I’d raise my family differently, not because of the mistakes I made—though I certainly made my share—but because time means so much more to me now. By Melissa T. Shultz
Category Archive: Family
They arrived. One after the other. In snowstorms. On holidays. From foreign countries. In succession—as inevitable it seemed as midterms and finals. By David Joseph
My eyes focus on my abdomen, the bulge pregnancy has left behind. My inner critic opens her mouth…but then I take in the whole picture. By Chrissie Dunham
We would take a million pictures of our child but none of us. Forget to schedule date nights because we never needed them before. By Elizabeth Newdom
“No offense Mom,” my oldest said to me a few years ago. “But you could have been so much more.” By Laura Pochintesta
We had a ritual that I honored until she outgrew the need for it. It occurs to me now that I needed it just as much as she did. By Tracy Tambosso
My daughter collapses after an endless tantrum and says, I wish I wasn’t adopted. By Tanya Friedman
I hesitated because I am a product of my society, just like everyone else. By Fiona Leary Boucher
I arrive at the office. I mime professional. Am I a professional? For months my identity was pure and unquestioned: mother of an infant. By Janelle Ward
We asked, you answered. In three words.
Kisses really mean love. When we kiss you goodnight, we told her, it leaves your cheek and travels straight into your heart. By Rosanne Ullman
As parents sometimes it’s a struggle to carve out even a few minutes to breathe. By Steph Auteri
We already lived paycheck to paycheck, how in the world would we scrounge up the money to stay in even a cheap hotel near our daughter? By Anna Whitlock
So many parents speak of this transition period with promise and enthusiasm. But I loved nothing more than my kids walking through the door every day at 2:35pm. By Randi Olin
Our daughter asked good questions—what about the other baby? Were we sad? Why did it happen? By Cynthia Nuara
“Baby, it might be a mistake,” my mother said. “Sometimes they accidentally send these things out to the wrong people.” By Rebecca Potter
When you blow out the candle for her, be prepared: it will feel like blowing away her first year, your first year of motherhood. By Kaitlin Barker Davis
I now hear regularly about girls who are so fearful of disappointing their teachers that they skip sleep to do extra-credit work for points they don’t need. By Lisa Damour
KJ Dell’Antonia, Jill Smokler, Jordan Shapiro, Janelle Hanchett, and Jessica Lahey weigh in on how much is too much when it comes to writing about our children.
It doesn’t seem quite right to just toss these pearly whites in the trash (no matter how much I thanked them, with all due respect to Ms. Kondo). By Anne Brinser Shelton
YouTube, Apple Music, Netflix. Kids seldom watch, listen to, or read anything these days they didn’t select themselves—or that wasn’t suggested by an anxious-to-please algorithm. By Mary Janevic
I was 10. I loved my cat, Gizmo. And I killed him. By Michael Gentry
I wanted to believe that bringing teenagers into our life would make it easier to let them go. I was wrong. By Meredith Gordon Resnick
This has become our routine: reliving each event point by point, trying to trigger a memory. By Amy Roost
Motherwell publishes on all aspects of the parenting experience—from the poignant to the humorous to the thought-provoking. Here are our most-read original pieces from 2018.