“I met my first husband at 19. We married at 21. He loved how I was plus-sized and enjoyed giving me unhealthy foods as ‘treats.’ He joined the Air Force. ‘There’s a woman in my unit who reminds me of you, but she’s a lot thinner. I have a crush on her.’ We went out to dinner. ‘Enjoy eating like this now because this stops when we get on base.’ I found out he’d been talking to other women while I was in the hospital.”
‘If you want to kill yourself I’ll help you pull the trigger,’ my dad told me. ‘You’ll sit here and eat.’: Woman fights obesity, undergoes weight loss surgery at husband’s demand, ‘my soul is healing with each bout of laughter’
‘But mama, we want to go sledding with you.’ Both girls looked at me with pleading eyes. I knew I had to go. I paused.’: Mom struggles to drop everything for her kids during holidays
“I looked around, boxes still unpacked, dishes to be done, dinner not yet cooked, and snow-day mess abounding, but this time instead of my mental checklist on repeat, I heard something different. That small voice that gently whispered, ‘How much longer will they want to do this with you?’”
‘Toddlers, huh?’ ‘You’ll miss these days.’ I smile back. They mean well.’: Mom of autistic son explains ‘this isn’t a tantrum, this is stimming’
“‘She will be good for him,’ she motioned towards my newborn. What? I live in a new city, knowing hardly anyone other than my husband, and now I suddenly have an autistic son and newborn daughter? I looked at my sweet Finley, his precious little face, and cried because of how I thought the world would see him.”
‘That’s my brother,’ he stood next to me crying. He never left him. His skin was white as a sheet.’: Mom ‘so shaken’ after son’s stroke scare, ‘No moment is promised’
“It was a normal day. We headed to Wegmans. While I was pushing the cart, Finn was lagging a little. ‘What’s wrong?’ He responded, ‘I can’t keep up, carry me.’ One of his sides went limp and his face was leaning on the cart. I went to pick him up and he collapsed on the floor. I started screaming for help and a Wegmans employee yelled to call 911. They wanted to make sure he didn’t have a stroke.”
‘What’s it like raising a child in a split home? It’s something no one ever wants in life. It’s a whirlwind of emotions, no matter how long you’re away from your child.’: Bonus mom pens emotional, candid thoughts on splitting custody
“It’s giving them a kiss goodbye while they cling to your leg and tell you they love you. It’s ‘babying’ and ‘spoiling’ them because you have to cram their life into half the time. It’s listening to them breathe, thinking of how quickly they’re growing, and how every time they come back, they’re that much older. It will make or break you.”
‘6 weeks pregnant with our surprise third baby, my husband of 7 years packed his bags and left me.’: Woman empowered to embrace single parenting after husband leaves her during pregnancy, ‘You are worthy. I finally believed it.’
“My face was red and my eyes were swollen from sobbing. When we were good, we were great. When we were bad, we were absolutely volatile. She dropped the inevitable bombshell. ‘Where do you think this is coming from?’ ‘What he put me through,’ I replied. ‘Deeper, Amber.’ It hit me. There was no miracle. Our marriage was over.”
‘I want my mom!!! I want my mom to come back!!!’ He was totally inconsolable. I’ve never felt more in tune with a person’s emotion.’: Daughter’s advice on getting through the holidays without your mother
“I was dropping my son off at daycare. When we arrived, there was another little boy who’d just been dropped off by his mom. He couldn’t have been more than 3 years old. And he was wailing. This child was genuinely distressed. He wanted his mom very, very badly. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt more in tune with another person’s emotion.”
‘Anxiety is just in your head.’ ‘It’s not as bad as you make it out to be.’ This is what anxiety looks like. My raw, scratched up face and chest.’: Woman candidly shares the reality of anxiety
“It’s not just feeling worried, or feeling your heart race. It’s picking your skin until it bleeds. It’s walking into the mall, feeling your hands turn to jello, and looking for the closest exit. It’s always feeling like you’re about to throw up, constant headaches from clenching your teeth together from worry, and needing to remind yourself it’s okay to leave the party.”
‘What if I never love my child? I hate being a mom.’ The day she was born, I became a different person.’: New mother suffers severe postpartum depression, ‘I was on the brink of suicide’
“The moment after her birth I had so longed for – the intense emotion I was supposed to have, never happened. The feeling I was supposed to get when she first cried, never happened. The love I was ‘supposed’ to have seeing Dan hold our daughter, never happened. The day she was born, I became a different person. I started hearing and seeing things. These images and voices would pop into my head.”
‘Can we put a nightlight in our bedroom?’ I asked my husband at 26. I felt like a burden.’: Woman suffers severe anxiety, mental illness convinces her ‘someone is standing in a dark corner of our room’
“It’s not normal to be 26 years old and be terrified to stay in your house alone. My husband was out of state for work. I worried about it for 2 months. I kept telling myself over and over, ‘You are going to be fine.’ I was fine until 9:30 p.m. when all of a sudden, it hit me. If someone broke in, I couldn’t hear it. I snapped into panic. I’ve asked my husband countless times, ‘Do you still love me? Why do you want to be with me?’”
