Interview with Suzanne Kamata

Suzanne Kamata is the editor of Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering. This is a thought-provoking anthology written by mothers from across the world (including me!) which I reviewed on this blog in May.

Suzanne is a fascinating person. She lives in rural Japan with her Japanese husband and bicultural twins and writes to “keep herself sane”. On her blog, Gaijin Mama, you can read about her every day struggles to comply with the rigors of Japanese life.

The Weekly Telegraph asked me to interview Suzanne and the feature is published this week. I asked Suzanne about the concept of “home”, her reasons for blogging and whether her Japanese in-laws approved of her first novel...

“Raising a mixed-race family in Japan can be hard” – Expat Telegraph

Gardening with Children

The purpose of this blog entry is to link to a piece I wrote for Gaijin Mama, Suzanne Kamata’s blog (Suzanne is editor of Call Me Okaasan). It’s a “day in the life”, a series Suzanne did featuring contributors to the anthology. I meant to post the link when it came out in May but I was busy and distracted and time passed.

I post it today because it mentions my gardening efforts with the children at B’s nursery – we planted carrots when I wrote that piece, they all died. Only two out of nine sweet pea plants survived transplanting. The slugs ate all the lettuce. Gardening with toddlers, I wrote, is a balance between the children enjoying the experience and successful growing. They have to participate therefore the planting won’t be perfect. They might eat blue slug pellets therefore you can’t use them (and the organic child friendly ones don’t work!) They love to water so some plants are swamped – or poisoned by the bubbles in the water-play water they all enthusiastically used one day!

Today, at last, was different. I decided it was time to harvest the potatoes (the second batch we planted because the first lot rotted!) The children loved groping around in the soil and were so excited to pull out potatoes and carry the basket of our harvest proudly into nursery. I’m glad to be passing on my burgeoning love of gardening. I find it therapeutic and satisfying (when things grow). I’ve found that being interested in the garden helps me accept different weather and enjoy all seasons – I’m now pleased when it rains! Right now it’s boom time; raspberries, broad beans, sweet peas, courgettes, gooseberries, all picked with Baby J grizzling at my feet because she’s yet to appreciate their appeal.

Mommy Bloggers

This week, doing research for an interview, I found myself drawn into a network of “mommy bloggers”. I enjoyed reading their blogs. As one wrote “there is something powerful in the shared experience of motherhood, regardless of the situation or circumstances.” I find it very therapeutic to discover mothers who think about the same questions and express sentiments I am feeling, something I hope other mothers can gain from my writing. Therefore I would like to introduce some of the mommy bloggers here:

Gaijinmama – this is Suzanne Kamata, editor of Call Me Okaasan, the anthology I am featured in. She has a fascinating range of subjects on her site and writes about mothering bicultural twins in Japan.

Twinutero – Katherine Barrett is another writer who contributed to Call Me Okaasan. I am a fan as she eloquently expresses many sentiments I often feel. My favourite quote being “I love my kids; I love being a mother. But at times I feel oppressed by a job that tolerates no days off and no off days.”

Motherlogue – I was drawn in by her phrase “Motherlogue is a place to capture my words, thoughts and emotions along this journey”. I can relate to that.

black and A(broad) – I read a review of Call Me Okaasan on this blog and loved the quote “oftentimes mothers fall prey to self-sabotaging thoughts that promote isolation”.

While doing this research I've been thinking about how important it is to have a network. I am very lucky to live within a fantastic village community where I know many wonderful mothers who give me vital support through their friendship. The Internet, I've realised, has created the possibility for a parallel network of cyber-mums across the world. I'm now looking forward to reading about these global mothers and learning from their alternative perspectives.

Book Awards

I was very excited to learn that Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering, in which I have a chapter, has won recognition at the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. It has been named winner in the Parenting and Anthology categories and is third place Grand Prize winner in the nonfiction category. This is an exciting achievement for all the authors and the editor, Suzanne Kamata.

http://www.indiebookawards.com/2009_winners_and_finalists.php

I can recommend it as a very touching and thought-provoking book. If you are interested you can buy it on Amazon

Call Me Okaasan

When Revolution Baby was published I worked hard at marketing, thinking, naively, I could get it all done before Baby 3 was born. I hadn’t appreciated the effect of momentum and how one feature would lead to another. This is how I’ve been introduced to some fantastic projects, and ended up writing much more often than I’d expected with a new baby.

I was very flattered to be asked to contribute to an anthology about multi-cultural mothering. Feeling slightly unqualified I wrote about my experiences of ante-natal care when abroad, sent it off and didn’t think much more of it.

Last week the book arrived with the postman – Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering, edited by Suzanne Kamata. I started to read it and was engrossed.

The main marketing quote is “Whether through intercultural marriage, international adoption or peripatetic lifestyles, families these days are increasingly multicultural. In this collection, women around the world ponder the unique joys and challenges of raising children across two or more cultures.”

I have found it to be a very interesting commentary on motherhood. Written from alternative perspectives it allows you to see everyday issues from different angles. Some of the essays I enjoyed because I could particularly relate to the sentiments, some are thought provoking, some are beautifully and lyrically written, some expose the rawest emotions of motherhood and some show how the simplest issues can become complicated.

I think it’s a really special book about alternative family lifestyles. I have been touched by it and feel very honoured to have been involved.

You can buy it on Amazon or find out more at Suzanne’s website, http://www.suzannekamata.com/.