This originally appeared on Eat The Damn Cake. Republished here with permission. Is it really necessary to advertise everyday products using naked women? I’d like to raise my daughter in a world that didn’t force these images down her throat everywhere we look. My husband, Bear, opened his new headphones. “Check it out!” he said […]
They’re not all lazy and entitled. Today’s young adults are just another generation of people, trying to do the best they can, in a world with really screwed up priorities. According to a recent New York Magazine article entitled “The Collateral Damage of Teenagers,” I am supposed to be unhappier than “regular” parents because my […]
Not all matriarchs are loud and bossy, nor do they conspire to control the lives of their families. They are women who have embraced the authority that comes with age and are using it to help others. There is a famous commercial in which Andie MacDowell looked into the camera and told us, “I don’t plan […]
Does making a beautiful child with a beautiful man have to lead to ferocious women turning into feeble doormats? International pop sensation Shakira has started acting a bit strange since she and her Spanish boyfriend Gerard Piqué, a soccer player for Barcelona, announced the birth of baby Milan in February last year. Shak—as we compulsive […]
Moms are not superheroes. They get sick, need help and a good cry sometimes. And maybe the best thing you can teach your kids is how to get back up after you’ve been knocked down. When you were young and untethered, it was no big deal to take to your bed when you got hit […]
There is beauty and terror in every aspect of life worth pursuing, says Emily Rapp. never thinking this would cost you anything, never imagining the sound of my voice as anything but part of you— you won’t hear it in the other world, not clearly again, not in birdcall or human cry, not […]
You don’t have to share DNA to be a family. It is a typical Saturday morning. I struggle through the grocery store, the toddler threatening to jump from the cart to find the fish, the 10-year-old reminding me we’re out of grape juice and asking if can we please get a new kind of ice […]
This originally appeared on Everyday Feminism. Republished here with permission. You talk to your kids about the dangers of crossing the road, but your child is more likely to be molested than to be hit by a car when crossing the street. (Note: This piece contains descriptions of sexual abuse that may upset some readers.) […]
This originally appeared on Everyday Feminism. Republished here with permission. I do not want to have children. When it comes up in conversation, people are shocked by my choice. People who have or want children sometimes seem offended by it. Others brush it off, saying I’ll change my mind someday. Maybe it’s surprising that I […]
This originally appeared on The Daily Life. Republished here with permission. On a recent visit to her grandparents, my 4-year-old daughter Violet decided to wear her favorite skirt. It’s also the most stained, torn, and tattered skirt she owns. But I let her. Same goes for when she opts to wear to kindergarten a bedazzled […]
As society moves toward a greater acceptance of people’s differences, what is becoming more shameful than anything is small-mindedness. Last week, following college football player Michael Sam’s announcement that he was gay, a Dallas news anchor, Dale Hansen, slammed many in the NFL for their ridiculous, homophobic response. On surface appearance alone, Hansen, with his […]
This originally appeared on Mommy Man: Adventures Of A Gay Superdad. Republished here with permission. I forget sometimes what outdated attitudes still linger outside of this nice little gay-friendly bubble in which I spend most of my life. Last month, I recorded a podcast called Dadsaster. The topic was Gay Dads, and I was the […]
