Interview with Amy from Mom Spark

Last year, I travelled to Israel with four other women from around the globe with not-for-profit company Vibe Israel. It was an incredible experience. When you travel with people, you can’t help but bond in a special way, and I consider these women the sort of friends that could visit Australia and drop in on me anytime. I did a short interview with each of the four women while I was in Israel. First up, meet Amy.

Amy Bellgardt is mother of two boys, lifestyle & travel blogger, foodie, nerd, coffee drinker and founder of the Mom Spark website and co-founder of Totally Profesh, a positive community of online content creators and business owners. Something that stood out to me about Amy was her ability to look amazingly stylish with an extremely minimal wardrobe. We were in Israel for about a week, and she only bought with her carry-on luggage! Respect. The other thing that impressed me about Amy was her caring spirit; she’s the kind of person that can just make you feel good to be around.

On this particular day, we strolled around trendy Tel Aviv, and stopped to enjoy street food for lunch. A sabich sandwich was on the menu, and it hit the spot (you can recreate the recipe here). I interviewed Amy amongst the hustle and bustle of the city. I asked her four questions, and you can find the transcript further below. What I love about talking to other mothers is how much our lives overlap, even if our situations are extremely different.

Interview Questions

What is your greatest parenting challenge at the moment?
What is your greatest parenting joy at the moment?
What don’t you miss when you’re away from home?
What do you miss the most when you’re away from home?

Behind the scenes filming

Enjoying a Israel street food

Introduce yourself

My name is Amy Bellgardt, and I blog at MomSpark.com.

What is your greatest parenting challenge at the moment?

My greatest parenting challenge at the moment is my kids are eight years apart, so I’m having to learn two different parenting styles in order to accommodate their needs. That, and the amount of things that I have on my plate — most of which, I put on my plate! My challenge is to make sure that I can take care of everyone, take care of my business, but also take care of me.

What is your greatest parenting joy at the moment?

My greatest joy is when my words and parenting style actually appears without me having to say anything. So, when my son says something like, “Boys can wear pink shirts,” or, “Boys can play with dolls. You can play with whatever you want to play with!” I’m like, “It seeped in!” My words actually meant something.

There was one time when I was running around — I was feeling really stressed out because I was about to go on a trip — and I was being short with him [my son] and running around the house. My son said, “Mum, it’s going to be okay.” And that’s exactly what I would have said to him. He’s like, “Stop and breathe,” and I said, “You are so right Charlie, I need to stop and breathe. There’s no reason to get worked up about something like this.” Those are the moments that I realise I’m doing something right, and it really does stick with them. So just keep doing it.

What don’t you miss when you’re away from home?

Probably just the hustle and bustle of parenthood. I mean, I love it, but getting up early and just hitting the ground running, which is basically what we have done here in Tel Aviv. But getting back into the routine [at home] will take me a while. But I have to say, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What do you miss the most when you’re away from home?

What I miss the most is, at the end of the day, my youngest and I usually snuggle and watch a movie to settle down for the night. I miss his snuggles so-so much; he’s such a sweet boy. I miss the touch of holding your children. My oldest probably wouldn’t want me to hold him like that because he’s 17, but I still get a nice big hug when I get home. I think I miss that the most: that human touch connection.

View over Jerusalem