginning readers.
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Send your questions on health, hygiene, learning, discipline, sleep, sanity, serendipity, chaos and any other aspect of parenting, real or imaginary to askammanow@gmail.com
