Parents of color don’t receive a visit and a warning if their children are found playing alone; they are immediately blamed and far more likely to be arrested or lose custody of their children. At first glance, my 9-year-old daughter doesn’t look “poor.” She meticulously chooses her outfits for school, often sleeping in them—even the […]
The last thing we need is one more thing to feel inadequate about, one more thing to feel like we’re doing “wrong” when it comes to having a baby. I looked at the sample birth plan my midwife handed to us with a furrowed brow. It was six pages long and had questions I hadn’t […]
By focusing solely on conquering the dreams my mother had hand-picked for me, I hadn’t considered establishing any of my own. This past Mother’s Day, I rode my bicycle two cities over, slicing through humidity and foreboding; both of which felt so thick and heavy that I may as well have been treading water. Despite […]
Do you have a burning question about pregnancy, modern parenting, or family life? Send it to Evie at AskEvieColumn@gmail.com or click here to submit your question anonymously. Dear Evie, My daughter is 7 months old—she’s a funny, curious, adventurous little girl and she’s the light of my life. Before I had her, I struggled with recovery […]
Not all small talk is excruciating. Recently a friend stopped drinking for a month. Normally gregarious and sociable, she confided that her month without alcohol was fine, except, “I had no patience, none at all, for small talk.” Another friend just posted a fascinating article by David Roberts on Facebook (“Why Small Talk Is So […]
We shouldn’t disguise such loaded, difficult questions as small talk. I work for a fairly big organization and live in a fairly small town, so naturally I became used to prying, personal questions disguised as small talk. Most of the time, they seemed fairly simple on the surface. “So, how’s married life?” I have a […]
I’m proud of the decision I made. One weekend, about five years ago, I went to visit a dear friend from law school. “I’m thinking about having a baby on my own,” I told her somewhat sheepishly. It was an idea I’d been tossing around as I started approaching 40 and there was no life partner in sight. I was still […]
Next time someone asks if your daughter, baby, or wife is “good,” ask them what they mean by that. We live in a society that places a huge emphasis on women being a “good” something. Good girl. Good baby. Good daughter. Good wife. Good mother. VOMIT. Can we just stop and explore all of this for a […]
