Monday, January 5, 2009

Featured Mama on Monday: Angie Fitzpatrick

To celebrate the fabulous family-friendly community we enjoy here in Portland, we feature local mamas and professionals interview-style or, when we are feeling wild, some other format. Featured Mama on Monday and Friday Professional Features.

Here is our first Featured Mama on Monday!

Angie Fitzpatrick

Tell us a bit about you and your family:
I've been married for twleve years and have two kids, Ferguson 3 and Adaira almost 10 months. We live in inner SE with our overly friendly dog Dora and very sproingy cat Pilchard. My chickens are named Dot, Goldie and Sheena and I will begin tending bees this spring. I love to garden, relish the smell of fresh, wet dirt and find it very cleansing to pull weeds. I knit, but really only in the winter and sew when I can. I read a great deal, usually at night before I go to bed. I consider myself a feminist but hate the media attached stigma that comes with that term. I support other non-profits in any way that I can. I believe in being part of the collective good. I like being of service to others.

Professionally I'm the Program Director of a non-profit: Baby Blues Connection. I had an incredible amount of anxiety during my first pregnany and depression compounded by anxiety afterwards. Although I knew what to make it somewhat better for myself the second time around, it still happened with my girl child although not nearly as bad. These personal experiences, as well as the others the BBC volunteers have grace our organization with credibilty and a wonderful, deep sense of understanding. When a mom calls our line we can truly say we understand because we have been there. I love that as a mom I am able to help others through their tough times. I value the knowledge that having a perinatal mood disorder has given me. It informs my parenting, it informs the way I talk to other mamas.

Share some mama wisdom:
Patience really is a virtue. I have a mantra "I have infinite patience" and because I really don't, I find myself chanting it often.

Share some mama wisdom that has been passed on to you:
I find myself being my mom a lot and way back when, before kids, this would have really freaked me out but now, I'm more accepting of it. We are our mothers for the most part. I smile like her, I laugh like her, I make cookies and let Ferguson measure out the flour even though he spills it on the floor, just like my mom would have done. I see her looking at me the same what I look at my kids. I really love and admire my mom and for these reasons, being very much like her isn't bad at all.

Share your favorite mamaplace (favorite place to go with or without the children):
I really like to stay about the neighborhood. I like knowing that our neighbors know what our kids look like, what we look like, where we live. Hopefully we'll never need their assistance say if they wander out of the yard and get lost but it's nice to know that they probably would be able to direct them to our home. Otherwise I suggest the zoo. If you have a membership, one can't feel too bad about only spending an hour there or holding fast to that widely used threat, "if you don't start listening to me, we're going to go home".

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