“I was separating from my husband, all the while wondering whether I was going to live or die. I was sharing a room with a woman who’d been told, ‘You have an incurable blood disease. Death is certain.’ I recall shrinking beneath my blankets, not wanting to bring attention to myself on the other side of the thin layer of privacy hanging between us. She told them ‘I have no family to call,’ and when the doctors left, we sat there in silence. I knew I was destined to do more.”
‘Why are you involved? Isn’t it depressing?’ I was dying and it wasn’t the cancer. It was the state of my life.’: Woman survives esophageal cancer, jumpstarts organization to help others
‘Donald, will you wash my hair?’ I sunk into the tub, defeated. He heard my desperate plea through the bathroom door.’: Woman urges ‘ask your spouses for help’ after husband’s act of kindness
“You know those kinds of days where everything that can go wrong does? Yesterday was that day. I’d gotten no sleep before the littles began stirring. The rest of the day was a blur of school lessons, cleaning, runs to multiple stores for ONE thing. Supper was a complete FAIL. I needed to wash my hair because, let’s face it, one can only use dry shampoo for so long, but I hadn’t any energy to muster for that daunting task. Then a thought silently crept across my mind: ‘Ask Donald.’ I had to lay my pride aside.”
‘I kept crying out, ‘Please wait! It’s too early!’ I was 19, pregnant with quadruplets. My water broke at just 24 weeks and wouldn’t stop.’: Teen mom births miracle micro-preeme after losing 3 of her quadruplets
“I stopped feeling my girls move. I lifted my shirt over my baby bump. I could see the ultrasound as the tech moved the wand around. I knew immediately something was wrong. I started to cry to my fiancé. ‘I can’t lose my babies. I can’t.’ The words were burned into me, ‘Babies B and C no longer have heartbeats.’ My cervix was giving out. ‘What else could go wrong?,’ I asked. I had to stay strong so my survivor could have a chance.”
‘If our kids have time for HOURS of Snapchat and Instagram, they have time to learn marketable skills on these same devices.’: Mom of teenaged son shares tips to ‘prepare kids for the real world’
“My boys (14 and 10) can confidently navigate self-checkout, withdraw cash from an ATM, pump gas, make phone calls with confidence, order groceries, manage an Excel budget, order an Uber, etc. I refuse to send them into the workforce without basic skills.”
‘Here buddy, I can help you down.’ The man I’d tried to wave around us couldn’t hold it in any longer. He was obviously annoyed.’: Mom urges importance of teaching kids lessons by letting them do things on their own
“I met his eyes and told him nicely, ‘He doesn’t need help, he needs time to problem solve. Why don’t you go around us? We may take a minute and I don’t want to hold you up.’ He mumbled something, obviously annoyed that I didn’t just hoist the kid down myself. I was standing there to guard against danger.”
‘My kids don’t have a bedtime. It’s simple. We sleep when we’re tired.’: Mom claims kids are ‘flourishing’ after getting rid of bedtimes, ‘I love the freedom it gives us!’
“At 7 p.m. all the houses around the country breathe a sigh of relief at the end of the day when parenting ends and ‘me time’ begins. That is simply not the case for me. My kids go to bed late and wake up late. And that’s okay. Children are more capable at recognizing what they need than we give them credit for.”
‘There is a silent tragedy right now, in our homes, and it concerns our most precious jewels – our children.’: Occupational therapist addresses child mental illness epidemic, ‘We have to wake up!’
“I have witnessed this tragedy unfolding right in front of my eyes. Our children are in a devastating emotional state! No, ‘they all are just born like this’ is not the answer. No, ‘it is all the school system’s fault’ is not the answer. As painful as it can be to admit, in many cases, WE, parents, are the answer to many of our kids’ struggles! We must make changes before this entire generation of children will be medicated.”
‘I didn’t need his permission. I closed my eyes, clicked a button, and finally put an end to my pretending.’: It’s been one year since I stopped faking it on social media
“I posted our most recent family photos, and the comments poured in about how ‘perfect’ my family was. I knew things needed to change. I didn’t want people to just like my photos, I wanted them to like me, all of me—even the painful, grieving parts. I am a child who was abused by her father at 3 years old. A teenager who was the victim of statutory rape. I found my husband unresponsive on the floor with a failing heart.”
‘I got the call at 6 p.m., left my kids with my husband and drove to her house with my socks crammed into my Birkenstocks.’: Mom urges others to ‘just show up’ when friends need you, ‘She didn’t need Pinterest, she needed me’
“When your friend’s husband dies unexpectedly, when she has a baby, when she is going through a divorce, she doesn’t care if you baked the cookies from scratch and perfectly placed them in a platter. Show up in your socks with pizza. I held her, loaded her dishwasher, read her kids a story and tucked them in.”
‘I love your lips! Your lips are so full and sexy. I love bigger girls. Let’s have some ‘fun.’: Sexual innuendos woman recieves in her inbox make her want to ‘throw up’
“I block user after user after user. I never thought I’d be tired of the words ‘pretty’ and ‘beautiful’ and being told how ‘desirable’ I am (in the most vulgar ways). I’m not trying to sound conceited. If only they knew me. Really knew me. My lips mean more to men than anything else about me.”
