My first week!

Hello again everyone!

I am so excited to be going on this journey with all of you! This first week has felt a little crazy, overwhelming, and exciting. I have been thinking for a while now to try and do my own business, but I kept going back and forth because I wasn't sure if I could actually do it and I didn't want to fail, but now I have decided to finally give it a go because you'll never know if you don't try – right?

I have been an Early Childhood Educator for three years but also have many more years' experience working with children through babysitting, nannying, and tutoring. I love watching children grow and seeing the thrill of discovery and understanding on their face as they learn. It is so important for us to help facilitate and inspire their play and encourage their independence because this will build confidence, self-esteem, and so much more in the future. Children are naturally curious, so I want to create activities and resources that help to nurture and expand that curiosity. Each child is so unique and capable in their own way and their own time. It is because of this uniqueness that it is so important to have developmentally appropriate activities for all children, and that is exactly why I would love to have all your guys' input on what you might want to see more of for your child(ren) or a child(ren) you know or resources for yourselves that might be helpful. So please do not hesitate to send me an email (support@printaplay.com) or fill out the contact form.

When I became a mom, I was absolutely over the moon happy. I gave birth to a beautiful, happy, and healthy baby girl. I was so proud, and I had this picture in my head of how it was all going to go. I was on maternity leave for 18 months and thought I had so much time to get her on a sleep schedule, get her eating well, have her well adjusted for all the transitions to come when I went back to work, whilst all still taking care of myself and nurturing the relationships with my husband, family, and friends. As I am sure many of you know, it is not as easy as 1,2,3. Not only does it take a lot of time, effort, and love to take care of our children and others around us, but it also takes so much to take care of ourselves. I am really bad at the last one – showing myself enough love. It is always hardest to be kind to ourselves, and I, being a perfectionist, found it extremely tough to see that what I was doing was good enough. I had to learn to give myself some grace and see that my daughter was happy, she was healthy, and so I could focus a little bit on taking care of myself as well. It is still a journey I am working on, and we are currently expecting baby number 2, and we are so excited, but I am also trying to be more mindful of myself and my health, because if I am happy and healthy then I am the best mom I can be for my children, the best wife to my husband, and the best person for my friends and family. If there are any other moms or dads or any other people who are supporting a child(ren) out there that face the same struggle(s) as me, I just want to say that it is okay, that we are human, we are allowed to make mistakes, we are allowed to struggle, we can ask for help, and we are allowed to be happy.

Earlier in my post I mentioned going back to work, and I did. Unfortunately, the workplace I went back to did not work out because of internal reasons happening at the workplace, so I applied for a new position at another childcare centre. My daughter, Ellyn, would be coming with me to work and she was just 18 months old so I knew the transition would be a tough one. She would have to see me with other children and watch me walking in and out of her classroom. There were a lot of tears, but her teacher was great at comforting her and the team that worked there in the day-to-day were incredibly supportive. Unfortunately, the childcare owner was not as supportive and decided that it may not be the right place for Ellyn and me. It hadn't even been a full two months! I was very blindsided by it all because I had been receiving supportive comments and conversations from him prior, and Ellyn was improving with the transitions which he did not see as he was not there every day. So, I decided to leave because I did not want to work somewhere where my child and I did not feel welcome or supported. I was sad to leave the team of lovely ECEs but in the end it was the right choice for myself and Ellyn. I guess what I am trying to say is that my plan did not turn out the way I thought. I thought it would be so simple to just go back to work and raise a child, but it definitely is tougher than it looks, especially when the support is just not there.

Now, I am focusing all my time and energy on Ellyn, family, friends, starting my online business, and myself. I have so many ideas and exciting plans in the works so I really hope that you will all stay tuned and share my website and social media accounts with others so we can get the word out there!

If you haven't already, you can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. The links are all on the bottom of the page of my website.

Hope to see you all back here soon!

Tiana