Actress Sitara Hewitt on the joys of raising a five-year-old

Sitara Hewitt is known for playing Dr. Rayyan Hamoudi on the CBC hit Little Mosque on the Prairie. She’s recently turned her comedy chops to Too Much Information, a slightly edgier panel show airing on Superchannel. A native of Elora, Ont., she offers positive, down-to-earth advice on her new lifestyle website, LivingWellWithSitara.com, and also reps Natural Calm Canada. She spoke with ParentsCanada from her home in Los Angeles about the joys of raising her five-year-old-son.

“Rowan is the light of my life. I’m just learning as I go, as do most parents with their first. He’s healthy, he’s happy, he’s social. I’ve learned how to be a better person by being his mom and I’m still learning. I’ve found that a child learns more from your example of how you live than what you tell them to do. I can’t react in anger over silly little things now because that’s what he’ll start to do. We want the best for him so badly that sometimes we can get stressed out by it. If I can learn to really embrace life and enjoy and meet my challenges head-on, then hopefully that’s what he’ll do and have a better life because of it.”

“Life throws you a lot of curve balls and if you’re always trying to layer on some false positivity that’s not real. We just accept this moment as it is, such as he doesn’t want to go to school. Rather than say “Hey buddy it’s going to be great, don’t worry,” I say “Let’s accept this, it is a big transition and everything you’re feeling is OK.” That helps both of us relax, and from that relaxed place we can come up with solutions.”

“My parenting motto? To nurture and empower my son. And to love him and squeeze him and kiss him a lot!”

Follow Sitara on Twitter @SitaraHewitt

Originally published in ParentsCanada magazine, May 2015.