The supermodel’s breastfeeding ritual may look different than yours, but that doesn’t make her less of a mom. Last week, Gisele Bundchen shared a Vogue-worthy photograph of herself breastfeeding her 1-year-old daughter Vivian on her Instagram account, while two stylists worked on her hair and another painted her nails. The photo of her looking relaxed […]
We’re expected to be there, but it’s miserable for everyone. So we’re not going, says Laurel Hermanson. When I was little, I had two sets of grandparents: city grandparents and country grandparents. On my mother’s side were Nanny and Beepa. They were affluent and sophisticated and lived in a stately colonial in an upscale Connecticut […]
Mainstream media has painted Bode Miller as a dedicated father in a brutal custody battle. But where’s the focus on his attempt to control the life and restrict the rights of a pregnant woman? Nowhere, says Soraya Chemaly. Today, a New York family court will decide where the nine-month old baby of “America’s most decorated […]
That happy-ever-after narrative we’re sold as kids doesn’t always work out. But there are alternatives. Say you are a young woman in your 20’s established in your career of choice. For as long as you can remember, you know you’ve wanted a child. There is not a long-term partnership in your semi-near future. Do you: […]
Wouldn’t you want to be remembered when you’re gone? Wouldn’t you want to imagine that when people gather in the spirit of goodwill that rather than say nothing at all, they invoked what you meant to them? The holidays are problematic. Everybody knows this, and the complicated feelings around any “meant to be awesome” celebration […]
This originally appeared on The Daily Life. Republished here with permission. Pregnancy and childbirth used to be so dangerous in centuries past that most women wrote their wills once they knew they were pregnant. Now we write birth plans, specifying the type of music we want playing while we’re in labor. Progress is a wonderful […]
The most important question you could ask a new mom is how she’s doing. How she’s really doing. One of the most common things to emerge after I recently started to speak more openly about my struggle with severe postpartum mental illness (postpartum psychosis) was the amount of people who told me that they had […]
This originally appeared on Mommy Man: Adventures Of A Gay Superdad. Republished here with permission. One of the more neglected purposes of my blog is to share information (and dispel myths) about makin’ gaybies. I want to educate people about my family—and at the same time help prospective parents, gay or straight, who might be […]
If you ‘let yourself go’ physically, your value as a woman in our society is nil. But if you don’t let yourself go, you will never survive the journey of motherhood, says Telaina Eriksen. At the grocery store on Sunday, my heaping cart included enough food to last the four of us for a week […]
My brain says we’re done, but my ovaries are going, “You sure about that?” My husband and I always knew we wanted two kids—no more, no less, just two kids. Two kids that would always have each other; two kids that we could afford to feed and clothe and educate and take to gym class; […]
Only 12% of middle-aged women are “satisfied” with their bodies. Is the body image prison not something we ever break out of? I was 11 the first time I remember a stranger commenting on my figure. I was trying on skirts for Bat Mitzvah season and a saleslady told me I had a “bubble butt.” […]
This originally appeared on Disgrace Under Pressure. Republished here with permission. Years ago I saw the film adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s novel The Hours. In one scene, a severely depressed mother leaves her son with a neighbor, uncertain whether or not she will return for him. The little boy senses his mother’s desperation, and before he […]
