Hello from Motherwell! We hope this finds you safe and as well as can be expected under the circumstances.
Four years ago we started Motherwell as an online space for parents to read and write personal essays, to collect advice and tips, and to gather for support and encouragement in their everyday family lives. Now is a time when we need this kind of platform more than ever. Starting today, our content will be largely coronavirus/COVID-19 focused—and we want to hear from you. Your stories, your ideas, your struggles. Whether it’s a few words or a few hundred words, writing is one of the best outlets in times of trouble, and sharing our experiences one of the best forms of comfort.
Our plan is to publish about everything you might be experiencing right now—from tips on how to parent and work from home to fears about financial implications for families to what it’s like being a single parent in this already isolating moment to practical ideas about how to transition to homeschooling our kids and/or facilitate their online learning. We will also be continuing to feature our usual style of content on subjects such as how we’ve effectively all become stay-at-home parents amidst this chaos and how we are talking to our kids and managing their anxieties.
What we are hoping to do is foster an ongoing dialogue by creating a community of conversation about the effects this pandemic has had on your relationships, your young kids, your school-aged kids, your college kids, your aging parents, your pregnancy, your experience of new motherhood.
So if you have anything you’d like to share about your current family situation—we are open to any form: anecdote/journal entry, list, tip, recommendation, audio, video, poem, essay, reprint—please submit here or leave it as a comment below.
We will also be curating every day on our social media pages the best and most relevant family-related COVID-19 stories. So please stay connected on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. As always, we will also be mixing in inspirational quotes, memes and other feel-good pieces, as well as some evergreen Motherwell essays we think you might enjoy.
Stay tuned, be safe, and sending love from our family to yours.
XO Lauren Apfel and Randi Olin, founders and executive editors of Motherwell
Like what you are reading at Motherwell? Please consider supporting us here.
Keep up with Motherwell on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and via our newsletter.