“‘What does that mean?’ I asked her curiously.”
‘I was sitting next to a grandmother of 3 children. ‘Honestly,’ she said, ‘kids these days have no idea what real values are, and they’re certainly not going to learn them from their parents.’
‘My son broke his arm yesterday, near his wrist. I am to blame. I told him he was fine. I lied.’
“‘BAM,’ ‘CRASH,’ he hit the ground. He hit the ground hard. I ‘got on him’ verbally for crying and being too dramatic.”
‘Massive day at work today. We have our senior leadership meeting. I have to travel 5 hours by car and train. And what’s my wife doing? Not much really.’
“All she has to do is get two boys up, dressed and fed while breastfeeding the third.”
‘When she moved or kicked, the pain brought me to my knees. Maybe I had a stomach bug. Little did I know this was going to be the most terrifying day of my life.’
“I was strapped down so I couldn’t move. ‘What if I feel him cut into me?’ My husband sat at my head and wiped away the tears that ran down my face.”
‘I caught a glimpse of my 12-year-old daughter and wondered who that woman was.’
“Every mama’s heart is burdened with the weight of her children’s fleeting childhoods. But the beauty is that we are still Mama. They may be too big to carry, or are living with their spouses, but we are still Mama.”
‘This is for the dads who came running when we yelled, ‘Come quick, something’s wrong.’ The dads who asked, ‘Can I hold her now?’ because that time was precious.’
“The dads who said ‘It’s okay,’ even when it wasn’t…”
‘I was getting my meat at the butcher. She proceeded to ask me, ‘You gonna get your tubes tied then?’ HALT.’
“I always have the perfect response in my brain, but I was stunned and speechless. She cut me off and said, ‘I’m pretty bold when I’m asking questions.’”
‘I open up a box of tampons and they all come falling out. My son asks, ‘what’s that?’ I say, ‘they’re baby mice!’ ‘Aww cute!,’ he said, while I’m internally laughing.’
“My son starts saying cute things at the doctor. He looks her in the eyes and says, ‘My mommy puts baby mice in her bum bum.’ The doctor looks horrified and says, ‘pardon?'”
‘We brought our newborn home from the hospital and she was showered with attention and gifts. When we brought our 1-year old foster son home, he was not.’
“People did not come banging on the door to see him and hold him for the first time. People did not ‘Oooh and Ahhh’ over him. When we first told family we were adopting, we were greeted with….’That’s scary!’ ‘Are you sure?'”
‘You’re so damn tired you don’t want to be touched. When it came to sleep or sex, sleep always won.’
“Our first year as parents, we had sex maybe 5 times. I was neck deep in my postpartum depression and anxiety, which didn’t help.”
