After the onset of the roaring bull market of the 1980's, Carolina Fernandez gave up her career as a stockbroker
with Merrill Lynch in order to come home and start her family. Four children and nearly twenty years later, she admits to
the realization that the inherent dilemmas of motherhood make any challenges faced while earning her M.B.A.--and all of her
brokerage licenses combined--seem like child's play.
Frustrated by the relentlessness of motherhood—wonderful as it is—Fernandez became desperate to
get her arms around it. For it seemed to be a whole new world to her, with mysteries beyond her wildest comprehension, and
with daily dilemmas that needed practical, yet consistent, fixes. Without a medical or psychology background, she found herself
reading everything she could get her hands on. Books on child development, child psychology, social psychology, nutrition,
and physiology became her new nightstand reads. Problem was, these books were all written by supposed “experts,”
with Ph.D.’s and M.D.’s coming out of their eyeballs, and with more psycho-babble than the baby-burble Fernandez
had all over her shoulder.
Where was the practical advice she was looking for? Oh sure, her girlfriends’ advice was absolutely indispensable.
She readily admits that their casual advice, given at the back fence over a cup of Joe or at playgroup while chasing their
two-year olds, was always practical and well-intentioned. And it was needed to simply get through the mysteries of every new
stage of childhood. It was Fernandez’s best friend, after all, called long
distance after her new move to the Washington, D.C. area, who helped her
figure out that newborn--and firstborn-- son, Nicolas, had been screaming for two days because she had forgotten to burp him
after each breastfeeding!
But coming from an analytical background, she needed to be reassured with facts, figures, surveys and research
on child development. More than that, she wanted it to be sifted and sorted through the eyes of motherhood so that
she could apply it to her new reality. For she believed that she now held the most important job on the planet. And she couldn’t
imagine blowing it. She yearned for a book written by another mom whose experience she valued, whose perspective she admired,
and whose research she found applicable to her new tasks at hand.
She never found it.
Undaunted, she became inspired to discover some of motherhood’s best secrets on her own. She wound up
home schooling for ten years after reading that it was the best way to produce true genius in children. Indeed, she made some
fascinating insights as she explored with her kids the mysteries and marvels of nature, the adventures of Caddy Woodlawn,
the fun of picking glue and fingerpaint off little fingers, and the comfort of baking endless batches of homemade chocolate
chip cookies. In fact, it was during these years that Fernandez completely re-invented herself. For she confesses to finally exploring the right side of her brain. Gone were Barrons’s and
the Wall Street Journal. She happy snuggled up with Johnny Tremain and
Amelia Bedelia. Oh sure. She had read about the frontal lobes and the meeting
of the right and left sides of the brain. But in all those years of college, grad school, and the demands of Wall Street,
she admits to letting her left brain dominate to the extreme detriment of her right brain. Fernandez, an artist? No way. She
was a professional M.B.A., for crying out loud.
But she felt stirrings for the domestic arts. And so that journey began as well. She learned to do things with
her hands. She discovered needle point and cross-stitch, stenciling and scrap-booking, re-finishing furniture and sewing swags
and jabots. She even finally learned to cook. Today, she paints in oils on canvas and handpaints children’s clothing,
shoes, furniture, and bedrooms. Her right brain and left brain finally married,
and she began to see the fruits of nearly twenty years of labor in the home.
If you want to develop to your highest potential, and live a disciplined and healthy, yet creative and fun-filled
life; if you want to see your child develop all of his God-given gifts and talents to his utmost ability; if you want to identify
and nurture creative genius in yourself and your kids; if you want your child to excel in the arts and the humanities and
in sport; and if you want to shape your child’s character because you recognize that by so doing you are shaping the
destiny of all humankind, then you have the same vision that Fernandez has. She wrote what wound up becoming a parenting bestseller—ROCKET
MOM—for you.
ROCKET MOM, the book, is a creative guide, filled to the brim with both practical (brainy)
and zany how-to’s for excellence in what is arguably the most important job on the planet. It explores common dilemmas of motherhood from an unapologetically optimistic point of view. It teaches
you how to view your job as supremely crucial for the future of all mankind. It helps you develop a keen vision for each one
of your children, and more importantly, gives you specific strategies to propel you forward to turn this vision into a reality.
ROCKET MOM, the book, Newsletter and Society, attempt to teach
you techniques to ensure your kids a magic carpet ride through childhood, while providing you with the strategies you need
to enjoy a magic carpet ride through motherhood.
Fernandez recognizes that as mothers, we are not only perplexed with simple daily dilemmas like how to keep
our toddlers occupied so we can get something done, or keeping one’s sense of humor when everyone is incorrigible. She
recognizes that as an intelligent and diligent group we are challenged by much more complex issues: How can we challenge our children to live up to their full potential without all of us throwing up our
hands in fits of frustration? How can we identify our children’s unique gifts and what is the best way to develop them
so that all the world will benefit? Why is the study of music, and particularly
playing a musical instrument, so crucial in our child’s development? Where
do we even start? How can we nurture genius? What specific traits have been identified
amongst the great minds, like Einstein, da Vinci, Picasso, Edison, Mozart, Walt Disney, Alexander Graham Bell, and Michelangelo,
to name a few? How can understanding the traits that distinguish their particular
genius benefit us in our attempts at mothering our own children? How can we transform
our homes into refuges of light and beauty so that they serve as our children’s “third teacher”? What are
the tricks of the trade that we must master in order to create beautiful environments?
Why is creating beauty so important? What character qualities do we need
to proactively instill in our children? How can your family make a positive contribution
to an ethical renaissance not only in your own little corner of the earth but all over the globe? Why is this our responsibility? How do we celebrate this wonderful experience of life on this planet with
our precious children? What rituals do we need to consciously put into place
within our own families and how do we guarantee their continuity? Why are rituals
so important to ensuring happy childhoods? How do we organize homelife with small kids? Why is the need for organization especially
critical to motherhood? How do we solve the unique organizational challenges of the home?
How do we deal with the occupational hazards of homelife not found in any other environment? How can we get more hours
in our days? How can we find health and fitness regimens that co-exist with all of our other responsibilities? How can we
stay on top of maintaining our own health and well-being while simultaneously maintaining kids who are too young to take care
of themselves?
These are just a few of the issues that Fernandez tackles via her book, her free weekly Newsletter and in monthly
ROCKET MOM SOCIETY meetings. For she knows first-hand that they are the
overriding everyday dilemmas of motherhood. In ROCKET MOM style, whatever the forum, Fernandez tries to
give you a blueprint to think outside the box, and empower you with high-octane rocket fuel to help map your family all the
way to the stars.
Fernandez has mapped her way across the country, as her corporate husband, Ernie, has taken assignments in as
diverse places as Lexington, Kentucky and Miami,
Florida for work in South America. Her four kids, who you
will meet through anecdotes and silly tales via ROCKET MOM Newsletters, cannot
be excluded from the conversation, as family involvement is the keystone of her strategies.
Her kids, now aged 19, 17, 15 and 12, have moved frequently, and have grown up in six different houses, with as many
as five different homes within a five year period. Their adventures have certainly had their share of bumps; their oldest
son is being treated for childhood leukemia, which has provided parenting insights heretofore unimagined. Fernandez has also
returned to full-time work--yup, you guessed it: right back to the financial services industry where she started. But
as they fly through life on that mostly-magic carpet of childhood, they have been protected thus far from really serious bruises. Fernandez hopes you enjoy your own trip wide-eyed, finding plenty of unexpected joys
along the way--just as she has.
I think that saving a little child
And
bringing him to his own,
Is a derned sight better business
Than loafing around the throne.
John Milton Hay
