“Let your daughter hear you stick up for yourself, never accept disrespect. Let your daughter see you reach out your hand to another woman, pulling her up until she’s steady enough to stand on her own.”
‘Let your daughter see you take time for yourself—because once she sees you’re worth it, she’ll grow up knowing she’s worth it, too.’: Mom shares tips for raising a strong daughter
‘Am I beautiful now, mama?’ My heart quickly fell to my stomach. ‘What do you mean, now?’: Mom teaches daughter beauty comes ‘from inside’ in touching moment
“I had just finished securing the elastic to hold her braid in place and put the brush down by my side. ‘Now that my hair is all done. I’m beautiful, right?’ I wanted to yell at the world.”
‘There’s no way she’s your baby. Didn’t your parents teach you about protection?’ I was raising a baby, just a young kid myself.’: Teen mom urges ‘you were always meant to be my baby girl’
“I was always so caught up in what others thought, I believed I was too young to be a good mom. It wasn’t until last year, when I was looking back at old photos of us, I noticed it. I was always ready to be your mother.”
‘My husband sat me down. ‘I hate seeing you in constant pain. You’re good enough if you don’t breastfeed.’: New mom embarks on motherhood journey, ‘She’s our fresh start’
“The pain was excruciating. I cried every time I fed her. I felt like I couldn’t provide for my child. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”
‘They told me, ‘It’s nothing to worry about. Every baby does this.’ She was turning BLUE. I knew this wasn’t normal.’: New mom births baby with congenital heart defect, ‘She makes me proud every day’
“I broke down crying, ‘Promise me she’s going to be okay.’ I didn’t think I’d be coming home with my daughter. I couldn’t understand how my 2-year-old was on life support. How I could breathe and she couldn’t?”
‘My 14-year-old came into the bedroom with distressed eyes. ‘I was panicking last night and couldn’t sleep.’ This is the third time in 3 weeks.’: Mom stands in the gap for daughter battling anxiety
“I wish there was a simple fix. A magical playlist to erase her anxieties and ease the panic. I can’t take this burden from her, but I can wrap her in my embrace. For as long as she’ll let me, I will be her stand-in lullaby.”
‘Her doctor burst in. ‘Where is she?’ He looked nervous. I wished for a second parent to defer to. But I didn’t have one.’: Daughter supports mom through terminal illness, ‘I hug her a little longer each day’
“For as long as I can remember, it has been the two of us. She kept up with all of her motherly duties despite being sick, fighting twice as hard because she knew she was all I had. I can never repay her.”
‘I woke up to find this picture. I generally get annoyed at whoever took it. But this picture was different.’: Mom reminds others to capture childhood moments, ‘Be proud of these pictures’
“Normally, when I see a picture of myself that I haven’t ‘posed’ for, I never post it. But not this time. He snuck this picture of me and my daughter. I don’t ever want to forget it.”
‘I watched as my mom was zipped up in a body bag and carried away. This is the end of us.’: Woman loses mom to Stage 4 colon cancer, ‘My mom would be angry if I didn’t make a beautiful life for myself’
“Instead of celebrating with pizza and cake on my 17th birthday, we sat in the hospital. My addict brother would steal my mom’s medication. A switch flipped in my brain. Suddenly, my wants and needs didn’t matter.”
‘It’s important they can come to you and ask what a ‘BJ’ is and if it can give you an STD. Yes, I said BJ.’: Mom explains the importance of answering kids’ sex questions
“She was 7. As you can imagine, when I came home pregnant at 14, I was terrified. It was my choice to either silence her or lean in. I leaned.”
