The Real Me

I have a confession to make.

I'm not who I've been pretending to be.

The story starts like this: After having a child with a "ch" sound in his name, and hearing professionals and lay-people alike butcher it, my parents opted to give me a clean, easy-to-pronounce legal name: Shifra.

(Of course, people have managed to butcher it anyway - I get a lot of "Shifira"s or "Shirifa"s. Don't even ask.)

But for my real name, I'm named after my great-great-grandmother, Chaya Shifra, so, of course, my name is Chaya Shifra.

What kind of ended up evolving from that was that anyone who really knew me called me Chaya Shifra; if they called me Shifra, it was usually the doctor's office or whatnot. No worries, right?

Well... then things got a little bit messier.

Nearly two years ago, I decided I was going to become a sleep consultant. That meant that I would be starting a business. With lots of legal stuff. And, of course, there was my training course with a whole boatload of people who'd find it hard to pronounce the "ch".

Well, no matter. Shifra was the name on my ID, the name on my credit card, the name on my birth certificate. So Shifra it was.

I registered my business, set up my social media accounts, email address and loads more as Shifra.

And then I started answering the phone as Shifra.

And signing off on emails as Shifra.

Which felt weird.

Especially when I was talking to frum people (which was about 97% of the time) - because they CAN pronounce the "ch."

I developed friendships with many of my clients... all of them calling me Shifra.

But I'm not Shifra.

And I never really was.

So I've decided I'm done with the farce.

I'm going back to being "Chaya Shifra" because that's who I am. And because, when I'm working with clients around something as raw and close to their hearts as their motherhood and their children, I can't pretend.

I need to be my best me so that I can help you be your best you.

So let's start fresh.

Hi, I'm Chaya Shifra, founder of KinderWink Sleep Consulting.

I'd love to meet you - please do introduce yourself in the comments below.