Prodigi Kids
backstory

My passion is teaching parents how to raise their kids with positive self worth- the belief in themselves, their dreams, and their right to a happy life. When you work on your dreams, there's nothing sweeter in life.

When you achieve them, it feels peaceful. It's the path to true, lasting happiness.

I wasn’t born knowing this. I didn’t google it or read it in a book. Life taught it to me.

My childhood wasn’t idyllic. I grew up in Jackson Heights, Queens, a rough neighborhood with crack cocaine being smoked on every street corner around our apartment building. I learned street smarts and an appreciation for different cultures from around the world.

My dad was abusive and my mom was neglectful. I grew up watching my mom choose to stay with an abusive husband who treated us miserably every day and raise my sister and me in that environment.

I never saw my parents express any kindness or affection toward each other which seemed strange to me because I’m naturally a warm, affectionate person.

Jackson Heights, Queens 7 blocks from where I grew up

As soon as I graduated law school and was able to support myself and mom financially, I begged her to come live with me and care for her. I asked her a million times, 1000 different ways, but, sadly, the answer was always no.

I couldn't understand why she chose a life with an abuser rather than the loving and peaceful environment I created.

I later realized that she had low self worth and didn’t love herself enough to believe she deserved better.

I'd been taking care of my parents since I was 14 (they had me later in life- my dad was 53 and my mom was 42 when I was born).

I would have known if my mom had a heart condition. The doctor continued and told me that she had congestive heart failure after years of neglect.

It could have 💯 been prevented if my mom had taken her high blood pressure meds for the last 10 years. That’s why they call high blood pressure a silent killer.

Then one day I got a call from her cardiologist. He asked me if I was sitting down, and his tone sounded serious. I chose to continue standing.

He told me that her kidneys were failing- one shut down completely and the other was only operating at 25%. I went into problem solving mode and asked him if she qualified for a kidney transplant. He answered no. There was nothing he could do to fix her condition. It was grave. She'd die on the operating table.

I can still feel the pain in my heart from hearing this. My mom’s body couldn’t handle surgery. I asked him why, and he said she had a hole in her heart.

And I was like- wait- what!? How did this happen?

I asked him how long she had to live. He said her one working kidney would deteriorate quickly, and she’d need dialysis within the year.

He gave her several years more to live on dialysis, and that was optimistic. It would be rough on her frail body at her age with a serious heart condition.

I never told my mom this part of the conversation.

I was in shock. It was a very surreal moment. I took my mom to every doctor appointment and got her prescriptions filled throughout the years.

How did this lead to a hole in her heart?

Did the medicine not work at all?

Did the medicine not work at all?

My head swirled with questions everywhere. I called her cardiologist.

He confided in me that my mom told him secretly at her last appointment that she dumped her meds and didn't take them because they caused side effects that interfered with her daily life. They made her feet swell, and she couldn't go bowling, garden, and dance at home, the things she enjoyed doing.

I hung up with the cardiologist and immediately called my mom. I told her what the kidney specialist told me and asked her one question- why?

WTF didn't you take your meds? I filled every prescription for 10 years and you dumped them!

Why didn't you speak up for yourself and switch to a different one that wouldn't give you side effects?

Why didn't you pursue other healing remedies to help you?

Why why why?

My mom didn't have an answer for me. She was silent. I was heartbroken. My heart crumbled into a million pieces that day.

I felt a light go out inside of me in that moment on the phone with my mom.

The pain I felt was deep and piercing. I observed it within my heart, and it looked like a light switch on a wall that turned off.

I loved my mom and would do anything for her, but I couldn't help her now. I did everything I could for her health for 20 years, but she didn't want to help herself. She didn't love herself enough to speak up or help herself.

I wanted my mom to live so badly. But, I couldn’t will her to live. She had to want that for herself, and she chose differently.

I was worried whether my mom would survive dialysis treatments. I heard from someone at a friend’s house who went thru dialysis that it’s rough. They take all your blood out and filter it and then put it back in clean. She’d be hooked up to a machine for hours 3-4 times/week at the dialysis center.

Once she started dialysis treatments, she went downhill very quickly. Every organ and system in her body started to shut down. She lost the ability to use the bathroom, her eyesight, and her ability to walk. Her body was dying, yet her mind was 100% intact.

Then I got the call from my sister who was with my mom at the hospital. She said it was time to say goodbye and put my mom on the phone.

I heard the death rattle in her voice. It didn’t sound like her. It sounded distant and eerie. The only time I heard a death rattle in someone's voice was in a movie, and now I was hearing it in my mom’s voice, and it was real.

At the same time my mom was dying, I was birthing my oldest, Sophia. I was an emotional wreck, and my contractions were coming fast and hard.

My eyes filled with tears, but I didn’t want my mom to hear me cry. I wanted to speak clearly when I told her how much I loved her for the last time.

She never told me she loved me, and this time was no different. I would never know what it feels like to be loved by a mom.

My mom bravely told the doctor to take her off the dialysis machine. Her body shut down, and she didn't want to live anymore. A person can't survive without dialysis for longer than 24 hours.

She was given morphine for comfort and died with pictures of Sophia her lap. My sister was by her side.

At the same time my body was surrendering to the universe and I became a new mom, my mom died. This last act by my mom to end her life was the only brave thing I can recall her doing.

My mom, baby sister, and me

My mom died never sharing her God given gifts with the world. She was an incredible ballroom dancer and could have danced professionally. My Aunt would tell me she was the best dancer in the room at all the parties. She’d watch dancing on TV for hours.

She was a gifted gardener and landscape designer who created the most beautiful, bucolic English gardens at her home. People would drive by and stop and ask me for the contact info for the landscape designer. I smiled and said it was my mom! They said they would love to pay her to come design their home gardens too, but she always said no.

She was a gifted gardener and landscape designer who created the most beautiful, bucolic English gardens at her home. People would drive by and stop and ask me for the contact info for the landscape designer. I smiled and said it was my mom! They said they would love to pay her to come design their home gardens too, but she always said no.

My mom could have had a successful business, support herself financially, and be free of my dad’s control with money.

She could have chosen to live with me instead of staying in an abusive marriage, but she didn't. She chose a life, a wasted life in my opinion- never loving herself because she had low self worth. She died with her beautiful gifts inside her.

My mom taught me that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. All I could do was honor and respect my mom’s choices even if I didn’t agree with them. This was a lesson in true, unconditional love. Free will choice.

My mom at a dance party before I was born

Today, I call my mom my angel and the reason Prodigi Kids exists. Every child deserves to know they’re a Prodigi Kid “inherently wonderful and marvelous”- the definition of the word “Prodigy”.

Every child deserves to be raised with positive self worth in their subconscious brain so they grow up to believe in themselves, their dreams, and their right to a happy life.

My mom is the catalyst for me to be the best version of myself. Her life ignited a burning desire within me to

Give my 3 kids the biggest gift I can possibly give them- the belief in themselves, their dreams, and their right to a happy life

Pioneer and share the Prodigi Kids Self Worth Parenting Paradigm, a new methodology on how to raise our children with positive self worth because the punishment model based upon shame is broken. Every child deserves a happy, fulfilling life

Share my gifts as a designer of exclusive products and content that connect parents and their children in more neuro-emotional loving moments, the building blocks of positive self worth

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