Mommybites Chit-Chat: Conversations with luminaries, entrepreneurs and influencers in the parenting world
Background
My name is Erin Ziering. You may know me as the wife of Ian Ziering or from our family and lifestyle website, At Home with the Zierings. I grew up in a small farm town in Ohio. My father owned a Christmas Tree Farm. It was a magical childhood, but as I grew up I started craving a city life. I decided to go to college to become a nurse. I loved caring for people and nursing had some amazing opportunities. I worked as a cardiac nurse at the Cleveland Clinic until I took a job as a traveling nurse in 2009 in Los Angeles. I only lived in Los Angeles for about 6 months when I met my very handsome husband, Ian Ziering, at a pool party!
He proposed 3 months later, and we were married shortly after that! When I got pregnant with Mia, Ian and I both knew that it was right for me to become a stay-at-home-mom. We didn’t have any family in the Los Angeles area to help us out, and with his crazy travel schedule I wanted the girls to always have a parent around. I have dedicated the past, almost 6 years now, to being a mother. I absolutely love motherhood. My husband, and his passion for life, inspires me every day to be the best mother I can be.
If I had to give one piece of parenting advice, it would be to never, ever compare yourselves to other families. Everyone has their struggles. Just always do the best you can for your family and yourself!
Some of my favorite parenting products, (besides wine and electronics!)
For restaurants and travel:
- Melissa and Doug – Water Wow pens- these are amazing for trips and restaurants! They can go back and re-water color the page after it dries too!
- WikiSticks – These things can keep kids busy for at least 30 minutes which some days can feel like an eternity
- Konfidence – We love their swim jackets, we use them at the beach here and have used them on many trips with the girls
- Babo Botanicals – we never go out without their sunscreen, they have great all-natural sunscreen products
- Silikids – their straw tops and cup sets are really convenient to take in the car, not to mention fun to use!
For clothing and accessories:
- A great pair of shoes – We love pediped. I just really hate seeing little ones running around in a pair of shoes that are not supportive!
- The Wet Brush – since buying this brush I honestly believe the amount of tears in our house have decreased by half! It can brush right through a knot!
For the Parents:
We just bought the Chrysler Pacifica. I used to swear I would never drive a minivan but honestly it has changed my life. The kids have their own TV screens in the back. It has a vacuum for all the smashed goldfish on my floor. The floors lift up and I can store all our kids’ junk under them so no one can see the mess! I love it! The seats automatically fold into the floor and there is so much space for everything we need.
The most common question I get asked by other moms is if my life is as perfect as it looks on Instagram. This always makes me laugh. We love our life and love sharing our journey, but unfortunately the messy parts do not look as pretty in pictures. I use Snapchat for our fun weekend outings to show our crazy parenting style (like Ian causing Penna to crash on her scooter). But the stressors do not make it into our photos. There usually isn’t a camera around during those moments.
On our blog, I am sharing some of my journey about dealing with infertility while trying to have a third child, and coming up next week will be a look into my health scares. Everyone’s journeys are not as pretty as filters make them look, but the discussions and words in my micro-blogs on Instagram, and our At Home with the Zierings blog, will give everyone a deeper look at what a “picture perfect” family may really be going through.
Sending love to all you the mothers out there!
With gratitude,
Erin Ziering
IG @erinziering
athomewiththezierings.com
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The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog contributor’s. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. Writers may have conflicts of interest, and their opinions are their own.
