With the campaign dedicated to Women’s History Month we would like to introduce the moms and their daughters who believe in girl power.
Nanuka Gelashvili, representative of the Democrat Women's Organization of Samtskhe-Javakheti works on promoting women rights with her mother Marina Modebadze and daughter Keti Japaridze.
As Nanuka says her m other is the person who has played the most important part in he life and development:
Without her, I might have been somewhere else, I might have become a different person and not the one I am now. I cannot imagine my life without her. We are very close as a mother and a child. I can say that we need no words to understand each other. I am so lucky to have a person like her as my mother. As for being Keti’s mother, when she was born my goal was to be her best friend and supporter. I approve of every decision she makes and every action she takes, and she knows I will always be there for her no matter what she does and how; we are close friends. Of course, there are some things we do not agree on, we discuss things, we argue, but in the end I think we remain best friends,” she says.
Nanuka advises all mothers to listen to their children, because “when we do so, they find it easier to tell us about the challenges they face and they feel relief when they tell us about their problems that we may think of as unimportant but actually are important for them. [I advise everyone] to listen to our children and spend a lot of time with them.”
Liza Zubashvili is a journalist like her mother Laura Kutubidze. Liza, who has three younger sisters shares her feelings about sisterhood and motherhood.
I cannot imagine a single minute without my sisters. I think without them I would not be who I am and I would not feel as strong as I do now. We stick together. Our mother was not very young when she had us - her children; so we used to tell parents everything, but it was not because we had friendly relationship, they would reproach us, we always had to behave ourselves,“ Liza says.
She also notes that she has different relationship with her daughter Sandra. Although she can “move mountains for her, but this is not an emotional, mother-child relationship":
We are more like sisters; as if she were our fifth sister and I try to have close relationship with Sandra, which we lacked as children. [But my mother] turned out to be an ideal grandmother. They say mothers change when they become grandmothers, and this is exactly the case with her. She has a completely different relationship [with Sandra],” Liza says.
She adds as well that she never tries to change Sandra or her tastes, because “one should always accept a person as she/he is and respect her/his views.”
Salome Arshba, a co-host of a morning show speaks about her daughter Tina Mikiashvili who is 9.
Since Tina was born, I can say that my life has got turned upside down and the main essence and purpose of my life - Tina - is always with me and I try to spend a lot of time with her. I really think a lot about what I want Tina to be when she grows up and how I can support her. One of the main things I want Tina to have in the future is the right values and I think these values will depend on the kind of person Tina will make,“ Salome says.
Tina has a lot of qualities that excite her, especially an amazing sense of empathy and compassion, which Salome wishes Tina would maintain throughout her life.
Tina is now 9 and she is going through a very exciting period - learning how to deal independently with the problems and difficulties she encounters in her everyday life. What’s more, I want to learn how to manage this process; which is not easy, but possible,” Salome notes.
She meanwhile wishes her daughter to be independent, to be able to overcome obstacles on her own, to solve problems, and at the same time, to be aware that at any stage of her life, no matter what it takes, her mom will always be there for her and ready to help. Salome also wants Tina to be free, inwardly free, completely free from prejudices, stereotypes, stigmas and therefore she herself tries to create the adequate environment for her:
I respect Tina's choice and I think I give her freedom of choice. Tina has a lot of interests and she still has time to figure out what field to choose in the future. But it will be her choice made independently without my involvement of any kind,” Salome says.
According to her, they tell each other everything and have no secrets from each other.
They say that when children go through puberty, it is difficult to maintain close relations with them. So, I think, communicating with your child since she or he is very young can somehow serve as a guarantee that the bond between mother and child will never be destroyed,” Salome notes.
Guranda Pachulia, Baia's mother, is a specialist of Italian and Portuguese languages, an interpreter and translator, who has been working at the Brazilian Embassy to Georgia for the last decade.
Guranda says, she has never tried to be an ideal mother and has never expected to be praised either.
For me, motherhood was both unexpected and unplanned, but there is no other role I accepted as naturally as I did with the role of a mother. I spend most of my free time with Baia. She is now my number one person and I not only play this role naturally, but I strongly believe that children under a certain age should be number one priority for parents. And there should be no excuse for not sticking to this priority! I am a happy mother!“ Guranda says.
She thinks that it is important to share with our children the love for life, people, animals, nature, because they feel our attitude and take after us.
That is how they learn to love. Love can be taught, certainly. It may sound trivial, but this is the case and it is not easy. It is equally important not to expect them to be ideal. Freedom and acceptance are the key to happiness, I think, and first of all what matters is self-acceptance, which helps a child to easily accept others. When I say ‘others’ I mean the whole world, often those who are like us and, maybe even more often, those who are different from us,” she adds.
As a mother of a child with special needs, she wishes every mother to have a healthy child and to the children - happy parents and good education:
I wish all mothers had the fathers of their children by their side – real, responsible and caring fathers, not the ones which might only be called fathers formally. I’m a single mother and I can say that from my perspective today. There is nothing tragic about someone choosing single parenthood, but children ask a lot of questions and you need to be prepared for that.”
