This originally appeared on Mamamia. Republished here with permission. Kids are not cakes, they’re more like stir-fries: You can kind of make it up as you go along. There’s a lot of hand-wringing over raising kids these days, isn’t there? Mostly over kids who are well fed, well educated, and well loved. I don’t know if the […]
This originally appeared on The Huffington Post. Republished here with permission. Do you remember the first time you babysat? If you are a woman, chances are a vivid memory just popped into your head, replete with an anxious yet exhilarating feeling that accompanied your first venture into both childcare and entrepreneurship. If you are a […]
This constant push for mothers to do more and more and more is not the recipe for a sane and healthy life. I read the occasional Internet article about parenting. If I scroll down to read the comments, I quickly become mired in the miserable, competitive aspect of parenting. Everyone wants to feel good about […]
This originally appeared on I Am Undergrounded. Republished here with permission. If one thing has always been clear to me, even when everything else in my life was a chaotic blur, it’s this: It takes a village to harm a child. My mother is sitting across from me warming her hands with a cup of tea […]
Don’t expect your child to be your confidant, and give them time to grieve. “It was a fine cry—loud and long—but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.” I‘ve always loved this line from Toni Morrison’s Sula for perfectly capturing the essence of grief. Sharp, endless, and […]
This originally appeared on Renegade Mothering. Republished here with permission. We tell women “motherhood is the most important job in the world” but then bash them for struggling with it. I’m feeling ill-equipped for motherhood lately. I can’t stop being an asshole to my kids. I’m yelling too much. My patience is almost always already […]
This originally appeared on Mamamia. Republished here with permission. Babies are not born racist, homophobic, or elitist. The world, both online and off, can be a very unkind and unpleasant place. Even as adults, we find ourselves ill-equipped to deal with both the awfulness and unnecessary callousness of it all. Unfortunately, if we’ve gotten this […]
After the loss of her second child, Jacqui Morton is having a difficult time watching her third child leave babyhood. Our youngest son moved his berry lips from the dark of my nipple to the paler, smoother skin around the corner and blew a raspberry on my right breast. He did this intermittently between bits […]
