I can’t believe it’s been a decade since I started blogging here at PragmaticMom. I had a few other blogs that I created during the past ten years, but this is the only one that I’m still doing maintaining. Blogging has really changed over the past decade. It was once the darling of SEO (Search…
Category: My Family Scrapbook
Speaking at Asian American Studies at UMass Boston
It was such a pleasure to speak at UMass Boston Asian American Studies class recently, taught by Dr. MinJin Kim. My thanks to Priya Sonal who found me on social media. She wrote to me: Hello Ms Mia, I saw your recent post on Instagram, My heart felt sorry for you and your family’s…
RISD Parents Weekend 2020
RISD Parents Weekend is also RISD Alumni and RISD Family Weekend. Held on Columbus Day weekend, it’s when RISD throws out the welcome mat to offer visitors opportunities to connect with students, faculty and staff, explore studios and galleries, and be reminded of what makes RISD so special. And they really do it up! There…
My First Book Festival: Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival
It was an honor and a privilege to be invited to Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival. The line up of authors was staggering! I was placed in between Carol Weston and Nikki Grimes. They were a study in opposites in handling the crowds. Carol Weston warned me that she aggressively draws in the kids. She, in…
Cabot Links in Nova Scotia: Our First Trip without Kids!
Our First Trip without Kids! It may seem crazy, but we’ve never left our kids for a trip before and it’s been twenty years. We live in Boston far from relatives, and we relied on babysitters from Boston College which is nearby. The thing about college students is that they are really busy. You can…
Visiting Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago: Kids Interacting with Art
I was thrilled to see my daughters interacting with art at Ernesto Neto exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. His piece, Water Falls from My Breast to the Sky, 2017, is textile art along with other materials including wood, polyurethane foam, and lavender. I wasn’t familiar with Ernesto Neto and I learned…
My Dorm Room Start Up Celebrates 35 Years & Entrepreneurship Children’s Books
I founded Aquent, now the world’s largest talent agency for creative and Web professionals, in my college dorm room with two classmates, in 1986. Fifteen years later, Aquent has grown to 60 offices in nine countries, generating more than $200 million in revenue last year. It’s a far cry from the early days when we were…







