Thoughts of a Mum - Mona Afifi

Mona Afifi, an Arab mom and Managing Partner at Egypt's fashion online store Style-Treasure.com.

1. The best advice my mum ever gave me is...
So many! It always sinks in a bit late though (LOL). To be diplomatic and to always leave an open door during any argument. 

2. What's the one thing you got from your mum and you'd like to pass down to your kid?
The combination of being career oriented with being a devoted wife and mother. 

3. Share with us a lesson that motherhood has taught you.
Motherhood taught me that you haven't experienced true love until you have a child. It also taught me that you can be more patient if you want to!

4. What's your favorite part of being a mum?
Hugs, cuddles and kisses! 

5. Recommend a survival kit to the new mums out there.
Get all the help that you can get during the first few months (or longer if you can get away with it!), always remind yourself that if all these women out there survived then you can, and know that every age is even more fun than the one before it.

6. What's the oddest thing you have carried in your handbag as mum?
At a point, security staff at any hotel or mall I'd enter would smile when they checked my handbag and found a laptop, lip-gloss, pampers and a handful of pacifiers. 

7. Do you get in the way of your kid's fashion choices?
My three year old Dania is a strong character from the day she was born. She has been choosing her clothes for quite some time now. I try to allow her to have her way, even if it means going with her father to the supermarket with Dora The Explorer house slippers on or going to school with an over-sized boyish multicolored sports shoe, but I do occasionally hide some things before I accompany her to her wardrobe every morning. She's very into dresses though and loves bright colors just like me.