Mireya DeYoung

Because this mom and author knows life from homelessness to success, she doesn’t take anything for granted.

Family comes first.

All families are unique. Tell us about yours.

Let me introduce myself and my fun family. I’m a two-time award-winning children’s book author of the books Come With Me, Papa and Somewhere to Hide. I’m also a songwriter, inspirational speaker, CEO/ Founder of Inspire Your Child LLC, creative writing teacher, wife, daughter, friend and most importantly a proud mama of twin nine-year-olds. I have a daughter named Olivia and a son named Hayden, and I have an amazing and supportive husband named Steve that I’ve been with for 25 years. Yes, I’ve been with my hubby since I was in high school, and yes, he still makes my heart flutter.

When did you know you wanted to be a mom?

While becoming a mom has been life-changing in the best way possible it was not an easy path to take for me. I have polycystic ovarian syndrome, and by the time the thought of having kids came to mind at age of 27, I found out that I was in early menopause. The realization that you can’t have kids when you finally have your house, your job and the love of your life (you know all the things you’re told you’re supposed to do before bringing another life into the world) was heartbreaking. By the time I was thirty I gave up all hope of becoming a mother. I got a fitness trainer, went on the Paleo Diet and tried to sleep more and amazingly at the end of 2014 and rounds of tests at the doctor’s office we were told we could try again with the help of some meds. We went through the process of getting on the meds for me to ovulate, and six months later I was pregnant with twins. That was one of the happiest days of our lives.

What are you enjoying the most about parenting right now?

Our favorite time of the day is dinner time. We all sit around the table and have the best conversations. We laugh, educate each other and take on the tough topics of the day. While I cherished the baby talk and cuddles when they were little, I really love hearing about my kids’ days and what they’re learning. I adore listening to their recess stories and their friend drama.

You know you’re a mom when you hear yourself say…

“Don’t put that in there.” Whether it’s a toy in the toilet, a spoon in the microwave or something disgusting that is about to head right into my child’s mouth, I feel like those are the only words I have in my vocabulary some days.

We’re all moms so we know that no one is perfect all of the time, or even some of the time. Tell us about your most recent “Mother of the Year” moment. You know, like forgetting to pick the kids up from school.

I grew up in a household filled with music. I’ve always said that I would never shelter my kids from any music and their lyrics. Well, that backfired on me a little when my son and daughter started to twerk around the house one day singing Baby Got Back.

What is something you swore you would never do before kids that you now do (skip showers, go to a drive through coffee in your pjs, etc.)?

Drink cold coffee and eat cold toast.

In what way are your children like you? How are they different?

My daughter loves to draw and work with clay where I’m not great at any of those. My son on the other hand is amazing at math like his father. It’s funny though because both of my kids are not that different from me. They joke around, have sass and love their family.

No one works harder than mom.

We know that being a mom is a full-time job. How do you balance (or not) motherhood, activities, work, volunteering, household responsibilities, and life in general? What sometimes falls through the cracks?

Somedays I feel like everything is going great and I have everything together because I’m super mom. On other days however, I know and have nothing together. I guess you can say I’m the definition of fake

it til you make it. I juggle so many balls between writing, marketing, shows, house chores, cooking, school drop-offs and pick-ups, dance classes, soccer and just being a wife and mom. Don’t get me wrong, I love my life and I’m so very thankful for all that I have and all the love I’m given, but I think balance is overrated.

Tell us about your work or volunteerism outside of the home.

I’ve always had two passions which were helping others and writing. From a very young age I’d volunteered my time to different organizations like cancer research, Alzheimer’s Associations, schools by teaching creative writing classes, and being a board member for the Salem March of Dimes.

During the pandemic, I was fighting loneliness not only from feeling secluded from the world but also battling anxiety and depression that stemmed from postpartum depression. I decided to grab ahold of my courage and joined my two passions together by creating Inspire Your Child LLC. I wanted to help parents talk to their children about difficult topics that they don’t know how to broach. I wrote my first book Come with Me, Papa, that helps children understand Alzheimer’s and dementia. I have had someone in my life with a form of memory loss since I was 14. When I was younger no one ever really explained it to me or could find the words to explain it. So, I figured this is where I wanted to start, especially since my father was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia and I needed to explain it to my kids.

My second book is called Somewhere to Hide about school lockdown drills. Every time a school shooting happens my heart hurts so bad for the families and friends who lost loved ones. I want-

ed to create a book for children and parents that was not political and was factual about what our children were learning and having to go through in school.

My next book will be about abuse, another hard topic that no one wants to talk about, I know. I promise that I will be here to help bring up the hard topics so parents can feel confident and educated while having a hard conversation with their children.

Tell us about a recent achievement you’re proud of, or a personal passion or talent.

When I wrote my first book the only goal I had was to be able to help other parents start a difficult conversation with their children about Alzheimer’s and dementia. My book Come With Me, Papa

was released about a year later, and I decided to enter a contest. To my surprise I won second place out of 400 book entries, and I was blown away. Then it continued to get better because I was picked to be featured on the New York Nasdaq sign in the middle of Times Square. I couldn’t imagine that my little book that I feared being released because I was putting my heart and soul out there for others to possibly criticize became recognized and cherished by so many people.

When I got to New York I was fortunate enough to do a meet-and-greet the staff and personalities of the show Good Morning America. I handed out my books to Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, Ginger Zee and when I was able to give my books to Micheal Strahan he told me “Hey! You gave your books to Robin earlier.” I nodded with the biggest grin on my face before he continued, “We were looking at these upstairs before I came out. These are great. Good job.” The happiness in my heart that my work not only was being recognized by some amazing famous people, got featured in the middle of Times Square, but also helped change so many people’s lives makes me feel so very humbled.

If mom’s not happy, nobody’s happy.

Tell us about your upbringing. How did it shape the mother you are today?

I grew up in a family of seven: my mother, father, four older brothers and me. Our house was filled with music and laughter. I was the youngest with a nine-year age gap from the youngest brothers who are also twins. Because my brothers were all adults by the time I was nine, they all started to move out and start their own lives and families. I never liked the age gap between my brothers and I; because of this I decided at a young age that if I were to have kids, I would want them all to be around the same age. I got my wish and had twins myself. I would have loved to have more kids but because of my condition it wasn’t in the cards for me.

By the time I was 14 my mother, father, one of my brothers and I received an eviction notice from our landlord because he wanted to raise the rent. We had 30 days to leave a house that we lived in for 14 years. It was heartbreaking. At the young age of 14 I became homeless, living in hotels, on friends’ couches and even sometimes in a car. My brothers were able to take us in at times but that never really lasted long because they had their own small children and families to care for. I continued with high school and worked three jobs to help my parents pay for hotels. Until you’re homeless you never know how much you appreciate having milk in a refrigerator, full-sized toothpaste or a closet to put your clothes in until it’s all gone. This is one of the reasons why I waited so long to have kids. I wanted my children to grow up with the stability of having a home they can come home to every day and food that they didn’t have to get through a drive-through every night. I wanted my children to have the ability to get an education without having to worry about where they were going to sleep at night.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame my parents or family for anything that happened in the past. I blame greed. It was our landlord’s right to do whatever he wanted to do with his house, but he could have given my family time to find another place and get first and last month’s rent together. He did teach me a very important thing and that is to not allow money to influence my decisions. I don’t need a fancy purse (even though I love them), or a pile of make-up, I just need to be kind to others. I take whatever opportunity I have to take my kids to volunteer and explain to them that they should never judge others before getting to know them. The most important thing is to never take what you have for granted.

Which good habit do you wish you started earlier?

Eat less sugar but I love gummy bears.

When did you realize you were no longer a child?

I grew up being a dancer. It helped me to be very flexible and energetic. I loved it and still do. But do you know how stupid I felt when I woke up one morning with a sprained wrist because I spent 30 minutes the day before trying to teach my daughter how to do a cartwheel? Yeah! So, that was the day I officially knew I was no longer a child.

Tell us something about you that would surprise people who don’t know you.

I know I’ve touched on it before, but I have never really talked about my anxiety and postpartum depression with other moms. Others think I’m this carefree mom that has things together. However, that’s far from the truth. I may be strong but that still doesn’t stop me from being a blubbering mess over a dog commercial.

If you could instantly have one new skill (i.e. foreign language, musical talent, eyes in the back of your head, etc.), what would it be?

I’m a third generation Mexican that grew up in the Bay Area where Spanish is not a necessity. My grandparents spoke Spanglish, and I can understand that no problem, but no one ever taught me how to actually speak Spanish. I’m constantly asked if I know Spanish, either because people need a translator or have a question and I can’t help them. It’s so frustrating. In high school when I was given a chance to take an elective, I did what every good Mexican does and took American Sign Language. Now that I know how important it is to learn Spanish, I made sure to have my children learn it. Now instead of my parents speaking a different language about me behind my back I now get to look forward to my children doing it.

If you could turn any activity into an Olympic sport, in which event would you win a gold medal?

The final 10 minutes of getting the kids ready and out of the house would be the best and most comical Olympic sport.

What’s your guilty pleasure? (dark chocolate hidden in the pantry, TJ Maxx, daily latte habit?)

I feel horrible admitting this, but I love reading tabloids. Celebrities always make me feel like my life could be worse.

Who is your favorite fictional hero?

Thor, because who doesn’t love a hammer-wielding God?

Who is your favorite real-life hero?

Anne Frank

What is your least/most favorite household chore?

I despise laundry. If I could throw away all of my clothes after each use I would do it in a heartbeat. Maybe someone should invent cute paper clothing so I can live out my dream of being laundry-free. My favorite chore will always be doing the dishes. It’s really the only time I get the kitchen all to myself and no one bothers me because I think they all get scared I’ll make them dry the dishes and put them away.

Listen to mom.

Who and what has influenced the mother you are today?

My mom has inspired me to be the mom that I am today. My mom is a strong, caring, honest, stubborn and amazing woman. She’s fun and loves all kids, and she works hard and loves harder.

What message would you like to share with other moms? Remember to tell it like it is.

I will never say that being a mom is the easiest thing in the world, but I will say it’s the most gratifying experience I’ve ever had.

---

MOM’s favorite…

Tell us about your favorite…

…family game: So hard to choose one. It’s a toss-up between chess and UNO.

…words to live by: Always inspire and be kind to others.

…place to find some peace & quiet: I can’t even go into the bathroom to get peace. Please tell me if you ever find a place.

…binge-worthy TV or podcast: I love any podcast that will go over #RedditAITA. Two Hot Takes is my favorite.

…way to get out of making dinner: I personally just announce “I’m not cooking tonight.”

---

MOMs love local…

We love locally owned businesses, restaurants, places and organizations. Share your favorite…

…boutique to find a new shirt, gift or home décor item: Mint Children’s Boutique

…hair salon: Little Angels Kids Salon

…restaurant to take the kids: Padington’s Pizza

…restaurants for a date night: Nagoya

…local park where kids can let off steam: Keizer Rapids Park

…event in your community: Oregon State Fair

---