I caught you with drugs today. I picked up your little glass pipe. It felt like a bomb in my hand. Boom. By Rica Lewis
Category Archive: Parenting Challenges
One mother refused to let her daughter stop playing the flute. So what made her change her mind? By Daisy Florin
When my son was 11 he told me, “I wish I wasn’t autistic. It would be easier to make friends.” By Joanne De Simone
How could I do it all again? The uncomfortable pregnancy, the brutal birth, the dark newborn days. By Joy Netanya
I am ashamed to admit I believed you were a good man who deserved to be forgiven. By Jo Hall
For me the taco had become an easy vector of choice, creativity, freedom, and therefore power. By Samantha Shanley
Sometimes making yourself quieter for other people is the same as making yourself smaller. By Lauren Apfel
“Momma was crying last night,” my seven-year-old said. “She was crying because you left our family.” By Erik Raschke
I am the mother who was drunk the morning of the first birthday party you were invited to. By Janelle Hanchett
You speed through the five stages of grief or however many there are because you’re trying to wrap up a project at work and you don’t have time for this crap. By A.S. Callaghan
I decided to stop asking Austin about his plan. I decided to stop suggesting pathways and careers to him, as if I were a marketing director of adulthood. By Ann marie Houghtailing
In a quiet, distant voice I tell my husband that I want to die. Not exactly dead, I clarify, but not this. By Laura G. Owens
We are forever snarled in each other’s hair, my daughter and I, invested in the consistency of the people we know best and need most. By Leslie Kendall Dye
Here I am at the sink again. Here I am signing the kids up for soccer again. Here I am preparing for the holidays again. Wash, rinse, repeat. By Ilyse Dobrow DiMarco
Perhaps the fish were feeble replacements for all that we had lost, but they were also hopeful things. By Samantha Shanley
I don’t want to mess this up. I live in fear of being seen as a privileged person with an accessory on my arm. By Jenn O’Connor
Eighteen years later, nothing has changed. All the firsts I had been praying for never came. By Shauna Actis
Coming to peace with the reality that you can’t make your kid do things is actually liberating. By William Stixrud and Ned Johnson
Nobody will send flowers. You don’t even have a face to conjure when you think of this child. By Maggie Downs
Do people really believe a baby’s size is a reliable precursor of his future happiness, intelligence, or even physical prowess? By Kelsey Osgood
I’m not sure when doing nothing after school fell out of favor. As a kid, I was a pro at nothing. We all were. By Francie Arenson Dickman
For what seems like a single frame of the video, I see my child silhouetted in the lights of the oncoming car. By Ian Smith
I’m terrified that my teenager, who has Down syndrome, won’t ever find real love—and also that she will, but that it won’t be the right kind. By Amy Silverman
Motherwell features parenting essays on culture, family life, obstacles and the process of overcoming them. We are excited to announce this year’s ten most read!
My plate is full, blessedly so. So why can’t I stop thinking about having another baby? By Daisy Alpert Florin