The Gentle Mama

Hi, I’m Hayley Bukhamsin, @thegentlemama, English expat living in Dubai, mama to two girls aged 8 and 4yo, wife to a Saudi guy, certified Infant Sleep Educator, ex media planning account director, blah blah blah [insert more labels and societal boxes here]….⁠ ⁠ The Gentle Mama is not the place for patriarchal labels and boxes. I believe passionately in providing a space where we get to be our full, authentic selves. So who am I really? Deep down at my core?⁠ ⁠ I’m a change maker, a generator, a rebel and a challenger. ⁠ ⁠ I’m an artist, a painter, a writer, a pilgrim of colour and texture. ⁠ ⁠ I’m a magic maker, a nurturer, a creator, a lover of rhythm and ritual, of flow and connection. ⁠ ⁠ I’m a gentle parent, a responsive parent, an attachment parent, a let’s-get-back-to-how-we-did-it-before-society-screwed-it-up parent. ⁠ ⁠ I’m passionate and calm, I’m grateful and perpetually frustrated. ⁠ ⁠ By patriarchal standards I’m the ultimate dichotomy: I adore luxury, diamonds, silk, and I find it impossible to settle for less than the best. AND I love simplicity, farmers’ markets, Steiner education, barefoot living, growing my own dye plants, and I yearn for a more communal, Mother Earth worshipping way of life. ⁠ ⁠ I don’t make sense in the neat little boxes of our society’s current structure. And it took me many years to learn that that’s ok. In fact it’s wonderful. Because I’m very much not alone, and we can’t overhaul this broken, weird world without the people who contradict it. ⁠ ⁠ So let’s get started. ⁠ ⁠ I welcome you to The Gentle Mama, and I can’t wait to get to know you on this journey. ⁠