‘I could tell by your body language you were embarrassed. Dear mom in the café, I can see myself in you.’: Mom says ‘being a parent is more than just raising your kids in your own home’

“I sat in that lovely little café with a friend. I could see your son out of the corner of my eye. He was climbing on things that weren’t meant for climbing. You came and did your best to try to keep him from breaking something, or worse yet, disturbing us. You apologized more than once.”

‘You cannot push a jogging stroller to the gate.’ I immediately laughed. ‘Excuse me, what? This holds the car seat my baby sits in.’: Mom shares plea for infant-friendly airline policies

“I honestly thought she was joking. I’d flown 50 times and had zero issues. She got snippy from the get-go. ‘No strollers over 20 pounds allowed at the gate.’ I replied, ‘Weigh it then.’ I was ready to make her look like a fool. There’s no way it was that heavy. I loaded that thing up onto the scale. I stood there, dumbfounded.”

‘I didn’t like the green doily curtain she hung up, so I moved out. I’d make my bed 2 minutes before crawling into it. I was always on edge.’: Woman with anxiety advocates for mental health, ‘There IS help’

“If my mother-in-law wanted to load the dishes for me, I didn’t want her to because I like to load mine a certain way. I consumed myself with ensuring trash was thrown away immediately and constantly just cleaning up after people. I was always on edge.”

‘You’re running out of time.’ I was 16, infertile and robbed of my childhood.’: After 17 years of endometriosis, infertility, couple adopts two children from China, ‘at that moment, I became a mom’

“‘She called, ‘He’s here!’ I hung up the phone and went to the bathroom. I looked down to see nothing but blood. My nephew entered the world as our IVF failed. I’d never carry a child. I’d never experience pregnancy or give birth. How could this happen at this moment? The pain was immeasurable.”

‘What could your excuse possibly be, Dad? You’ve known about the dance for weeks!’: Single father says dads aren’t ‘showing up’ enough, ‘I am doing all I can to cherish her’

“Saying ‘I love you’ when they are going to bed is not nearly enough. You can’t be over-present. They want our time. Our warmth. Our interest in their lives. There are many fathers who aren’t engaged enough (or at all) with their daughters. That crushes me. This is one of life’s most honorable privileges.”

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