Freely parenting Black children illegally...

List of illegal, illicit, taboo, contraindicated, otherwise advised against or frowned upon things we did in parenting EMOZA (in no particular order):

Naeemah, EMOZA and Nana

Co-sleeping—birth thru age 7

Burning herb / consuming cannabis (around them and sometimes giving to them)

Unschooling (unregistered / off the radar; girls not fully literate until 11)

Homebirth with lay midwives

No vaccinations (except for Mala’s tetanus at 8/9 years old which was a heads up from our midwife as the one if any)

No regular doctor’s checkups til the youngest were 12 (did make visits to eye doctor and dentist)

Vegan—no animal products, meaning milk (how do they get calcium?!), meat (how do they get protein and iron?!),

No hair cut/comb

Exclusive breastfeeding (EFB) for a year; BF til ages 3.3, 3.5, 6.5, and 4.5 respectively

Government assistance—cash 8-10 years, food stamps 23 years, and Medicaid 26 years

Defied court-ordered Cesarean section birth and Ob-ordered early delivery

Those who know me or my children, know that none of this was in vain or due to laziness, neglect, or any other slack reason.  Those who know us, know that while we may not have gotten everything “right” these are not the things we got “wrong”.  Those who know us and have any awareness at all of what is going on in the world, what parents and children have been increasingly dealing with for the past 25+ years  and how it is affecting them and society, have likely already associated that the list above has something to do with why we have avoided dealing with most of the significant issues that are routinely normalized, yet are not normal or ok.  Those who know me well, may know that I am a scientist and have always said this parenting thing is all an experiment anyway, especially when parenting Black children in Amerikkka, however anyone does it.  It’s still playing out, but ours seems to have worked! The children are all young-adulting these days, and I am on the cusp of empty-nesting.  Some of the hiccups along the way were surely mitigated by the strong groundation laid by the list above.  While I am never prescribing that anyone do exactly what I have done, I am always aiming to give a glimpse at what is possible for others by showing my own successes and giving insight to the thoughts, processes, reasoning, and tools behind them.  Much of it is in the vein of kujichagulia, self-determination.  Knowledge of self, knowledge of space/time, knowledge of omniversal resources and structures, love, and the desire to be free is really the inspiration and the guidance for successfully parenting in whatever way you make up that actually allows the children and family to thrive.

I will dig deeper into each of these topics in future articles and stories, but in the meantime, feel free to ask questions and/or leave comments below or in the Forum.

Also, you could book a Discovery Session if you are interested in having me as your perinatal doula, PA MMP cannabis caregiver, or general wellness, family, or relationship coach to see if it would be a fit.

One perfect love.

~Naeemah :)