Happy 5th Blogiversary

June is always a big month for milestones, and this year, it’s a big one. Besides the usual weddings and graduations, my birthday is also in June, and it just so happens that HapaMama was also started in June of 2008. The site launched around the same time Big Brother finished Kindergarten. That was also Little Brother’s first year in preschool. With several mornings a week all to myself, I finally had the time and clarity of mind to start writing some of my thoughts about raising a Hapa family.

At first the thoughts came tumbling onto the screen, such as my two-year-old wondering why his hair is brown or my efforts not to be a Tiger Mother (before Amy Chua even coined the phrase “Tiger Mother”). Then there were those periods when I went months without writing a thing, worried about what others would think and second-guessing whether anybody was even interested in reading about the particulars of a Taiwanese-English-Irish-American family.

Since then, I’ve met many wonderful people who share the same vision of raising culturally-aware and thoughtful kids. I appreciate each and every comment and the message I’ve received.  I’ve had the opportunity to write for bigger websites and to speak about mixed-race and multicultural issues. This June, the child who was in Kindergarten when I started this blog graduated from elementary school. Just like my kids, my blog has grown. As the subjects of those cute toddler stories now have opinions and identities of their own, I find myself being more judicious about the anecdotes I share. My goal in telling you the funny thing my kid did is not so much for a chuckle of a warm and fuzzy moment, but rather to start conversations about things that are going on in society today.

And incidences like the recent brouhaha over the “controversial” Cheerios commercial featuring a mixed-race family are reminders that discussions about family and race are still relevant — perhaps more than ever.

So Happy 5th Blogiversary and thank you for helping to make HapaMama what it is today.