Meet our parents!
Our parents are members of our Parenting Now Team. They are parents who have "been there", who have experienced the joys and challenges of parenting and they are ready to chat about your parenting experiences. Their online schedules vary but you can connect with anyone via email, at any time.
Leave us a message. Click on the 'Leave A Message' button for any parent and they will respond to your email as soon as possible. Or email us at hello@parentingnow.ca
Maryanne Experienced Parent
Hi, my name is Maryanne. I came into parenting with a few issues from childhood, so had some very specific plans for how I was going to raise my kids. However, nothing changes our plans faster than our children! I wanted a daughter–what better way to resolve issues with my own mom by having a daughter to love. This is not how my parenting story unfolded, though. My first beautiful son came into the world with Asperger’s. I missed all the signs and was very surprised when his Kindergarten teacher asked to speak with me at the end of his first day of school. My reaction was “wait, you mean not all kids are like this?” My second child came into the world identified as a girl and transitioned to male at the age of 16. Both of my boys are now young adults and living the lives they are meant to have. I am so proud of them and I love being their mum.
I know that children are our best teachers and mine have taught me a very valuable lesson: love the child I have, not the child I expected them to be when I was planning my life. When the challenges were going on in our home, I did not have anyone who could share and understand my experiences. Sometimes, you just need to be able to talk with someone who has been there!
Diane Experienced Parent
Diane Experienced Parent
Hi, I’m Diane. I am the manager of all of our parenting education and support services at KW Counselling Services—and am very proud to be part of the Parenting Now Team. I have worked with, chatted with, cried with and laughed with MANY parents over the course of my career and am forever inspired and humbled by the stories I have heard. I am also a parent–of a truly amazing young woman. We have certainly had our ups and downs and, truth be told, I continue to struggle with how to parent an adult child who lives on the other side of the country! She has taught me a lot about myself and my parenting. Some of it great, some of it not so great. I have learned how to love and value her for herself and to let go of the little things that just don’t matter. Now, my daughter is a parent herself! And, quite an amazing one, I am pleased to say. I would love to talk with you about your parenting journey. What have you learned along the way?
Omkalthoum Experienced Parent
My name is Omkalthoum, and I am a mother to four beautiful, and wildly different children. I first became a mother thirty-three years ago, and while that may seem like a long time, in many ways I feel it went by in a flash. The first time I held my son, I felt many different emotions: fear, self-doubt, and overwhelming happiness, hope and love. Three more children followed: one boy and two lovely girls. Unbeknownst to me, each experience and each child brought something different. Because every child is unique and special. They have taught me so much about myself: how to love, how to learn, how to be patient (although there were many, many occasions where my patience was tested!) and most importantly, what values I want to pass on to them to make this world a better place.
Parenting is difficult. We have had many curve balls thrown at us, including moving to a completely new continent and facing a culture very different from our own. There were so many moments of fatigue and stress,and where I felt everything was going wrong no matter how hard my husband and I tried. While I very quickly learned that parenting is not easy, my experiences have also taught me that if I am willing to work hard with my children, and to listen and respect them, it will always be worth it. Discovering who I want to be as a parent has been a crazy journey, but what my children have taught me is that I will never give up. We have all learned and grown together, and while it certainly has not been easy, the love and support we show one another other makes everything else worth it. It has been thirty-three years since I first became a mother, and I am proud to say that I have raised four children whom I am very proud of. We listen to one another when we disagree, we respect and treat each other as we would want to be treated, and we vow to be there for each other no matter what, trying to make the world a better place together.
I also speak Arabic so you can connect with me in Arabic or English.
