Hey, Mama, I know why you are tired. Sure, the baby slept several long stretches, only waking to eat once or twice last night. That doesn’t mean that you slept any better than you did the night before when she was up all night. You are a mommy. Your sleep cycle is unrecognizable, and even […] Read more…
My child stood in the doorway of my bedroom with a big smile. It was 6 a.m., and he was getting dressed for school. The smile was because he thinks it’s hilarious to be naked, as all 6-year-olds do. And, as all 6-year-olds do, he started acting goofy. With his pants around his ankles, he […] Read more…
Is it just this stage of life? As I vented to my best friend about my current state of mind, she told me that she thinks we are just in a tough stage of life. You know, the one where every day is chaotic but still somehow routine. We wake up, we do our best […] Read more…
What’s it like to be a parent? It’s alternating the feeling that you made the best decision ever, and the feeling that you are barely surviving. Parenting is having tiny creatures following you around all day demanding to be fed and then screaming at you for giving them food. It’s stringing together several wonderful days […] Read more…
When a friend of mine asked if I would be willing to watch her 3-month-old while she went to a doctor’s appointment, I jumped at the chance. Did I want to cuddle a baby for an hour? Obviously. I have been a little sad lately about the fact that my children, 3 and 6, have […] Read more…
Please, let your kids make mistakes. Do not confuse letting your kids make their own decisions with the notion that you are “letting them win” or “failing to be a parent.” I have been publicly judged for allowing my kids to make their own choices. Frankly, I think it’s a ridiculous notion that we should […] Read more…
I decided this year that we aren’t celebrating Christmas. No, we are going to EXPERIENCE it. My kids are old enough now that the Christmas experiences make sense. When they were really little, the magic of the holidays was there, but not in all its glory. A weeks-old baby can barely even see the tree, […] Read more…
There are so many things my children may never know about me. To be honest, I’m OK with them never knowing what their mother may or may not have done in college or about that time I got caught sneaking out of my parents’ house. I don’t need them to know that I was a […] Read more…
To the mom using a breast pump in the bathroom stall at work, I’ll just wait out here until you are finished. Don’t want to disrupt. All done? Look, I don’t want to bother you, I just need to tell you that you are amazing. Every day, multiple times a day, I see you try […] Read more…
I’ve written extensively about my children and their pure hatred of sleep. Both kids quit napping before they turned 2, and neither has ever slept through the night for more than a night or two in a row. Basically, my husband and I haven’t slept in almost six years. Something beautiful happened in the last […] Read more…