Dress Down Moms

Hi there. It's Nenny With Twins here to fill in for the amazing DDM, which is a daunting task. I will do my best but please be gentle with me.

I'm a mom of two fourteen month old babies who are the centre of my universe. My very messy, poopy, loud universe. I'm sure many of you can relate.

Today we will hear from Mamacita - another twin mom - whom I have known for a very long time. I haven't met her twins but I have seen pictures and just for your visual reference, they are super-adorable. So is Mamacita. Enjoy and I will be back tomorrow.

NWT

When In Rome…or Mexico.

As a guest writer here at DDM.com, I thought I’d share with you how it has been for me, having and raising children out of the country. I have been living in Monterrey, Mexico for almost 3 years. I conceived, carried and gave birth to twin baby boys there last year. Since this site is so great for aliases, let’s call them Twin A & Twin A (we had a tough time picking names).
Put your assumptions aside because I don’t live in a hut on the beach. In my suburb, there are no Dress Down Moms. It is a very affluent city. The women don’t work, they all have nannies (more on that later) and wear their stilettos to the grocery store. I barely fit in with my track pants and flip flops. We are only 2 hours from the border of Texas so there is a lot of American influence. All the moms shop at Target and Pottery Barn and we’re all guilty of smuggling in decent diapers cross border.

Here are some of my stories. My experiences have been both good and bad, similar and different from other DDMs in Canada. But as my husband always says, these experiences are the spice of life. Some are mas picante than others!

My paediatrician is amazing. His English is better than my Spanish so we communicate just fine. He was with the boys in the delivery room and visited them 2x a day while they lived in NICU for a month. I have access to a free clinic but I prefer to pay $50 per kid, per visit. He is that good. I call his office in the morning and they always have openings that day. I have his cell phone number and am encouraged to call him. While the boys were in the NICU he would call me at home for daily updates if we didn’t see each other in person at the hospital. Once I called him on a Sunday and he left church to answer my questions. Seriously! I’m not advocating private health care because we are SO lucky in Canada to have the health system that we do but considering the medical attention my boys have needed thus far, I feel so fortunate to have access to private care. For example, a few months ago there were concerns about the size of Twin A’s head (everything is fine). Within a week we had an ultrasound, CAT scan, MRI and consults with 2 neurosurgeons. Within a week!!

Religion is huge and if I had a peso for every time someone stopped to bless the children or touch their heads to remove evil spirits (a superstition), I’d be able to buy a taco stand. Our germ-a-phobic society would freak out! When the boys were in NICU the nurses taped pray cards to their incubators, with no fear of being politically incorrect and offending us. How refreshing. When I asked the Dr. about the significance of the prayer cards (same lady on all of them) he said they are from a church 1.5 hours away where a woman saw a vision of Mary and now is a healer. He goes to this church frequently and recommended I go. He claims to have witnessed miracles there. This is our DOCTOR. A man of SCIENCE, trained in the USA, recommending that we go to this church to see a vision-seeing miracle healer. Damn straight we went. When in Rome!

The Mexican people are family obsessed. They go loco for children. Not once has anyone in Mexico made a negative comment about the fact that I have twin boys, compared to here, where I get looks of pity and sarcastic comments such as “lucky you”. I love having twin boys! My BF in TO has twin boys too and is experiencing the same harsh negativity. I told her to come to Mexico for a few days for an ego boost. You’d think with the Mexicans have such big families that kids would be less of a novelty but no, they shower love on children, even to strangers. That is a big difference between our cultures.

Nannies, Maids, Housekeepers, Muchachas, Senoras….call them what you will. They are cheap and plentiful in Mexico. I was too proud (stupid?) for years to hire one but once I was pregnant we got Minnie, then Nora, now Gloria. Gloria rocks. I pay her $32 a day and I way over pay her. But I want to keep her so that’s what I do. She comes 3x a week and does everything - dishes, laundry, cleaning, ironing, etc and looks after the boys for part of the day. When we are away she comes and pays our bills and waters our plants. She has a key to our house! I love Gloria. The Mexican Maid can be whatever you want her to be. I know people with live in maids. I know people who have a cleaning lady just one day a week. I see the maids in the grocery store, the Dr’s office and out walking the babies. The rich usually have 1 nanny per kid (yes! Per kid!), 1 nurse per newborn and 1 lady to clean the house. I only have Gloria but she is all I need. When in Rome!

I hope you enjoyed this little insight into my life south of the border. If any of you DDMs find a little extra cash in the piggy bank and time on your hands, you are always welcome to experience being a mamacita first hand. Mi casa es tu casa. Siempre. Adios amigos!!

Labels: Guest Post

posted by Dress Down Mom # 7:34 PM

Monday, August 4, 2008

When In Rome…or Mexico.

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