Supermum Edition: Namita Mehra
It’s been a year since Circuit Breaker. Reflect on these #supermum stories from 2020
Tell us a little bit about yourself. What is your line of work? Do you have any kids?
I'm Namita Mehra, the Founder of Indian Spicebox, author and freelance food and parenting writer. I have two children, Anya is 18 months old and Shivum is 7.How has transiting to WFH been like for you during the COVID-19 circuit breaker?How have you juggled work and kids? I have been working from home for the last 5 years, so I'm pretty used to WFH thankfully! However I am not used to it being such a full house all the time. My husband usually travels a lot and my son goes to Singapore American School. Juggling home-schooling (distance learning) on top of my usual workload is challenging, and on top of that I'm working on finishing up a new children's book that is due for submission to the publisher mid-May... it's all happening at the same time! Plus planning 3 meals a day... it's non-stop really!
What have been the challenges and rewards during this circuit breaker period for you the family? It's definitely challenging to not have a break from the schedule. It gets a little monotonous sometimes, and I obviously really miss our friends and family loads. I miss going out to eat and even just going down to the pool with the family. As for rewards, it has been a good time to reset and really think about how much we take for granted and how much we have to grateful for. Lots of wonderful meals together, movie nights and game nights, enjoying biking by the river, enjoying zoom calls and video calls with friends and family. I'm grateful I can still do my yoga and personal training sessions via zoom. I am also doing a LOT of writing, cooking, teaching (my son)... I guess on most days I'm being pretty productive!
What does Mother’s Day mean to you? How will you be celebrating Mother’s Day this year? Mother's Day is a sweet celebration for all of us mums around the world! I would love to just have the day off and do nothing! Maybe even take a nap. Watch a bunch of Netflix and eat chocolate in bed, haha! I'll probably be bored by 3pm, but a mom can dream right? I'd love a delicious meal (ordered in of course!) and a nice bottle of bubbles. Oh and how about I get to choose the movie for a change? Haha! We know you enjoy good food and cooking at home, do you have any kid friendly recipes you can share? One of our favourite family-friendly recipes (even my 18 month old loves this!) is a wonderful chicken soup recipe. This is from my children's book, THE MAGIC SPICEBOX, and we cook it at least 2-3 times a month! It is a comforting and flavourful dish with immunity-boosting turmeric and other non-spicy spices, that can be enjoyed with rice or noodles.
