RoyalMom

Royal Mom allows for the personal babble of Zoe Bergeman of Hillsboro Oregon.

I grew up in Hillsboro with a family of seven. Three brothers, one sister, a mom and a dad in middle class suburbia. My upbringing involved public schools, a dose of the Baptist doctrine each Sunday, and your basic patriarchal household philosophy: do as a say, not as I do; kids are to be seen and not heard clichÈ.

After high school, I moved to Walla Walla to obtain my nursing degree at Walla Walla College. I then returned to Portland Oregon to start my so-called grown up life. A girlfriend and I shared an uptown apartment that overlooked the city, and I rattled around in a í70 VW Bug.

Good times, people.

The money was good and the bills were minimal. I was living it up, experimenting with all the things that come with turning 21: clubs, bars, alcohol and others I wonít mention.

The ìgood timesî came to an end when a wild night out turned into a positive pregnancy test and a lot of unhappy family.

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

I met my husband, Jason, while I was 8 weeks pregnant. When I lost the baby at five months, Jason was my tower of support and became the man I wanted to marry. We married November 2000, and now have two children: Isaac, who is approaching three, and Xander, born January 2004.

Attempting to define my (our) spirituality, we attended a Christian community church a few times. I do call myself a generic Christian, but my personal doctrine boils down to two things:

• If it is loving it is good.
• If it is not loving it is not good.

As a result, our children are never spanked or left to cry themselves to sleep. We try to parent using a combination of Attachment and Positive parenting styles.

The rest of me can be found through the siteís navigation above.

A lot of our parenting choices seem crunchy, but really Iím just a Gap-weariní girl who drives a Toyota SUV.