Hena Khan is the author of Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns and Night of the Moon: A Muslim Holiday Story, two children’s books geared toward American Muslim children. Altmuslimah’s Asma Uddin speaks with Khan about Khan’s books, writing, parenthood, and growing up Muslim in America. Tell us your story –…
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I put Lil D on the bus this morning, like I do most school-day mornings. We walk out to the bus, often in semi-darkness before the day has broken, and I escort him to the steps of the bus. The bus matron takes over from there, guiding him to his seat and attaching his harness to the seat. Sometimes he is agitated, upset and crying. Other times he is calm and eager to go. As I silently pray Aytul Kursi (a verse from the Qur’an), I wave goodbye, tell him I love him, and wish him a good day at school. He jerkily waves back. And then he’s gone.
Read MoreToday is Mother’s Day and I have given serious thought to what I want as a present. I have pointed out things that I need and things that I don’t, but want anyway, to my progeny and their father. And I have a gorgeous white lace dress and a beautiful pair of five inch platform pumps hidden away in my laundry room – my Mother’s Day gift to myself.
Read MoreMen. You can’t live with them and you can’t live without them. Children. You can’t live with them and you can’t sell them on eBay. And sometimes, sometimes you really want to write that ad. But since that transaction would be illegal, I like to take a deep yoga breath and focus on turning the little people in my home into humans I would actually want to spend time with.
Read MorePart of becoming a parent is that your life ends up delving into areas that you didn’t even realize existed when you were living unencumbered just a few years previously. One example of this is the personal hell I go through several times a day when attempting to change my two-year-old’s pull-up diapers (one that’s above-and-beyond the hell of, y’know, having to change diapers).
Read MoreEven small acts of mistreatment register in children’s impressionable, still-developing brains. While psychologists reassure us that children are adaptable and that parenting need only be “good-enough,” a pattern of mistreatment of a child can lead to an adult who believes it is acceptable to harm children “for their own good.” It can also lead to an adult who uses the Qur’an to justify abusing a spouse, or accepting abuse.
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