Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Roosevelt Island Mom Grew Up On The Rock, Moved And Returns With Her Family - Suggests Ways For Rock Parents To Help Each Other Out

Reported previously on activities available for Roosevelt Island Moms and kids.

Last week, I met with a Roosevelt Island Mom, Juliana, who grew up here on the Rock, left and has returned with her family. Juliana shares these thoughts on Roosevelt Island and suggestions for local parents to help each other.

Roosevelt Island Parent's - aka Rock Parents

Hi there! If your a parent like myself you probably have 7.7 seconds to read this. If your not, then please go enjoy a glass of wine for me.

Here goes. Short & Sweetly, I grew up here a long time ago, before trains, and Starbucks and when the red bus was free. When we used to call it the Rock, hence the reference "aka Rock Parents"

I loved it here and considered it to be a magical place to grow up. I have now returned with my husband and 2 year old son and though it's changed as things do, it still is pretty magical and wonderful .

Returning as a parent I have noticed that many services or activities offered seems often scattered and we all get lost with when, where, how & my favorite , how much? My goal here is to be able to create one place, one group and section dedicated to serve as hub for all subjects that pertain to kids and parents here on our island. And here goes the master plan.

Step 1 - Let's all send an e-mail to : rooseveltislandparents@gmail.com. We briefly introduce ourselves, share contact info and with that, hold our first get together where we can exchange ideas and get to know each other.

Step 2 - Create one activities calendar, where we merge Roosevelt Island Kids programs, the Library groups and others so that we can log on and see clearly and easily one calendar that holds all this information.

Step 3 - Create a classified's list where we sell and or exchange all our endless baby, toddler, kid stuff. Also offer our own services to each other, I recently ordered cupcakes with a mom here and it was eons better and more affordable than commuting to the city and she made some extra money, perfect!

Step 4- Celebrate making parenting as community a success and easier on all of us.

While we are here I decided to add a picture of me and my offspring so that maybe some of you will already say to yourselves." Ah yes this is the mom that's always walking around with a scooter, a basketball and a hot dog puppy!" Looking forward to connecting soon and hopefully we will truly create our own village of friends and family to honor the saying that it does take a village to raise a child!

3 comments :

"Us and Them" said...

Awesome!

CheshireKitty said...

Excellent idea!

Eva B. said...

HI Juliana, thank you so much for your initiative! We have a Roosevelt Island Parents e-mail list which you and everyone interested is very welcome to join here:

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/island-babies

(it is called "babies" because our children were babies when we started it, but they are growing and there are moms with children up to 6 years old now. You have to have or create a google account in order to join).

There are currently over 90 moms on the list and we are sharing many ideas, about activities with children for stay at home moms, daycare options, selling or donating items, contacts to RI babysitters etc. Once you join, you can check out all past posts on the website.

Also, I just became a RIRA Common Council member and one of my goals is to create a comprehensive family guide for Roosevelt Island parents, published and updated regularly either in the WIRE or/and on this Blog (perhaps as a special section here). I already put together a calendar with activities for parents with young children on RI and close-by which was published here a few months ago. I fully agree with you that we need one place where as much as possible information can be found (I just learned two days ago from one mom that there are dance classes here on the island for children starting 18 months of age I didn't know about).

Another two things we are currently working on besides the Family Guide is a Play room share project, where moms host open play sessions in their buildings play rooms for the winter, as well as trying to organize Baby/Toddler swim classes on the island.

It would be great to work together on all this.

All my best,

Eva