“I’m crying and clouded in shame and embarrassment. The looks and side eye I got from no less than 5 ‘Karen’s’ made me grab my items and leave. I’m glad your little Lucy is perfect and never has meltdowns. I don’t know why women feel the need to judge and mom shame.”
‘Today was hard. I have a backpack leash for my son. He is adopted, and was born drug addicted.’: Mom shamed with ‘snide comments, nasty looks’ for having son on leash
‘My Son’s teacher recently friended me on social media. I came upon a picture of her holding a chalkboard sign that read, ‘I said YES!’ She’s already married, so it struck me as odd.’
“Until I read the caption. I couldn’t stop crying.”
‘When our daughter was six months old, two black women approached us. One said, ‘Your baby’s hair is dry.’ I was taken aback, offended and embarrassed.’
“Around that same time, my husband and I sought a mentor for our daughters, realizing we, as white people, were not qualified to help our kids navigate certain situations.”
‘I hit bottom. Knees to the ground, ugly tears in the shower. My friends stepped in. They didn’t ask what I needed because honestly, I’m in so deep I have no idea what I need.’
“We have three new foster children and the trenches of trauma and grief are deep. My village stepped into the trenches and sat with me. They didn’t ask me what I needed, they just started providing.”
‘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.’
“‘What does that mean?’ I asked her curiously.”
Ten true things about the first year of motherhood
“Postpartum bodies are squashy and wobbly and dimpled and stretched and foreign and embarrassing and difficult and painful and gorgeously imperfect, and they tend to stay that way for quite awhile. You made a human. Now make your peace.”
‘Dear NICU babe, I don’t know who you are’: Stranger pumps 700 hours, donates 8,000 ounces of breast milk
“The 700 hours I have spent pumping and cleaning and packaging this up for you is all worth it.”
