“Maybe a little electronic spider that’s power source feeds off of screams of terror is not the best gift for your small child.”
I Gave My Son A Toy Spider, And Accidentally Induced Sheer Terror
‘You guys did great. You did great 3 times,’ our doctor said as she laid out our sonogram with three little sacs. My mind was racing. Shock and fear set in.’
“Mike couldn’t speak. In fact, the doctor looked at him after we covered all the basics and said, ‘Dad, are you OK? You haven’t said anything.’”
Today My Daughter Ate A Magnet, And I Ended Up In The ER
“When I read horrific stories about children choking to death on bouncy balls, we became a bouncy-ball free home. When I heard of kids getting Shopkins stuck in their airways, we became a Shopkin-free home. 15 minutes into rest time, the twins came down the stairs yelling.”
‘He asks: ‘How was your day today, what did you do?’ You think: Well, I was woken at 7 a.m. while I was in blissful deep sleep by a loud bloodcurdling scream because the baby poo exploded.’
“To say there was crap everywhere was an understatement. The toddler was also angry because he could hear commotion and he wasn’t involved, so he started screaming too. Finally, ready to leave, woohoo! Victory! Except, I’m still in pajamas and I’m pretty sure I have poo on my top…”
‘Mom, we have to take them home.’ It was so hard to look at these girls and not cry. It was like looking into the eyes of my sister, eyes I had not seen in 8 years, eyes I would never see again.’
“The woman who had the girls was not at all family, but a friend from church. They had been removed from her care and were in a foster home. After we got off the phone, I panicked – what was I going to do?”
‘Michael got news something had gone wrong. I was being put under anesthesia immediately. He wasn’t thinking he would have to worry about me too.’
“I was in disbelief. I thought he would be taken away from me like the girls were. I didn’t want to get attached. Even with a giant belly at 38 weeks, seeing him move wasn’t enough for me to believe. I wanted to protect myself and prepare for the worst.”
‘He waited until we were driving home. Cancer. Stage 4. After, I call my dad and tell him ‘me too.’ My stoic dad cries, not for himself, but for me.’: Woman copes with the effects of cancer
“Looking back, there was ‘The Before,’ and then there was ‘The After.’ I am a stranger to that woman now. Loss happened to other people. Cancer happened to them. Until one day they are gone, and all that is left is the heartbreaking absence of their presence.”
I Was Fat Shamed By A Complete Stranger On A Plane
“He only saw my extra weight and my physical ‘flaws.’ He didn’t see me as a person, or strong woman whose body has been through a lot of medical history in the last year or so.”
Today, For The First Time, My Son Refused To Hold My Hand
“I knew the day was coming. I forced a smile when it happened, but the honest truth is, my heart wanted to burst out into big, bubbling tears.”
I’m A Boy Mom Who Doesn’t Care To ‘Finally’ Have A Girl
“My boys are constantly reminded that they aren’t girls. That they are ‘more trouble’ and ‘more of a handful’ and burden.”
‘I knew she wasn’t going to make it. I whispered, ‘I love you.’ I felt a faint squeeze of her hand.’: Woman loses mother and sister to addiction, says they ‘never learned to cope’ without drugs
“My mother took me down into a basement with some strange men. They packaged up large bottles of what I was told were antibiotics. I was only 12 at the time. I put them in my backpack. The rest of the trip my mother was incoherent. She couldn’t even keep her head up. That was the last straw for my dad. Later I found out that she had me carry over 1800 pills of narcotics and muscle relaxers that she planned to use all for herself.”
‘Our 18-month-old grabbed a bottle of baby oil and drank a little. Minutes later, he was acting lethargic. When we picked him up, he was dead weight.’: Mom shares PSA after son poisoned by baby oil
“They did X-rays on his little lungs and told Case it’s the equivalent to you or I drinking gasoline.”
‘I saw a glow in my son’s left eye. I started to turn the flash off in photos, then I remembered a story about a girl whose eye was glowing. My eyes filled with tears. ‘Is it cancer?’
“All of a sudden everything changed. She looked in his eye and things became serious. ‘I’m trying to get him into a specialist today.’ The word ‘today’ was lingering. What could be so important? I couldn’t believe my ears.”
‘Maybe it was possible we could live together again.’: Couple ‘breaks away from the conventional beliefs of what breaking up ‘should’ or often looks like.’
“The first night, Onyx cried out and before I could rush to his side, Tyler was already there soothing him back to sleep. I knew in that moment that although this was unconventional, this was right for us.”
‘My eyes welled up. 2018 has not been easy on this ever-changing family. 7 little people that hold the pieces of my heart were under one roof, and I felt whole.’
“Raising children who spent their first years of holidays in chaos and insecurity can be challenging. We juggle the joy of now, with the reality of painful memories.”
‘My dad was sick 2 years ago. Not like stomach flu sick. Not like pneumonia sick. Not like medicine-can-fix-it sick.’
“I don’t like how he hurt and how he suffered. I don’t like the pain his disease caused. But I do like what it taught me.”
‘I grew up in the 80’s. We invented the most radical lingo. Well, it’s a new era and a new set of teens. I took my daughter on a road trip and guess what? I barely understood a word she was saying.’
“Without us, today’s kids would never know the meaning of something good being called ‘bad.’ I remind myself of this while I’m carpooling teenagers who just don’t understand that, at one point, I was BODACIOUS.”
‘I know to be grateful for his years. I also know he was sick for a long time. Nobody knows that more than us, because we witnessed it. I know, but I don’t care.’
“He breathed 2 tiny last gasps of breath before leaving us for good this time. I watched him, felt him and loved him. So I think yes, I will mourn and still cry, if I want and need to.”
‘For us, he was only ever our son. Even though most folks find him adorable right now, they might feel differently when he dates their daughters.’: Mom adopts black child, hopes for more acceptance for his future
“A neighbor at a playgroup asked all the kids to go around the room and say what color they were. They all laughed when it was Eli’s turn. He said he was white, like everyone else did. They made sure he left knowing he wasn’t.”
‘A well-dressed man approached, I got in his car and he drove me to a wooded area. He kept me all night.’: Woman details her runaway journey with beautiful kindnesses along the way
“When I was 5 years old, one of my earliest memories is of my mother dropping me out of a two-story window which resulted in both of my arms being broken.”
I Am The Person Who Listens To You Cry As You Beg Your Loved One To Take Another Breath
“In order to understand who I am, you must first understand what I do.”
‘His dad said loudly, ‘Oh hush, you were worse. You know? You would scream so loud, run up and down the tables, throw things. Your mother and I stopped going out because of you.’
One of the kids stood up on the chair and said a big ‘hello!’ The guy immediately looked down, and wouldn’t look up. The kid was trying to get his attention and say hi, but the guy looked at his partner and rolled his eye
‘I drove home crying, feeling forgotten. That same night, I received a call. ‘We have a 4-day-old baby in the NICU who needs a family. We think it should be you.’: Mom shares journey with infertility, adoption, and foster care
“I got home and, on a whim, took a test. It was POSITIVE. Let me remind you, we NOW have a 3-year-old, 2-year-old, 9-month-old, and two foster daughters, ages 2 and 7. Okay, you are just messing with us, right?”
‘We are forgetting about our boys and that’s not OK.’
“Article after article is about raising daughters, not sons. And, when I do come across an essay on raising sons, it’s about how and why we need to raise our boys with particular values for the sake of the females and daughters of the world. This is something I’m not entirely on board with.”
‘My daughter looked up at me. ‘What’s that,’ she innocently asked. I wiped away tears. ‘I miss your brother and sister.’ She leaned her head against mine. ‘I miss them too,’ she whispered.’
“As I opened her closet door, something tumbled to the ground. I reached down and picked up the small storage container, knowing instantly what was inside. I took a deep breath as I rubbed my fingers across the sticker that said ‘hospital things.’”