2 yourfamily.co.za
ED’S LETTER[email protected]@yfmagYour Family Magazine
(South Africa)@yourfamilymagsa@yfmagO
ne night recently my daughter came
to say good night and totally stunned
me by asking: ‘Mum, what do you
want to be when you grow up?’ In her own
innocent seven-year-old way she’d managed
to tap into my Imposter (or ‘Momposter’)
Syndrome. No matter how many years of
parenting experience I gather under my
belt, the little girl inside me still feels like
she’s too young to have two teenage boys,
to be totally responsible for turning them
into brave men, ready to take on the world.
It’s a feeling many of us may experience
at work, too. In our feature on page 88,
Katherine Bebo shares her tips on silencing
the self-doubt that keeps you from taking on
challenges or rewarding new roles.
This is just a small part of our focus on
YOU in this issue. Raising a family is a busy
business, and it’s easy for your identity to be
swallowed up by the roles of ‘wife’, ‘mother’
and ‘caregiver’. My own phone contacts
list is a perfect example. Who is Thabo’s
dad, and Skyler’s mum? When I drop my
daughter at school, it’s to a chorus of little
voices chirping ‘Hello, Emily’s mom!’ It’s
really cute, and who can blame them – I’ve
never thought to tell them my name.
On page 90, Candice Curtis explains how
identity formation begins in adolescence
and evolves throughout our lives, shaped
by other people and experiences. But it’s
an evolution you have some control over.
Putting yourself first, saying no to taking on
too much, and being true to who you really
are inside are ideals we easily sacrifice in
order to make others happy or fulfil their
expectations. Perhaps our fashion feature
about rocking your signature style on page
14 should be a metaphor for life. Don’t dress
to make others happy or fulfil a role that
others have assigned to you. Find out what
you like, what really ticks your boxes and
simply own it!What our team’s been
up to this month...
It was early in January when
we started planning the food
for this issue... New Year’s
resolutions tumbled one by
one when food editor Margie
brought these Easter treats
out of the test kitchen. Only
those with the strongest
willpower could resist. Will you?Every YF staffer gets
bitten by the craft bug!
Design intern Courtney
got busy making the
giant paper eggs for our
pretty Easter cover.