Xenia Hatzithomas - This Is Your Parenthood

26/10/2025

What mothers have always known — science now confirms.
Skin-to-skin isn’t optional; it’s essential. 🤍

📖 Moore ER et al. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2025;(10):CD003519. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD003519.pub5

22/10/2025

There’s this thing a lot of moms do which, to be completely honest, drives me nuts 😅

It’s comparing who’s got it harder, often using the words “at least” to play a silly comparison game:

“At least you don’t have to worry about working too.”
“At least you have help around the house.”
“At least your parents live nearby.”
“At least you didn’t have a cesarean.”
“At least you got pregnant easily.”
“At least you could breastfeed.”
“At least your kids aren’t so close in age.”
“At least you could have kids.”
“At least, at least, at least, at least...”

We could analyze why mothers do this 🤔, why the so-called mommy wars still exist, and why so many moms feel the need to compare themselves to justify or elevate their experiences.

But for now, let’s just say this: Hard is hard. Period. 💪

It’s hard to be a mom whose full-time job is raising children (by the way, that job = 2.5 full-time paid jobs).

It’s also hard to be a mom who works outside the home and raises children.

It’s hard to raise children without family nearby and it can also be hard to raise children with family nearby.

It’s hard to go back to work and it’s hard not to.

It’s hard to want children and struggle doing so and it’s hard to have children unexpectedly.

It’s hard to give birth vaginally and it’s hard to have a cesarean.

It’s hard not to be able to breastfeed it can certainly be hard to.

See? ✅

It doesn’t matter whose hard is harder. There’s no award for surviving the “harder” motherhood experience. Hard is hard, no matter what.

So, let’s stop, choose compassion over comparison, and start lifting each other up. 💛

18/10/2025

While I first explored this research through the lens of how differently each generation parents, what truly caught my attention was the consistency — how, despite all our progress, parents continue to wrestle with the same deep emotional tensions.

Guilt. Anxiety. Doubt. Burnout.
Why are these feelings still so present — even in an age when we know more, talk more, and try harder than ever before?

Perhaps it’s just that. Perhaps it’s the persistent pressure to “get it right,” or the overwhelming influx of conflicting information about what good parenting looks like. Maybe it’s the challenge of trying to pave a new way — one that often feels worlds apart from how we were raised — while still finding our own grounding.

What about you? Why do you think so many parents today still feel this inner tug-of-war, even as our understanding of parenting evolves?

Sources:
Pew Research (2023), Parenting Views Across Generations
Laurie Children’s Hospital (2024), Millennial Parenting Survey

15/10/2025

“We don’t move on from grief. We move forward with it.”
- Nora McInerny

To each and every parent living with loss,
I share this gentle reminder once again.
A reminder that your grief is valid.

If these days, filled with lord reminders and rituals of remembrance, have been tougher than expected, know that it is understandable if you do or don’t want to take part.

Remember that your grief is your grief.
And there is no right way through it.
No requirements. No rules.

Respectfully and with love.
Xenia

Art

21/09/2025

Χρόνια πολλά, χρόνια δημιουργικά, χρόνια πάντα συνδεδεμένα! Proud to be part of a network of incredible human beings! Attachment Parenting Hellas 🧡

Η Attachment Parenting Hellas έγινε 10 χρονών, και αυτό οφείλεται σε όλους τους συνοδοιπόρους, τους επαγγελματίες συνεργάτες, αλλά και όλους τους γονείς και φροντιστές που μας εμπιστεύεστε τόσα χρόνια!
Είμαι ευγνώμων προς όλ@ εσάς για την κοινότητα που έχουμε δημιουργήσει και τη μεταξύ μας σύνδεση, που κάνουμε λιγότερο μοναχικό αυτό το ταξίδι ο ένας για τον άλλον!
Όσοι καταφέραμε σήμερα να βρεθούμε και από κοντά γίναμε για ακόμη μία φορά μία μεγάλη αγκαλιά!
Σας ευχαριστώ για την εμπιστοσύνη, σας αγαπώ και ανυπομονώ και για τα επόμενα! ❤️

Μαρία Παπαφιλίππου

26/12/2024

From our house to yours, Merry Christmas! May your holidays be filled with love, laughter and light.

❤️🎄✨❤️🎄✨

15/10/2024

‘We don’t ‘move on’ from grief. We move forward with it.’ - Nora McInerny

To each and every parent living with loss,
I share this gentle reminder once again, a reminder that your grief is valid.

If these days, filled with reminders and rituals of remembrance, have been tougher than expected, know that it is understandable if you do or don’t want to take part.

Your grief is your grief. Period.

There is no ‘right’ way through. No requirements. No rules.

Respectfully and with love,
🤍
Xenia

Art

12/10/2024

When a mother
somewhere
forgives herself
for being human,
earth exhales a little.
- breeze

09/10/2024

Remember: What we usually see on social media is not a complete, representative version of one’s life, but a carefully selected view of the highs, and usually an idealistic version which leaves out all of the hard but important lows.

It’s no surprise then that rise of social media platforms has come with increased stress and a heightened sense of doubt as we (consciously or not) compare and contrast our lives to others.

I realise, as I shared some of the highlights of our family weekend away, how easy it is to fall into this trap. How simple it would have been to share a partial view of the good stuff (no doubt, there was lots of it) without also mentioning the not so good (which there was loads of too!). So I decided to change that.

Here are 7 of the raw, hard moments that made this trip well, real:

1. Having to stop by the side of the road to soothe a crying 8 year old whose older brother accidentally stepped on her in the back seat.

2. Listening to my kids argue 4372 times about who is going to sit, sleep, stand where.

3. Juggling the excitement of having our kids participate in their first mini marathon whilst simultaneously managing underlying fear of them getting lost, hurt or sick given the pouring rain.

4. Saying ‘no’ umpteen times to unnecessary soft drinks, sweets and goodies which we have already had too much of (oh, and having to explain why again and again and again).

5. 2 out of 3 kids falling asleep at the table 47 minutes into Saturday night’s birthday (my husband’s) dinner! (After having waited 3 hours for the rain to stop so we could even leave the room for dinner.)

6. Dealing with pre-teen ‘whatever-ness’ and an overall lack of enthusiasm about stuff they would have been so excited about when they were little. (Hello adolescence!)

7. The. Constant. Bickering. And trying very hard to keep my nervous system at bay while balancing both intervening and also letting them work it out (and praying that they do so quickly!).

Voila! Let’s not forget to honour the hard stuff and to remember that real life doesn’t need to be filtered through social lenses.

Art

08/10/2024

Many years ago, whilst nursing my son at a local park, a curious, kind little boy approached me and innocently asked ‘what the baby was doing’.

‘He’s breastfeeding’, I replied with a smile.

Before he could ask anything else, his caretaker, who I assume must have been his grandmother, summoned him not to ‘disrupt’ us. I quickly reassured her that he was not a bother at all, and then just as quickly realised that what she was worried about had nothing to do with disrupting us.

As she and the little boy walked away, I heard him tell her, in the most excited little voice, that ‘the baby was breastfeeding!’.

‘Yes, but that is something the mommy should be doing at home,’ the women explained.

‘Why?’, the boy asked, confused at the suggestion that what I was doing was wrong or at least should not be done in public.

And then came the answer I was certainly not expecting. In simple language which I suppose she deliberately chose to get her message across to the child, she said, ‘Because it’s not nice to see a mother’s breast.’

I was too shocked to speak back then, and frankly didn’t know what to say. But I remember feeling so sad, for the child that was so quickly taught the wrong lesson. For the lady who must have been raised, I thought, with such a negative perception of what it means to have the honour of nursing a child from our bodies. And for the women before me but also those after me, who will continue to be indirectly shamed for doing something so natural.

Today, I remembered this story as I overheard an older lady encourage a young mother to ‘forget about the stupid cover up’ as she struggled to nurse whilst also cover her breast and baby. ‘It’s just a breast’, she exclaimed and then joked, ‘it’s not a weapon. You have nothing to hide and even less to justify.’

How nice, I thought, that we have finally come this far.

Photo

07/10/2024

One of the most rewarding things about doing this work is in witnessing the power that one person’s story can have on another.

In holding space for parents to share their truth.

In seeing the connection that forms and the comfort that follows when one mother or father realises that they are in fact, not alone.

05/10/2024

A bit part of what we do as perinatal professionals, birth workers and parent supporters, is to normalise hard feelings; as in making it ok to experience difficult emotions as we simultaneously raise and love on your children.

We also have a responsibility (one which I take very seriously) to educate parents about where ‘not feeling ok’ borders on or is a clear sign of things like depression or burnout.

So, while my depression related posts rarely get the traction others do, I will continue to share these pieces of information, and will always be a DM away if you want to know more.

Here are 3 helpful ways to distinguish between what are often symptoms of baby blues and signs of postpartum depression:

1. TIME: Baby blues occur within a few days after birth, usually peaking around days 3 to 5 postpartum. Postpartum depression can present at any time during the entire first year postpartum, usually peaking 4 months postpartum.

2. DURATION: Symptoms of baby blues should last no more than a few weeks. Symptoms of postpartum depression will typically last longer than 2 weeks, occur almost daily, and last throughout the day.

3. INTENSITY: Symptoms of baby blues may include crying, feeling overwhelmed or uncertain, fatigue and mood swings, but are often experienced in parallel to a predominantly happy mood. Symptoms of postpartum depression may resemble those of the baby blues but may also include irritability, aggression, sleep disturbance (insomnia or hypersomnia), significant change in appetite, unexplained physical symptoms, recurring anxiety, and feelings of detachment from the baby.

If you or someone you know could benefit from this info, pls share onwards.