“With 10 adults and 5 kids present, anyone would assume our daughter would have been safe. But after unexpected guests rang the doorbell, a bag of popcorn started on fire, and multiple kids ran outside, it only took seconds for Preslee to slip past everyone into the canal.”
‘Are you mom?’ I nodded, ‘Yes.’ He ran along the canal for a mile. He saw the farmer pulling her out of the water. Our sweet girl had bumped into this farmer’s leg.’
‘Society to working moms: Date your spouse! It’s important to keep your relationship fresh. Hire a babysitter, they charge 22+ dollars an hour, so take out an extra mortgage to afford this.’
“Go back to work 6 weeks after having the baby. The baby you spent 9-10 months growing inside of your body. Make sure to break the glass ceiling and excel at your job – you can do anything a man can do! It is your job to show society this! Show the world that women can do it all. Rise to the top of your career.”
‘Caleb fell off the couch. Something is wrong,’ my babysitter’s boyfriend told me. My heart stopped! ‘I’ll be right there!’ She was holding my son who was NOT crying. His eyes were closed.’
“I went back to work after maternity leave. I felt pretty good about the babysitter I found. She had a baby of her own whom she stayed at home with. I met her boyfriend (father of her baby). For two weeks, I went over on every lunch to check on him. Then I got the phone call.”
‘My mommy and daddy sleeped in different beds last night!’ That’s how my 3-year-old chose to greet our babysitter as she walked in the door.’
“’This is how rumors get started,’ I told myself. All of a sudden it becomes, ‘I always knew there was something off about him…’ ‘I knew their marriage was too good to be true…’”
‘I received suspicious looks for being a grown man at the park at 2 p.m. with his kids. ‘It’s nice of you to do your wife’s job,’ is what they were really saying.’
“I ran into friends at the grocery store, and they asked me if I’d lost my job. All of it was maddening.”
‘You know what’s crazy? Every time I leave the kids with my husband, I treat him like a babysitter. I make sure snacks are ready, I lay out pajamas, I ask him 3 times if he will be okay.’
“When he goes out, he says, ‘Okay babe, I’m going…’ and I say, ‘Okay’ and he leaves. THAT’S IT.”
‘I wasn’t even near him,’ actually means, ‘I was standing directly in front of him trying to touch his eyeballs with my eyeballs.’ You will learn to like Blippi. Because YouTube will show you other videos that are SO MUCH WORSE, HOLY CRAP.’
“Our babysitter is expecting her first. I thought about stuff I want to tell her in preparation for motherhood. And then I got home and unloaded 17 bags of groceries that somehow did not include the ONLY two items I specifically needed. Probably should warn preggo about that.”
‘Before putting your babies anywhere near these things, ALWAYS wipe them down first. See the black marks?’ Mom warns of potentially deadly residue on changing tables
“I can promise you, they aren’t thinking about your kids. Be cautious. It could mean the difference between life or death.”
‘My baby had undiagnosed Type 1 Diabetes. Her blood sugar level was in the 500s. How could she have died from a disease thousands of people manage? I could not comprehend.’
“When I got to the babysitter’s, she carried her to my car; my daughter was completely knocked out. In an offhanded way I asked if she was breathing, joking. Until I put my hand on her little chest and felt no movement.”
‘It’s amazing how many mothers beat themselves up. When you ask what support they have, what village they have, they can’t define it.’
“When you feel depressed and lonely, think about it, where’s your village?”
