Much attention is paid to the parenting choices of privileged white women, but what about the women of color and poor women in the background who are often doing a significant portion of the domestic work? It’s a photo that is shocking and almost dystopic—a group of dark-skinned women in neat rows donning hospital gowns […]
It’s exhausting to feel so much for and through another person. After rejecting a series of “loveys” meant to help her sleep better, my 16-month-old daughter, Benna, has finally chosen a stuffed animal worthy of her affection: a small Elmo toy that betrays our family’s somewhat lax attitude toward screen time. It’s adorable to see […]
It will seem an impossible task this growing—for all of you. But you’ll do it anyway. Dear 28-Year-Old Almost-Mom Self: I see you in the hospital bed on the third day of your labor, trying to bring your daughter into the world. You are exhausted and must push one more time. You have had two […]
It’s a lot easier to put baby’s needs first when you’ve got the money to do it. When we discovered we were pregnant, like so many other parents, we turned childrearing into a graduate-level research project. I spent hours studying breastfeeding, cosleeping, and attachment parenting. I read studies—I choose to believe some experts (Dr. Sears) […]
This should not be a women’s issue. It should be a parents’ issue. And it should recognize that different children will need different things, often impacted by the circumstances of their birth. Our first night with our son was spent in a hotel in Seoul, South Korea. Sudden parents to an almost-4-month-old, despite months of […]
Mothers are two and a half times more likely than fathers to cover the nightshift of caretaking. Arianna Huffington has deemed sleep the next big feminist issue, because women are significantly more sleep deprived than men. Without enough sleep, she argues, we cannot reach our full potential as a sex: “A nation of sleepy women is […]
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 […]
