“She caught me by surprise. ‘What would you do if I dated a girl?’ I immediately told her, ‘If you date a girl, you’re going to hell.’ The instant the words escaped my lips, something else hit me harder than the fear of my child in hell. I broke her heart. I never thought my child would be gay. I began noticing small cuts on her arms. I was losing her. I would have risked anything for her to find herself and be happy.”
‘If you date a girl, you’re going to hell.’ I broke her heart the instant the words escaped my lips.’: 14-year-old takes in cousin’s daughter as her own, helps her through homosexuality, self-harm, ‘We were always meant to be a family’
‘Walking through Target early this morning, I am overcome with emotions. Almost every customer were young moms.’: Mom of older children encourages ‘mamas of littles’ to enjoy every moment
“I allowed myself to be a momentary creeper. I just pulled back, parked my cart and watched all the sweet mamas. I wanted to say what all the elderly ladies used to say when they saw me in Target at 8 a.m. – ‘Enjoy it. It goes fast.’ But I resisted.”
‘We’re going to skip trick-or-treating this year. It’s dark in unfamiliar neighborhoods.’ WHAT?’: Mom appalled by skipping holiday traditions, ‘Sister, grab a pumpkin at the grocery store’
“I’ve seen a lot of ‘don’t feel pressured to do holiday-related things.’ And I call BS on that. Some of you won’t like this message. I get that. But keep your family traditions alive! Maybe they seem mundane to you. Maybe you feel like you can’t get to them this year. Maybe it seems like ‘work’ and ‘why should we even bother.’ But it’s important to your kids.”
‘Listen to me, you precious, fresh faced man-child.’: Mom pens hilarious letter for kids ‘too old to trick-or-treat’
“Your voice suddenly sounds like Barry Manilow half the time and a baby mouse the other half? I get it! Things are a-changin’ in your life. You suddenly have a desire to seem cool, but also, you are like, REALLY into the idea of walking around the neighborhood with your friends to collect a huge bag of candy. I’ll welcome you to my candy pail without a sarcastic comment or jab.”
‘Mom, can I talk to you about yesterday?’ I no longer wipe tiny bums. I’m grieving the childhood days.’: Mom learns to appreciate teen years, ‘there is beauty in every season of motherhood’
“I don’t pick out school clothes anymore. There’s no one to nurse to sleep. I can’t remember the last time I cut up spaghetti, blew on soup because it was too hot. When they need socks now, they find them. And when they’re hungry? They grab their own snack. There were so many times I wished for these days. Now, I’m standing smack dab in the middle of them, grieving the past.”
‘I was not a virgin. BUT I was in my own home. I took my rape and buried it. For 21 years.’: Teenager raped at her own party in high school says she was a ‘broken spirit,’ but learned to ‘survive, be strong’
“When I was 18, I threw a party at my house. I convinced my parents I was grown enough to stay home alone. Enter the sweaty keg in the living room that left a ring on the floor permanently. And the collection of teddy bears my mom kept in the living room drowned in the pool. It was devastating. That night I drank too much and let people I thought were friends, destroy parts of my childhood.”
‘Umm, I’m 32, DIVORCED WITH TWO KIDS.’ He said, ‘Yeah, we need your consent.’ ‘Yes, I CONSENT!’: Divorced single mom adopted at 32, ‘I wonder if they’re tired of me. I felt like it was too good to be true’
“I ran away from home. I was hiding in a stranger’s garage while my mom and police looked for me. I used a stranger’s phone to call The Pates. ‘I can’t go home, can you help me?’ I feared my mother. The next day she drove me to their house, dumped my belongings at the bottom of their driveway, and left. So, at the age of 32, I was adopted. I got a new birth certificate and everything.”
‘At 13, there was blood on the counter, a strange calm on my mom’s face. She tried to get help.’: Woman candidly shares effects of mother’s suicide, reminds us ‘healing comes in waves’
“I’ve been to my mom’s grave twice. In 20 years. You won’t find a single photo of her in my home. I know this wasn’t her fault. It doesn’t change the effects her illnesses have had on me. None of it changes that her 60th birthday is not a birthday at all, because she is dead. I want to honor her, I really do. But I can’t face the woman who tried to break me.”
‘I hope that’s not his stroller! Is it?!’ Of course it is! There’s no reason my son can’t play with a baby doll.’: Mom ‘proud’ of son for caring for his baby dolls like a real-life daddy
“I was caught off guard. ‘Why don’t you give him a sibling or a dog to play with instead of a doll?’ There’s no reason my son can’t play with babies or dolls or anything deemed ‘too girly.’ Why? Because one day, my son may choose to become a father. You’re not going to tell your adult son he’s too ‘manly’ to change his newborn child’s diaper, are you?! Doubt it.”
‘This is just my daycare. My mom is coming back for me.’ She never came.’: 22-year-old finally adopted by ‘forever family’ after years of trauma, abuse in foster homes
“The last time a police officer came to my house, he asked, ‘Do you want to go get a cookie?’ I was only 5, so that was a big deal. I didn’t understand why my biological mom was crying as we drove away. We picked up my sister at school, then waited at DHS to drive us to a foster home. All we had were the clothes on our backs, and even those were dirty. ‘I need a place to stay until I figure out where to go,’ I said.”
