May 13th, 2008 mlovings
Geoff had the pleasure of interviewing Stefania Pomponi Butler today - professional writer and blog editor/producer of CityMama AND Kimchi Mamas. Known for her “keen eye for observation and her sharp wit”, Stefania, proud mother to “Bunny” and “Wallie” and wife to “J.”, writes about style, food, pop culture, and parenting with her own unique twist.
GEOFF: The parent blogosphere is extremely diverse. You recently wrote that you are a 1.5 generation Korean American. Does your cultural heritage provide a different view of the parent blogosphere?
STEFANIA: I am actually a 5th generation Korean-American and a 2nd generation Italian-American. My family on my Korean side arrived in Hawaii (an American territory back then) in 1898, and my father is Italian—he lives in Rome. This means that I don’t speak Korean but I do speak Italian! My cultural heritage provides a different view of the parent blogosphere only in that there are certain cultural practices particular to Asians or Italians that I can instantly relate to when I read other Korean-American and/or Italian parenting blogs. Other than that, the fact that I am Korean-Italian doesn’t change my view. I still have the same breastfeeding, diaper-changing, potty-training, preschool search, what do I make for dinner, how do I stick to my budget, “my kids are driving me nuts!” issues that most other parents have.
GEOFF: On CityMama you write a lot about food and politics. Which do you prefer to write about and why?
STEFANIA: On CityMama, I prefer to write about food and how I, as a busy mom of two, strive everyday to create delicious and healthy meals for my family. Cooking is my “arts and crafts.” It’s what I live to do. I am trying to raise children who appreciate good food, but that doesn’t necessarily mean “gourmet.” I do love to cook and am constantly improving my skills and repetoire of recipes, but for me good food means locally grown or sourced products as much as possible, non-GMO ingredients, a respect for seasonal produce, knowing where our food comes from, and making vegetables appealing without resorting to culinary chicanery. That being said, sometimes Happy Meals make everything better. For parents, too.
I do touch on politics on CityMama, but prefer to blog about those issues on MOMocrats.com. I co-founded the blog with two other noted parent bloggers and now we’ve grown to 22 progressive Democrat mom bloggers who write about issues that affect our families—like education, healthcare, poverty, and war—which, when you think about it, are issues that affect everyone.
GEOFF: In your mind, how do CityMama and Kimchi Mamas contribute to the conversation respectively?
STEFANIA: CityMama is really the place for me to blog about my life, my beautiful family, and what we eat. Kimchi Mamas is a culture and identity blog where we strive to connect with like-minded individuals. I measure the success of Kimchi Mamas by every email or comment we receive that says, “Thank God I found you. You relate to me and my experience raising a family.”
GEOFF: What could you leave behind in the parent blogosphere?
STEFANIA: Do you mean what would I like to leave behind as my stamp on the blogosphere? I hope that my recipes and stories about cooking for my family inspire other parents to conquer their fear of the kitchen and to cook for their kids more. To me there is no higher compliment than my girls giving me a thumbs up after tasting their meal and saying, “Mmmmm! This is really good!”
And, I know it’s a cliché to say it, but I also hope that when my kids are old enough, they can read CityMama to know just how much I love them. It really is my tribute to them the best way I know how. And if it’s around 30 years from now, when they have their own children, I hope they can read CityMama to know that they are not alone in their frustrating and joyful parenting moments.
GEOFF: What do you hope your children will get out of social media?
STEFANIA: To tell you the truth, I haven’t really thought about this question much. Because my husband and I are both work in the tech field and are so connected to our laptops, we purposely strive to keep our kids away from the computer. They are 5 and 3 so there is time for that. Recently they both received Webkinz and we went onto the site to register their pets. Both of them were turned off immediately preferring to actually play with the pets rather than buy them food and furniture online. That’s age-appropriate, I think, and is totally fine with me. My five-year-old gets a big kick out of Twitter, though. She cracks up everytime she sees the “What Are You Doing?” at the top of the screen. It makes me wonder what she is thinking. She is also at the age where she can read everyone’s tweets so I have to be careful not to Twitter around her. Thanks to one of my tweets, she knows that “shit” is spelled S-H-I-T. Not one of my finer parenting moments.
CityMama can be found at: http://citymama.typepad.com/citymama/
Posted in Blogger Interviews, Moms and the Internet | 3 Comments »
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