The idea that young men need to learn about consent in high school or college goes hand-in-hand with the idea that sex education shouldn’t be taught before then, either. The second week of first grade, my 6-year-old son came home and told me, very seriously, “Mama, I have a girlfriend and I love her.” I […]
Explaining to my very innocent little boys that not all people are good and that they should never go off with a stranger, no matter how nice they seem, is the worst feeling in the world. When my 4-year-old asked how I got him in my tummy, I didn’t flinch. I discussed conception and childbirth […]
Outside of the circumcision debate, I can’t remember the last piece I read that dealt with boys and body autonomy. Why is that? I’m sitting at the school pick up line and I watch as my 6-year-old lines up with his classmates. There is a girl on either side of him, each of them holding […]
It’s damn hard, but I’m finding the strength to be the mom I never had. My mom died in 2007, two and a half years before I had my oldest son. We had been estranged for nearly a decade before that, so her death was sad, but the emptiness had been there for so long […]
I know parents a decade younger than me who need an afternoon nap after a morning at the park. I won’t judge their naps if they won’t judge my grey hair. I just turned 48 earlier this month and my sons are 3 and 5 years old. Whenever people hear this, I get the usual […]
No mom should ever feel guilty for taking care of herself, in whatever form that may take. A vicious stomach bug made its way through our house last month, hitting me especially hard. I was still feeling the after effects of exhaustion even after my kids bounced back and were ready to return to school. […]
For many women, the magic of motherhood seems to sweep over them on the day their baby is born. For me, the magic of motherhood came like a change in seasons—gradually and quietly. In late December 2009, the month my oldest son was born, I was scrolling through the photos in my phone and kept […]
There is no fairy godmother of fat girls. But there should be. I would volunteer, just so no other 12-year-old girl would have to spend 30 years of her life thinking something was wrong with her. My entire life, my weight has been an issue. Not for me, but for other people. Especially men. I don’t […]
