“My students come into the classroom yelling, hitting, kicking, and screaming. Many people assume we do the work for our kids because they think they can’t do it themselves. Not everyone is cut out for this kind of classroom.”
‘I received a random card with a note. ‘I pray for you every day.’ My job is very hard to do. Special education is a totally different ball game.’: Special Education teacher urges ‘teach your kids to celebrate differences’
‘I went into my son’s room to wake him. I could sense something wasn’t right. I remember the pallor of his face as I turned him over. Grey. Porcelain.’: Mom loses rainbow baby to SIDS, ‘The darkness is worth telling; without it, there would not be light’
“I screamed my husband’s name. ‘His stomach is warm!,’ I said out loud. I fell over my baby’s body. Air escaped his throat in a tiny wheeze that sounds like a coo. ‘He made a noise!’ Their faces fell. ‘It’s from the CPR.’ ‘It happens.’ They were trying not to fall apart.”
‘I don’t have a mother.’ ‘Baby, everyone has a mother.’ ‘When you were born, your birth mother asked if WE could be your daddy and papa!’ She searched for people to love you with all their heart.’
“A few more days went by and we figured we had finished that conversation until she asked the heaviest question of all, ‘Who is my birth mother?’ We looked at each other and quickly changed the subject.”
‘If I was so miserable, I should leave.’ Eventually, I did. Our marriage looked perfect on social media. We always believed in keeping our issues private.’
“Our wedding day was intimate. But behind the façade were underlying issues that left a bad taste in my mouth. I was put on the back burner. I was failing him because he was expecting me to prepare a home-cooked meal every day while also juggling maintaining a home and breastfeeding our son.”
‘I love you, sweetie. I’ll call you Friday.’ Those words will forever haunt me. I received a call from my mom when school ended. ‘This is the hardest thing I’ll ever tell you.’ I fell to the floor.’
“My heart sank. I could tell by her voice I had to get home. I still hear the words as she fought back breaking down. ‘We have to go. We have to get there!’ I remember having thought, ‘He seems better. He seems more like himself.’ My dad was back. Boy, was I wrong.”
‘I have something to tell you.’ He was rubbing his hands together nervously. I looked him in the eyes. ‘You can tell me anything.’ My brain couldn’t process it.’: Woman loses husband to cancer after he’d already beat it once
“I sat back in my seat and thought I must have misheard him. I said, ‘Oh, but you’re fine, right?’ As if you are ever fine after this diagnosis. ‘No.’ He drew back and smiled the biggest, most beautiful smile. He knew. We both knew.”
‘I wasn’t sure if I wanted to tell him I was pregnant. I found out he had been cheating. Just 3 months before, he learned he had a son from a previous relationship. I was a fool.’
“When the doctors delivered him, I didn’t cry with joy, I didn’t ask to see him. I guess I must have dozed off for a second, and he rolled off my chest and hit the side rail. Most moms would have freaked out. My thought was, ‘Oh well.'”
‘Since my divorce, I’ve seen a plastic surgeon every month. Not for Botox. I had to face what I’d done with every decision to wear short sleeves or a bathing suit.’: Divorcee heals from self harm, eating disorder, removes tattoo of ex
“I had surprised my family with it. My husband told me he loved what I’d done to myself, but what he didn’t tell me was that he was having an affair. I often wonder what he must’ve felt when he saw his name on my wrist and knew he was lying.”
‘If you were to die today, what would happen to your girls?’ I was in a crumbling marriage to an unfaithful spouse, a stressful job and had just been recently diagnosed. My world was ending.’
“I started having severe chest pains. My soon to be ex-husband was determined to make my life a living nightmare. He stopped getting the girls from school, was coming and going from the house at all hours of the night. He treated our home like a roadside motel.”
‘Millions of dollars later, we’re finally home. I get to spend each day with the most amazing 14-pound child imaginable. Dammit, Baby B.’: Family’s amazing journey to overcome infertility
“I bled abundantly, but both babies continued to grow. My husband and I would leave appointments joking ‘dammit Baby B!,’ partially to prepare her for a lifetime of playful comparison, and partially to protect ourselves if something ever happened. We went into our 20-week scan assuming things were perfectly fine. They weren’t.”
‘Here’s a little secret about me: I have three fathers. The one who abused me at 3-years-old opted out of my life. I would say I’m devastated by this loss, but that’s just not the case.’
“You can either repeat the cycle or run from it. I sprinted. Because of a man who hurt me, I have the life I do now. I’ve seen this man cry at his children’s births. My kids are lucky to have a man who always shows up.”
‘There’s tiny hands in the drawer. Maybe it’s my medication and I’m finally losing it, but I can see tiny black hands.’ 5 minute long pause. ‘What? ‘It’s probably a toy.’: Mom recounts hilarious encounter with ‘pterodactyl’
“You ever open a drawer to see two little hands cradling a rolling pin? I did. You can imagine my disgust when I saw this… these little claws. Guess who got the call? Yep. Poor hubby.”
‘My daughter saw a spa day on TV and asked if we could ‘belax’ and have one too. After some contemplation, I thought, ‘Why not?’: Mom urges the importance of self-care for children
“My daughter’s face was priceless. She squealed just like a sweet little girl you’d see in a movie when I said yes. As mothers, it can feel like we’re barely treading water. But we must also remember that our children need time to self-care too. There’s a universe of emotion going on inside their heads each day that we don’t know about.”
‘When you look at me, I know what you see. Your face says it all clearly: ‘You’re so fun! So crazy. So put together!’ What don’t you see? I am on the highest dose of Prozac a woman can take.’
“I’ve got all the ‘required’ pics. Smiley, happy, spouse selfie? Check. Happy, well-behaved kids? Got ’em. But I am tired of living in secrecy and shame. I am done hiding from my truth.”
‘185. That’s my number. It is what pops up on the scale when I decide it’s time to torture myself. I stress-ate after being diagnosed with breast cancer.’
“Or is it 390? Maybe that’s my number. The size implant I want when they reconstruct my breasts so I can feel more human again. I squeezed every weird gelatin blob in my plastic surgeon’s office before settling on one. ‘I dunno, this one?’”
‘My heart raced as I ran towards the kiddie pool. Taking a clue from my children’s guilty faces, I expected the worst. ‘Where is she?!’ I demanded.’: Mom performs ‘chicken CPR’ to save drowning chicken
“‘She’s just taking a nap after her swim.’ I snapped out of my idiotic bliss. Call it divine inspiration, Mother’s Intuition, or simply, ‘Hey dummy, pay attention to your kids.’ I was suddenly struck with the thought of, ‘Huh. Why do they have a towel in a large Tupperware filled with water?'”
‘I know you know something has happened. I am so sorry you have to feel this pain. I am so sorry daddy died.’
“I wish I could right the horrible wrong that was done. I see you look at that perfect picture of daddy. I wish I could tell you he was coming back home. But my dear son, he is not.”
‘Nobody dreams of being a single, middle-aged dad swiping on Tinder. When I entered Single Parent Land, half my brain was sobbing. The other half was thinking, ‘I can run free!’
“As a single parent, every decision takes on a new meaning. If I give my child an applesauce pouch made in China, will my ex bring it up in court? But back to the easy stuff. Remember naps? You know, those times when you could sleep in on a weekend without your ex coming in and yelling at you? There’s a silver lining in all this.”
‘You accused me of infidelity. I did not recognize this man screaming at me.’: Woman tries to heal family after husband’s suicide
“You were sending me strange text messages. I returned home to you acting even stranger. The paranoia set in. I fell to the front porch screaming. Why would you do that?! Why would you leave me?! Our sons!!! My neighbors heard my screams and came rushing to my side.”
‘We had FIVE kids in diapers! My wife tried to get me on board. ‘There’s no way. Are you trying to kill me? A sibling group of 4. FOUR?! REALLY?!’: Couple has 11 kids, 2 biological and 9 adopted
“Yes, they’re all ours. Yes, we know where babies come from and what causes pregnancy. Yes, we bring the party wherever we go. We can now jokingly, but truthfully, say we have 5 baby-daddies. It’s surprisingly easy and perfectly natural. All 11 are completely ours.”
We Are The First Indian Family To Adopt A Baby With Down Syndrome
“We were told we were taking too much of a risk. We were advised against it because she ‘wouldn’t be able to give back to us in any way or support us once we were old.’ I couldn’t understand why that mattered to them more than giving a child a home. All I could see was this amazingly strong and gorgeous little girl.”
‘When I saw my car for the first time since our accident, all I could do was shake like a leaf, and sob. I cannot believe my babies and I walked away from this.’: Mom urges car seat safety, ‘Make sure they’re safe EVERY time’
“We were t-boned while making a left turn, and pushed into a light pole. A few weeks before the accident, I posted a picture of the kids sleeping in my backseat. Someone commented and asked if Andrew, my 4-year-old, was still rear facing.”
‘There’s no quick fix. There WILL always be a next panic attack, a next day of self-harm or cloud of doubt. I started to feel I wasn’t enough for him. I couldn’t pray away the dark times.’
“There’s nothing I want more than to see his beautiful smile. But part of being in love with someone struggling with mental health is dealing with the ugly. It’s true what they say. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel. But there’s also a damn dimmer switch in that tunnel too.”
‘I gave birth to a beautiful Chinese baby in which I share zero genes with. HE DIDN’T GET THE MEMO.’: Mom recalls ‘painful and exhilarating’ journey through surrogacy
“I now had a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old, and I was newly divorced. ‘How were you able to give up the baby?’ I felt like I signed my life away. They needed to make sure I wasn’t going to go crazy.”
‘I text him. ‘I’m so sorry, do you need me?,’ he asked. ‘No. You wanted this.’ We’re fighting again. We lay in bed. We cry. I cannot give him what he wants.’: Mom suffers miscarriage, thanks best friend and partner for ‘saving’ her
“When I get home, all his things are gone. Like he was never there. I don’t make it two steps past the house door. I lay there and I cry. I cannot move. I cannot breathe. I do not want to be here. This is going to kill me.”