Kayla Bernard

Q: Where did you grow up? 

A: I grew up in Massachusetts, about an hour outside of Boston. I now live in Hawaii which is much different but I love it and feel so at home here with my family. 

Q: What was your childhood like? 

A: I grew up with a single mom who did the best she could. I spent a lot of time with my cousins, Aunts, and Grandma. Our home was always filled with laughter and dancing. 

Q: One of your favorite memories as a child? 

A: Spending time with my cousins in our childhood home (we all lived together until I was 7/8) we used to spend hours outside in the woods behind our house making up games and playing in the treehouse. 

Q: Most rewarding part of motherhood? 

A: Ahhh, it’s so hard to pick! I think my favorite part of motherhood is getting to give them the childhood I wished I had as a little kid. (Stability, two parent home, stay at home mom, siblings close in age ,etc) I feel parts of myself healing just from watching my kids live the life that they do. 

Q: Biggest challenge for you as a mom of three boys? 

A: Finding time for myself amidst taking care of them, too. With 3 kids 3 and under it often feels like I’m giving so much of myself and not always filling my own cup too. 

Q: When are you happiest? 

A: I love going on a family trips. I love watching my family experience new things and make new memories together. 

Q: Favorite family meal together? Do you invite the boys in the kitchen or is it more of your space? 

A: I usually do most of the cooking solo, but a couple times a week we will practice cooking and baking together. My older son is very interested in baking right now so we are working on perfecting our brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe and also banana muffins! 

Q: Could you share your favorite activities with your kids? 

A: We love to put together sensory bins together! My kids love to get messy, dig, pour, and mix things. Our IKEA flisat table gets a lot of love at our home. 

Q: Something special that you want your kids to learn from you? 

A: When they’re all old and grown, I hope they look back and feel like the best gift we ever gave them was the gift of brotherhood. I hope they learn to always come back to each other no matter what, that siblings are your biggest supporters and to always choose love

Q: Advice to parents in the thick of parenting, feeling burnt out, touched out, all the things that happen to most of us at one point or another

A: Oh gosh. Something I had to learn myself is that it’s okay ask for help. It’s okay to let others support you, to have a village. We, as mothers, are not meant to truly do it all! 

Q: Something you wish you heard more of as a kid?

A: That I was meant to be here. I felt out of place a lot as kid, almost like I didn’t belong there. That sounds really dark, I promise I was loved as a child! Lol. But most of my family is white and I was the only one who looked different. My mom was not the best at talking about my Dad’s side of the family who was not around. It left me with a lot of questions and feelings of confusion.