Mamas' Stories

Ceci was born and raised in Venezuela, washed and warmed by the Caribbean sea and sun. Her spirit is light and cheerful. Her smile is warm, and she can easily make you laugh. Ceci says: I was raised in the part of Venezuela where they call us the funniest people in the country. We use our humor a lot.

In 2012, she moved to China to work in the space technology industry. Three years later, she met her husband, Christian, who is originally from Germany. After living together in China, they moved to Germany, where their first baby, Mia, was born. When Mia was six months old, they decided to move back to China, and this January, they welcomed their second child, Hannah.

Ceci has a background in engineering, but her path has always been as a businessperson. After some years dedicating herself to working on her trading company, she is currently focused on establishing her new business as an Event Planning company in Shanghai.

Kids

Her oldest daughter, Mia,  is three years old now. She is an active, lovely, bright child with a strong personality. Now, when they have a newborn Hannah at home, they are finding a balance in how to be a family of four. As many families know, it is not an easy period, but with the help of Ceci’s mom, who came to support them, things are getting easier. Cecilia is slowly restating to do things she loves the most: sports and socializing. She is a mom who finds a way to balance family life, hobbies, and jobs.

“Becoming a mom changes you and your lifestyle forever, but it is crucial to take care of yourself. I respect all the moms and all their choices. Every mom should do what is good for her sanity.”

Ceci has the luck to be surrounded by very supportive friends and family. “I never seek knowledge about parenting from the books. I have all my friends and family to help me on the way. I never wanted to focus on seeking advice from books on how to raise a child. I found them too saturated.”  But however, if a new mom feels lost and has no people to support her, Ceci recommends checking the book “The New Basics: A-to-Z Baby & Child Care for the Modern Parent” by Michel Cohen. For Spanish-speaking moms, she advises checking a podcast called ‘Madres y Musas.’

Languages at home

They use four languages at home. Ceci and Christian speak English between them. Christian can also speak fluent Spanish, and Ceci can clearly communicate in German. However, with the kids, they strictly keep their mother tongue languages. Christian speaks German to the girls, and Ceci speaks Spanish. 

The oldest, Mia, started a Chinese-English kindergarten six months ago, where she started to pick up both languages quickly. 

Ceci says that Mia’s way of choosing the language is really according to her needs and interests. When Ceci was staying full-time at home with her, her first language was definitely Spanish. Right now, when Mia attends kindergarten, Chinese is at the top.

As a multilingual child, it takes time for Mia to speak clearly. She still mixes all languages in one sentence. Despite this, Mia is proficient in comprehending all the languages she is exposed to at home and in kindergarten. Ceci mentions that there were times when she saw the surprise in other moms’ eyes when they heard that Mia was not speaking well yet. She smiled because she knew that her daughter would eventually be fluent in four languages, and then everyone would be surprised by it.

Cultures at home

They cook mostly Carribean and Italian dishes at their home. There is a lot of influence from the italian cuisine in Venezuela. Ceci laughs that they do not cook German dishes as she finds them boring and heavy, and she loves her motherland’s cuisine. She explains that typical Latin dishes have rice, shredded beef, plantain, and black beans. And this is the base of many of her dishes. One of the most common dishes at her home is pabellón and lasagna. 

When it comes to traditions, Christmas is one of the celebrations they keep, but Cecilia is the one who arranges it, and always there are Venezuelan dishes on the table. “We do not celebrate any other holidays, but one day of the year is very important for us, the 15th of November, the day we met. For nine years, on this day, we celebrate our love.”

Challenges and benefits of raising multilingual children

Ceci says that time is the most challenging aspect of raising a multilingual child. The child, who has many languages at home, needs much more time to start speaking and making conversation, which brings another challenge – safety. Ceci is concerned that Mia may encounter unpleasant situations when not able to communicate clearly.

On the other hand, she knows that her children will benefit a lot from being multilingual. “They will conquer the world, as knowing these languages is a gift for life.” Ceci and Christian are committed to teaching their girls writing and reading in their mother tongue languages, since they won’t be taught these languages in their school in China.

Life advice

“Believe in yourself, and also use your knowledge.” 

Ceci says that she always read a lot, which gave her a lot of analytical thinking. At a very young age, she was able to analyze situations better than her peers. Ceci hopes that her daughters will also know how to use knowledge as an effective tool in their lives.