Raising Romans

As I'm writing this, I'm feeling a little bit sentimental. The toga virilis ceremony was the day that Felix officially became a man, and as his mother, it was very bittersweet. I was so proud that I had raised a virtuitous young Roman, but I was going to miss him, and I was selfishly sad that he wasn't going to need me to take care of him anymore. As a parent, this is undoubtedly a feeling you will experience when your child reaches adulthood. During the ceremony itself, our

When Felix was growing up, we always encouraged him to pursue a career in government. As our only son, Cornelius and I wanted him to obtain a career that would bring honor to our family, and government positions hold great prestige. Felix has always been a great communicator, excellent in his academics and well-liked by all, so we figured it would be a perfect fit. During Felix's three years in school with a rhetor (age 14-17), we knew he was going to pursue politics, so I b

In these transitional years of your son's life, it is difficult to navigate strictness as a parent. On one hand, you want to keep your son in line, being an example of how to be a serious Roman citizen so that he too someday can be taken seriously. But on the other hand, you want to form a relationship with your child, and bonds are often built through humor and playfulness. So where do we draw the line? This makes me think of the well known play Adelphi by Terence. As fellow

When your Roman son has reached the age of eight, he has officially left infancy, and he is old enough to take responsibility for his actions and begin his education outside the home. When Felix was six years old, we obtained a paedagogus named Alexander. He was a well-educated slave who lived at our home to help give Felix a head start on his structured education before transitioning into a school setting. When Felix turned eight, we sent him to a ludus litterarius , a smal

Of course, the number one priority we should have as parents is keeping our children healthy. When Felix and Lucia were growing up, I would make at-home remedies from our garden to help cure some of their ailments. Felix in particular seemed to catch illnesses often in his early childhood, so I became an expert at preparing different remedies. Here are some of my favorite herbs to keep in our garden: Thyme- good for curing a cough or indegestion Rosemary- helped Felix with to

In these next few posts, I'm going to discuss more of my experiences and tips from when Felix was 0-7 years old. In this age range, a Roman child is still considered an infant, since they are vulnerable and they don't fully understand the implications of their actions yet. I believe this time to be one of the most crucial stages of parenting. This is the time when children's minds are the most formidable, which is part of the reason I took great care in selecting a nurse for

For my first blog post, I figured I'd start from the beginning of my parenting story: Felix's birth. I had Felix when I was 18, which is much older than the common age that women tend to give birth in our society. Most girls marry off at around 14 years of age and have their firstborn soon after. I married Cornelius at 16 since my parents cared deeply about my education, wanting me to spend a few more years at home with a private tutor so I could learn to read and write. This