Anima is a fun loving young lady whom I have admired for a very long time. At 33, I must say, she has gone against all odds. She worked as a former football administrator serving the Gor Mahia FC as the Deputy Secretary General for 3 years. She is also an entrepreneur and is looking forward to taking part in active politics (I chose to leave that there to pique your curiosity).

She has two lovely children that she enthusiastically describes as her world. She pauses for a moment as she continues to tell me their names. The first born is Bentley; he is 5 years, 5 months old. The other one is Bradley who is 1 year and 6 months old. I cannot help but notice the rhyme in their names. She shows me a couple of their pictures from her laptop and wow, they are gorgeous!

She currently handles her own business making her schedule pretty flexible. She can always work from the comfort of her house. At times she has to go to the office before 5 am and that is when she leaves Bradley at the care of her house Manager. If she has an easy day, and has to leave a little bit later, she ensures that she has fed Bradley his breakfast before setting off. He is also still breastfeeding meaning that if she is working outside Nairobi, she goes with him. She chuckles as she explains what a great ‘personal assistant’ he makes. For her, breastfeeding a child is very important. She pointed out that she has had to talk to people who would have wanted to stop it too soon before the baby was barely 3 months old.

On weekdays, she ensures that she is home each day before 4pm. Bentley at times has a lot of homework that she helps him do. “This is also the age when children are filled with the craze to read. I have to listen to him read a couple of pages each day from his book,” she said.

For her weekends, she ensures that she frees them completely for her children. She is an ardent football fan and so, she occasionally makes time for that. If she has no commitment, one would always find her with her children either indoors or outdoors having fun.

She mentions her house manager several times during the interview. She is a complete blessing to her. Her children are always very well taken care of each time she is at work and they all love her. To her, she is God sent.

As for the few challenges that she has faced in parenting, eating for Bradley has been a great problem. It is always war time. One has to be a little bit hard on him or he would go on a ‘fasting spree’, of which he would do so effortlessly. Bentley, he is a great eater, no worries so far. The only challenge is that he has super sensitive skin which requires her to be quite vigilant on the body soaps and creams that she uses on him.

I was keen to know of the parenting breaches that she has noticed in our society: Children need to be cultured and taught mannerisms and etiquette right from home. It does not mean that they have to be chained or given protocols to work with; parents should simply learn how to discipline and condition their children. For her, the children have an incentive for good behavior. For example, if they make a mistake, she denies them the privilege of watching cartoon or playing video games. That way, they will understand the magnitude of their mistakes and know why they should always be in their best behavior.

As we concluded, she said something that stirred me up. “Parenthood does not come with a manual. Parents should try and spend time with their children in their busy schedules. That has been my one secret.”

That’s Anima Ferrari for us! I learnt so much from her! Kindly leave a comment below cupcakes.

Lots of Love,

Ruguru Kimani.