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Mayim Bialik
By Kelly Burgess
Each month, iParenting.com spotlights a mother who inspires and moves us, who embodies the qualities that we all admire in a person, a woman and a mother. Above all, the Mom of the Month is dedicated to her children. Rich or poor, famous or not, she shines as an example of what mothering is all about.
Actress Mayim Bialik and her husband, Michael Stone, had a plan for raising their children even before they were born. They wanted to go back to basics, supplying as natural, nurturing and environmentally healthy a setting as possible. It was a great plan for them, as Bialik says Miles, 4, and Frederick, 1, are happy, healthy and thriving. But they didn't go it alone.
Bialik says she was supported by an online community of like-minded moms called the Holistic Moms Network (www.holisticmoms.org). The group was so important to her that Bialik recently became their celebrity spokesperson and is helping to spread the word about support for parenting choices that may not be exactly mainstream.
"I come from a very eccentric, interesting family," says Bialik. "I was born natural breech, which was unheard of in 1975. My mom was her own little 1970s warrior and, although she didn't nurse because it wasn't supported then, she was into soymilk and we weren't really raised with sugar or junk foods. My parents are pretty conventional in a lot of ways, but they had a very natural approach to our nutrition and that stayed with me."
After Blossom, Bialik kept up with both her career and her education, doing voiceover work while attending UCLA. She received an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience, Hebrew and Jewish Studies and a Ph.D. in neuroscience, focusing on Prader-Willi syndrome.
"As part of my work to get my doctorate I was studying a lot of child development, and that made us want to get as educated as possible about an organic lifestyle," says Bialik. "This was even before we had our children – it was for us. Finally, we found a lifestyle that suited us and it kept growing and growing."
"I try not to use too broad a brush in what defines a holistic parent," says Bialik. "Everyone has their own parenting style. If there was a formula, we'd all be following it."
Bialik herself practices attachment parenting, co-sleeping, extended nursing and communication elimination, as well as an organic and vegan lifestyle, but says all parents have to pick and choose what works for them and fits into their lifestyle. In fact, part of the mission of the Holistic Moms Network is to support people in whatever manner they choose to parent. However, the goal is for holistic parenting to be part of an overall lifestyle that is health and environmentally conscious, as well as family- and child-centered.
"We're super fortunate in that we have a pediatrician who supports our choices," says Bialik. "But the parenting community can be very heated and judgmental when you parent outside the mainstream. I think in the past there have been a lot of closeted extended nursers and co-sleepers and now there is a community that supports those choices instead of criticizing them. It's good that all parenting styles get out there and we get educated about the different ways people parent."
Bialik plans to sustain this lifestyle for as long as possible, but to adjust it as her children grow and mature. She's committed to introducing her boys to popular culture, which she admits she loves, when she feels they are age-appropriate and not when society chooses to do so.
"This is probably never going to become a huge trend, but it will be a growing movement as people become more aware of the environment and how many easy ways there are to reduce what we expose our children to," says Bialik. "But it's not about making judgments about other people's choices. In the end, I know how to parent two kids – mine – and this works for us."
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