Welcome to another episode of Parenting in Queens!

In this episode we will learn from Rakhmi. In Indonesia she was a working woman in the business sector and now she is at stay at home mother. Rakhmi tells us about her journey to assimilate into a new city and how she dealt with post-partum. She tells us how she found motivation through the darkest times and how her life is now; happily married and raising her daughter who is now one years old!

 

Highlights to our interview

C: Can you tell our listeners about yourselfR: My name is Rakhmi or you can call me Amy. I come from Indonesia following my husband who is working for an Indonesian bank so we will be here until next year. I am living in queens in Forest hills and I have a 1 year old toddler; she is moving all over the house. She is so active, she is all over the house, (you can hear her!) I cant take my eyes off of her because she is so fragile you know i need to be very careful.C: Tell me how it was like growing up in IndonesiaR: I was born in a small city in Indonesia in Purwokerto; its in one of the cities in Central Java. Indonesia has 13 regions and one of them is Central Java which is my region. I come from this small city and then i come to the capital; city. I was struggling because my parents never spoiled me when I wantedSomething new my parents would tell me that I needed to be number one in school so I can get what I was asking for. This was my parent’s teachings when I was a kid.C: So in order to get what you wanted you had to be number one and that was a struggle for you.R: Yes but in the future it helped me because when I moved to the city I saw the benefits’ of my mother’s teachings. I learnt to struggle in order to get what you want. So I am grateful for my childhood. This is the old parenting and I am benefiting from it now.C: What else do you remember from your childhood?R: I am the last child from my family, I have 3 older sisters, I am the youngest one. So my oldest sister moved to the capital city with her husband and my other sisters are still in my small town. Since I am the last one I struggled when I wanted to move to college since my mother forbid me to go. My oldest sister asked my parents for permission to go to college to the city and my parents didn’t let her. But in my case I persisted and at the end they let me. So i registered for college and got accepted so they didn’t have a choice. I loved this city because everyone is so supportive and it has a great community. Here in NYC is very different. For the first time I moved here I got a culture shock, the first 3 months were very hard. You see in my city I used to work and here I became a housewife and I am waiting for my husband to come home so it was a struggle. So I wanted to keep busy and I found English classes at the library; they are free from the government, they are called ESL. I joined the ESL program. I also was studying to get the license to become a real estate broker. Before in Indonesia I was working for an investment company in Indonesia so I wanted to pursue my dream and wanted to be a real estate broker in NYC but this was not possible because luckily I became pregnant. So all the plans changed, I am enjoying my life now and my new project is having this bakery from home.

C: I was able to try one of your sweets, it was very good. I saw in one of your Instagram posts that you met Martha Stewart. How was that experience like?R: Yeah! I met here. Actually, I bought her new book about cookies. I love Martha Stewart because in my country cookies are not common. Yes we have cookies but they are not American cookies. When I first tried cookies here I was like “Oh my Gosh it is very good!” I wonder how they were made. I knew of Martha Stewart since I was in Indonesia I adore her. She is so successful with her books. We had a little chit chat talking about my country and she was playing my daughter Serena,