“Shiny jewelry, cuddly teddy bears, and Valentine’s cards are long gone. But there is nowhere else I’d rather be, and no one else I’d rather be doing this with.”
After Years Of Marriage And Multiple Kids, Valentine’s Day Looks Different
Dear Husband: It’s Okay To Not Be The Breadwinner
“I am happy with our family and how we work, and no one else’s opinion is ever going to change that.”
I Was Imprisoned For My Heroin Addiction, Now I Run The Largest Substance Abuse Recovery Center In Utah
“I put the sheet around my neck and waited. I just couldn’t let go. I could hear the voices in my head saying, ‘You can’t even do this right.’ When I was released from prison, my family wouldn’t take me in. After too many broken promises, they were done with me. I owed $33,000 in child support and $100,000 for my crimes. ‘You’re going to be okay.’ My prisonmates saved my life. They took me in when I was too far gone.”
‘Stop, you’re holding him too close.’ I ignored them, rarely letting go. I assumed everyone was this fiercely protective.’: Mom shares battle with postpartum anxiety, ‘I had no idea why I was suffering’
“Night upon night were panic-filled dreams, cold sweats. I’d frantically fumble through the sheets in search of my baby, who I was convinced I’d rolled on in my extreme state of exhaustion. Everywhere we went, I envisioned horrible things. I became the mother who hovered beneath the play equipment and fed only pureed food in fear he would choke. My mom friends stopped trying. Offers for play-dates and coffee meets ceased.”
‘I told the nurse, ‘Tie my tubes. I’m done, I don’t ever want to do this again!’ I begged my fiancé to find another woman. ‘I just can’t do it, I’m sorry.’: Woman births rainbow baby after still birth, 3 miscarriages
“At 18, I’d miscarried 3 times. Here I was, at risk of losing another baby. My OB said, ‘Your plan was to have a baby and bring a baby home. I know you still want that.’ Each month, I counted his kicks the way kids count raindrops on a car window. I texted my mom, ‘I can’t do this. What if I’m making a mistake?’ It was go time. I closed my eyes as tight as I could, clenched my teeth, and pushed.”
“Mom, is that why you cried so much when I was a baby?” — Amputee widow turns unimaginable loss into unstoppable strength
“I still remember that day. The taste of blood and dirt in my mouth. Later, when I sat up in the hospital bed and felt the missing weight of my right arm, I looked over and saw nothing but a stump wrapped in bandages. It was the most horrific thing I’d seen in my 10 short years. But life moves on, and I slowly gained a sense of new purpose. There was more to me than just one label.”
‘I just found a giant bottle of vodka in their closet, so I’m pretty freaked out.’ Parenting teenagers makes us into liars. We show the shiny side. We can no longer spill our guts.’: Mom says parents to teens ‘need a village more than ever’
“All this may be true, but we are all only telling one side of the story.”
‘You have to work. Stay-at-home moms are lazy and uneducated.’ He brainwashed me. He refused to adopt my girls in order to get child support money.’: Man adopts wife’s children in wake of divorcing abusive ex
“I got pregnant one month after meeting my daughter’s biological father. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I have everything I’ve ever wanted. I can stay home and take care of the kids.’ Instead, I cried myself to sleep every night in fear of being killed. ‘A stay-at-home mom is lazy and uneducated.’ He brainwashed me. I was forced to work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. I wasn’t allowed to see my kids.”
‘If you start to feel like you don’t like it, you can tell me to stop,’ I said. ‘I don’t like that,’ he practiced.’: Mom turns playful tickling with son into consent lesson, ‘We all deserve to enjoy living in our own bodies’
“My 3-year-old asked me to tickle him. Tickling is one of those activities that can move quickly from fun into boundary transgression. I wanted to connect with him playfully in the way he was asking and model safe physical experiences at the same time. It’s not one serious, awkward conversation. It’s not The Sex Talk you’ve known and dreaded. It’s a foundation built over years.”
‘Dinner is cooked when he gets home. I fix his plate, then mine. No, I don’t live in the dark ages.’: Woman claims ‘I show love through actions’
“I hear people say, ‘My husband can fix his own plate.’ So can mine. ‘My husband can get himself dressed and ready.’ So can mine. I am up at 6:45 a.m. and don’t sit down to relax till after 7 p.m.”