Roxanna Sarmiento is the mom of three beautiful boys and the founder of the The Frog & Snail Society, a lifestyle blog for everyone who has a boy in their life. She has been blogging since 2005 at places such as Babble and Cool Mom Picks. In addition to writing about her adventures throwing an Indiana Jones birthday party, she has an MBA and is the brand marketing director at Sway Group. We’re so excited that Roxanna agreed to be our first feature in the Rookie Moms Boys Club! Woohoo.
What are the names of your children and where do you live?
Sebastian (7), Benjamin (5), Matthias (almost 3!). We live right outside of Boston.
What has most surprised you about being a boy mom?
What surprised me the most is how much of myself I see in my boys.
What is the most fun thing about being a boy mom right now?
They keep me on my feet; I find that in order for all of us to be happy, the boys need to be tired. So we’re outside A LOT.
What is the hardest thing about being a boy mom right now?
Understanding how important “boy” things are to them — things like Beyblades and Spiderman. I hate to be a cliche, but I just don’t get it.
What do you do to stay girlie in a house of boys?
I treasure my girlfriends! I love my boys, but I would never give up my girl friends. They keep me sane. [Ed. note: Roxanna says her other blog, Everyday Treats, is a girl]
Do you have a tip to share?
I’m learning as I go along, but I always remind myself that this too shall pass — both the good and the bad.
Is there another mom of many boys you look to for advice or inspiration?
Alli Worthington — she has five (!) and she told me once that she would never be able to do it if she didn’t put them to work. So now I do.
Thanks so much to Roxanna for going first in our little club for boy mamas. I appreciate it! Here are three of my favorite boy things right now:
- Every good idea and feature you’ve ever wanted to know about LEGO from F&S society (storage, downloads, party ideas, MORE!)
- Cool shoes from Whitney’s son’s closet.
- How my son became a football fanatic.
What a great new addition to Rookie Moms! Love the feature idea.
As someone who is very against our culture’s tendency to gender kids from infancy on, I’d like to point out that most of this applies to girls too!:)
Legos are one of my four year old daughter’s favorite things — and not the Friends line which I refuse to buy on principle;)
And she watches the Packers games with us every week, yells “Go Pack Go!” and is becoming increasingly curious about the rules. Oh and often picks out packers clothes to wear that her WI grandparents have sent.
Just saying! Keep up the good work:)
Oh and shoes! Her favorite pair of shoes is a “boys” plaid pair she picked out herself. Love it:)
@Cara, Being the mom of 3 boys, I was looking for some connection among those of us with men-children and there seemed to be a positive response when I first mentioned it. Per the loose rules, you’re welcome to join if one or more of the following are true:
You have one or more sons
You have a daughter who likes boys (or typically boy stuff)
You like boys yourself (not in the pervy way, please!)
And, I think, based on your suggestion, I might go buy some girl LEGO on principle for my playroom.
On principle, you absolutely should buy some of those Legos;)
I have a boy on the way, and a daughter who likes Legos, trucks, dolls, dancing, and hanging upside down off anything she can find, so I will gladly join!
(I do think there is a sad lack of blogs about “boy” things — I don’t think it has to be directed at just boys but there does seem to be way more girl-y blogs and crafty projects geared towards girls, etc, so go for it!)
Thanks for the love, Roxanna. Smart woman you are, making them work early!
xoxo