“All day I kept having a weird feeling—like maybe I should call and ask him, ‘How are you?’ I just put it off as something else. The hospital assured us he was fine. I just shut down. I can’t explain it, but this switch in me just turned off. I don’t remember much after.”
‘OMG! It’s not working. Give him one more dose. ANOTHER.’ Everything went downhill, and FAST.’: Woman recounts heartbreaking and unexpected loss of father, ‘I wouldn’t wish this pain on anyone’
‘The doctor gently told us, ‘His case is not mild. At the very least, he’s on the severe end.’ Everyone focuses on what he CAN’T do, but we focus on what he CAN do.’: Mom recounts son’s diagnosis journey with autism, ‘You’ll move mountains’
“The signs were all there. Everything. I knew it was time. How did I not know sooner? I’m his mom, shouldn’t I just automatically know these things? We are NOT going to give up on you.”
‘LEAVE ME ALONE.’ I hurled a toy at the wall. It looked like a tornado struck our basement. I hit my LOWEST point.’: Mom shares candid reality of parenting in a pandemic, ‘We’re trying our best’
“The dent in the wall? It’s from me. The toy I’m holding? Yep, I threw it against the wall in a fit of tears.”
‘What you see is what you get. If you only see the world’s problems, THAT’S what you’ll get.’: Woman urges ‘focus on what gives you peace’
“And nothing has been harder than having to try to stay in your lane, live purposefully, mindfully, and with lasting gratitude, during the seemingly never-ending (and, perhaps, disastrous?) year that is 2020.”
‘Someone commented on my postpartum appearance. I cried instantly. You have a choice, every day. Will you heal or will you hurt?’: New mom receives hurtful comment, ‘It did a number on my heart’
“It did a number on my already-raw heart. A week later, I was FaceTiming my mother-in-law. I kept the camera angled towards my husband Luke—careful to ensure no one caught a glimpse of my healing body I was suddenly insecure about. During the call, I was thrust into the camera view.”
‘As I was in the bathroom I heard a rustling noise. I figured it was a mouse. As I lifted my eyes to scan, mid-wipe, my eyes met another pair of eyes. IT WASN’T A MOUSE.’: Woman hilariously recounts embarrassing bathroom mishap
“‘HELLO! I’m in here.’ I think he knew I was ‘in’ there. I just don’t think his brain could process what he was seeing. He saw a bodacious woman, full-frontal from the waist down, wiping…her…backside.”
‘It’s SO. MANY. PEOPLE. FIGHTING. Everyone is judging, berating, and one-upping each other. It’s TOO much.’: Woman urges ‘let the negative out and the positive in’
“It’s the over-sharers vs. the internalizers. It’s men vs. women. It’s those who believe anxiety and depression need pills vs. the ones who think those guys and gals should just ‘be happy.'”
‘A 27-year-old woman asking to have a hysterectomy is extremely troubling. My choice has been difficult to understand.’: Woman fights addiction, endometriosis, ‘This is not a decision I’ve made lightly’
“I did not want to carry, create, or be responsible for another life. What will your partner do if he decides he wants children?’ Some called it extreme, I personally felt it was me being responsible.”
‘I was the ‘teen mama with no prospects.’ But being a mom doesn’t mean your life has ended. Not even a little bit.’: Mom graduates nursing school with her children as inspiration, ‘I wouldn’t change a d*mn thing’
“The mama who had ‘given up the chance at a good life to raise two young children.’ The one who had chosen ‘mama’ over ‘life.’ Full stop. I had to show them both how everyone else was wrong.”
‘Nothing terrifies me more than returning to the workplace. A workplace full of judgement and critique, stress and guilt. I am a MOTHER first, and an EMPLOYEE second.’: Mom shares fear of going back to work
“A workplace where, likely, but hopefully not, work and clients will have to come first, and family, well, if you have and are ‘into’ those, must come second.”
