“I’m scared.’ I shook and started crying from the sharp pains. My hand cramped up; I couldn’t open it anymore. ‘I’m here, and I got this, and I got you.'”
‘I see blood on me, but from where?! It’s 2:15 a.m. now, and I’m crying in the bathroom. I don’t like hurting out loud. What was this doing to us?’: Woman struggles with ‘mental hurricane’ during undiagnosed illness
‘Are you joking?’ My doctor had a very serious look. ‘Pregnancy is not something I’m allowed to joke about.’ I’d been taking birth control pills.’: Mom births warrior baby with ‘sweet cleft smile’
“I said goodbye to his sweet wide smile and tried to hold it together as the nurse carried him away. The second I got to the café, with my COVID-19 mask under my chin, I ugly cried into my sandwich. I texted my best friend, ‘I’m going to puke or soil my pants.’ I was a ball of emotion.”
‘I feel like I’m pissing off a lot of people. I break my back, good mood, and spirit in pursuit of the best me. Don’t mock.’: Mom struggling with best decisions asks for understanding, ‘You have no idea’
“I’m too much or too little of something, or I’m doing too much or too little of something I should or shouldn’t be doing. Sometimes you’ve got to call other people out and now it’s time for that.”
‘If you feel like you are failing at life right now, then Friend, you are in good company.’: Woman urges ‘there is no ceiling to this trench, we WILL get out’
“My children are playing way too many video games. My husband and I are constantly butting heads. I miss seeing faces without masks, miss asking my babies how their day was at school. I miss not having to stand in a line. AND WHY DO I HAVE SUCH A HARD TIME FOLLOWING THOSE DANG ARROWS?!”
‘Chemical imbalances didn’t cease to exist because COVID-19 stole the spotlight.’: Woman battling anxiety disorder reminds us ‘help is out there’
“In fact, quarantine has stripped us of most of the support systems and coping mechanisms we’ve always used to manage our anxiety in the past. And it’s placed us exactly where a person who struggles with anxiety least wants to be – alone with their thoughts.”
‘On the days the world feels a little too scary and a little less safe, I will always be there to wipe away the tears.’: Mom comforts daughter though ‘scary times’
“As your mom, I wanted to tell you that everything would be okay. That the world as you knew it would return to normal soon. But the truth is, it probably won’t. I held you as the first teardrop formed in the corner of your eyes. And, in a blink, the flood gates were unleashed.”
‘My kids missed two consecutive Zoom meetings. My daughter started getting snarky, and my son who is not a crier was crying.’: Mom says ‘we will not just survive this, we will endure with grace’
“My middle child began to isolate. School assignments I would classify as easy we’d been blowing through for weeks were suddenly overwhelming each day, and I couldn’t even articulate why. Their mental health was declining.”
‘This isn’t the introduction to motherhood you expected. Even though I have not been able to see you, I see you.’: Woman urges ‘you are loved, you are enough’ to new moms during pandemic
“It wasn’t meant to be this way. But Mama, please remember…although this world is upside down, you are the world to them. What I would give to sit in solace with you.”
‘Unless you have a sick kid, you don’t understand. I wish I only had normal fears. I know any breath could be her last.’: Mom of CHD baby worries during Covid 19, ‘Your fears for your child’s health are NOT bigger than my fears.’
“Her appointment was flat out canceled, and her developmental checks were rescheduled and then canceled. For a normal child, that would be no big deal. For a child who just had major surgery that did not fix everything, those appointments are everything. I wish I could be ignorant like you.”
‘My daughter was trying to break everything. She’s NEVER like that. We’re all feeling the burn.’: Mom sets new ground rules during quarantine, ‘While nothing is perfect, perfection is not what I am going for’
“My daughter had been running away from me for the last 15 minutes. My son was screaming to get my attention. Somebody rang the doorbell. My work call was about to start in 10 minutes and my husband was already on a work call. It has been some version of this every day.”
