Motherwell publishes provocative, evocative essays on all aspects of the parenting experience. Here are our most-read pieces from 2016.
Category Archive: Culture
I can’t help but think ideas about simplicity mask ideas about masculinity, and what it is, and isn’t, okay to feel.
By Ashley Lefrak Grider
After this election, if we want our children to be a part of the solution, we need to start modeling activism for them.
By Jody Allard
One mother’s experience getting through the day, now that she knows Trump is the President of the United States.
By Sara Ackerman
When my daughter smiles, she is not a “beauty queen.” She smiles because she is happy.
By Marina Koestler Ruben
Why do so many kids have tutors? Are the placement requirements that lax or is everybody just trying to get a leg up?
By Francie Arenson Dickman
How do we decide when a family is “complete”?
By Lauren Apfel
While American parents are talking to their daughters about the risks of sex, the Dutch are talking about the joys of intimacy.
By Peggy Orenstein
Hillary Clinton might not have won the presidency, but we need women to keep fighting for these roles.
By Lauren Apfel
As parents, how do we keep moving forward in the face of one tragedy after another?
By Morgan Baden
Jessica Lahey’s book is an incisive and eye-opening read on the pitfalls of modern-day overparenting.
By Randi Olin
What do you say when your tween comes home talking about Princess Leia porn? A modern-day parody.
By Francie Arenson Dickman
There are many subtle ways in which we teach our kids it’s okay for someone to take what they want from another’s body.
By Gail Cornwall
Surely what boys and girls gain from playing together should outweigh any inconvenience of having to organize separate changing areas.
By Lauren Apfel
Is the mother-child bond really so fragile that it threatens to fall apart at any moment without the parents’ constant vigilance?
By Olga Mecking
For now, what I hope my kids see is that family life is a team effort. We may run different plays than other families, but we’re only interested in the home field win.
By Ann Cinzar
One of the hardest parts of parenting is deciding when to let your children come to their own conclusions and when to steer them down a certain path, in the name of transmitting values.
By Lauren Apfel
What grooming habits is my daughter going to learn from me, and what will I say to her about why she might be expected to shave her legs but her brothers won’t be?
By Lauren Apfel
Being a mother made me a feminist, it brought me face to face with ugly truths about society I would have rather not seen before.
By Lyz Lenz
If my partner and I had been straight we might have all nodded to each other in recognition, but because we are queer, our difference is what stands out.
By Jennifer Berney
Without practicing curious, respectful engagement ourselves, we can’t expect to pass it on to our children.
By Sharon Holbrook
Would having another baby after 50 salve my grief over my children leaving home?
By Andrea Jarrell
Does the minute matter? If they didn’t know about it, would Baby A tease Baby B less? Would she watch out for her less? My hunch is no.
By Francie Arenson Dickman
I don’t think we are a family who loves each other in some especially profound way. We have just made the words that stand for our love a part of the verbal dance we do.
By Lauren Apfel
I am a mother and I am a lawyer. I don’t know how to reconcile these parts of myself, and I feel very alone in this struggle.
By Carinn Jade