About

Hello and welcome to my space in the Blogosphere. My name is Suchitra and I currently live in sunny California with my husband, two kids, two dogs, and a pet parrot. Just kidding..but only the dogs and parrot part.

I was born and raised in India where I also worked as a journalist for a number of years before moving to the United States 17 years ago to pursue my master’s degree. I graduated with a M.A. in Communication Studies and after gaining some work experience in the field for a couple years, went on to pursue my Ph.D. in Organizational Communication. Upon graduating, I moved to Chicago having accepted the position of an Assistant Professor at one of the city’s best universities.

Three years later and while still in the Windy City, I met, fell in love with, and got married to my Canadian husband, Aaron, in a Hin-Jew wedding ceremony. Our bicultural wedding included elements from both our backgrounds and was officiated by a secular, non-denominational priestess. We enjoyed Chicago-style deep dish pizza and samosas among our other non-traditional wedding food.

A year later, I got pregnant and became a first time mom to one of the greatest blessings of my life; our son, Baby J, J, or TJ (as he is known on the blog)

Just as I was beginning to feel settled into my career and motherhood, we decided to move cross country from Chicago to San Jose (SJ) for Aaron’s new job. I had to resign from my academic position one year shy of tenure and learn to slowly accept my new role as a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM) in a new city over 2000 miles away.

A few months after our move to SJ, we welcomed our daughter, Baby E or Teju to our family…thereby promoting me from SAHM to one kid to SAHM to TWO!

The struggle of transitioning from a professional identity to a mom-exclusive identity has not been easy. I have good days and bad and some really great days too! As you will see, I use this blog to write (and sometimes, vent) about these moments and life experiences. In addition, as a multicultural, interracial, inter-religious, and international couple raising our multiracial kids, we have some unique situations that we manage with lots of love, a little bit of compromise, and some laughter. You will read about these events on this blog too.

Also on this blog, you will read other areas of interest that keep me going. Even though the posts are predominantly related to Motherhood, I have a few Personal Essays, in addition to Recipes that I develop myself, and Reviews of products that I have personally used or experienced, among others. You can also catch my posts related to my Pregnancy and Postpartum days.

In addition to being a former journalist, professor, a current SAHM and blogger, I am also a published (academic) author, and founder and editor-in-chief of a multicultural parenting magazine, the Parent Voice, (launched in August).

I am available for freelance writing work of the non-academic creative kind (or the academic kind with the right research project too). I can be reached at: contactsuchitra at gmail dot com. Don’t miss the Work with Me page for more information.

Please browse around and feel free to stop by and say hello to me on twitter @thephdmama. Don’t miss my family’s adventures and my experiences as a (somewhat) reluctant SAHM raising my multiracial kids – Subscribe to my weekly newsletter below. You can always unsubscribe.

I hope you enjoy my journey of motherhood, parenting, and multicultural living.

Suchitra

NEWS!!

April 13, 2017: Nationally publicized article on The Huffington Post (HuffPost)

My article, 10 Lessons I Learned After My Mother’s Death, was picked up by Huffington Post’s ‘Common Grief, a Healthy Living Initiative’ and promoted nationally. An earlier version of this article was published as a post of ThePhdMama. You can read it here.

March 8, 2017: Featured on “In Conversation With” Over Heaven’s Hill

I was interviewed by Geraldine who runs her award-winning blog, Over Heaven’s Hill and featured in her “In Conversation With” segment. You can see my post about it here and the complete interview here.

February 18, 2017: Blogger Recognition Award

I was peer-nominated twice and accepted the Blogger Recognition Award. Read complete post here

December 4, 2016: Post Featured on #GlobalBlogging

My post, Does A SAHM’s Sickness Matter More Than the Earning Partner’s? was featured as a Favorite Post on the #GlobalBlogging No. 8 link up.

November 8, 2016: Featured on #MeetTheFamily on TammyMum: A Family, Life, and Style Blog

Please click here to read the post and my answers to blogging related questions.

November 1, 2016: Blog Post Voted #1

My post, ‘Lessons from British Mom Bloggers‘ was Voted # 1 in the Week 8 series of the #FamilyFun link party by my peers – other mom bloggers. I am truly humbled and energized by the overwhelming response this post got. Thank you!!

October 25th, 2016: Featured Post

My post, ‘5 Challenges of Being A First Born‘ was a Featured Post on the #familyfun linky, the link party in which I participate the most. Hosts, Sarah and Karen are really cool folks with amazing blogs of their own. This post was picked from tens of other really, really good posts so I feel pleased to be recognized for this post. Thank you!!

October 19, 2016: Red Tricycle

The Managing Editor of the Red Tricycle Spoke Contributor Network reached out to me asking to republish my post about comparing kids. Please click on the headline, ‘Stop Comparing Kids. Now!‘ to go to their website and read the post.

October 3, 2016: First Guest Post – The Sisterhood of Moms

I wrote my very first guest post for my dear friend, Hema, at Hemas-Mixedbag. You can read the post here.
Please go check out Hema’s blog. You will love it!!

September 2, 2016: The Baby Spot, Canada

My article, “10 Guilt-Free Tips for Raising Young Kids” was published by www.thebabyspot.ca. Please click on the image to the left to go directly to the article.

August 25, 2016: The Huffington Post

I am officially a blogger on The Huffington Post! You can read my posts by clicking on the ‘H’ to the left or click the links below:

10 Lessons I Learned After My Mother’s Death
In Praise of the Good Dad Working the Second Shift
Why I Will Always Pick Up My Child

August 9, 2016: The Baby Spot, CA

I made The Baby Spot, Canada’s ‘100 Top Mommy Bloggers of 2016’. You can read the complete list by clicking on the image above.

July 29, 2016: Chatterblock.Com

I published my first non-academic article online. Click on the link below to read it. It was published on www.chatterblock.com.

July 20, 2016: Blogger of the Day

I was chosen Blogger of the Day by The Baby Spot, a Canadian Online Magazine. This was quite exciting… someone actually noticing and legitimizing the time I spend writing this blog. Thank you, The Baby Spot.