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divorce

How a family roller disco saved our winter

roller skates on the floor of a rink
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Our roller disco will be a celebration of survival, a catchpenny affair, meant to launch us into the season of renewal. By Samantha Shanley

March 10, 2021 Family, Parenting Challenges

How making yogurt keeps my hope alive

jar of homemade yogurt with spoon it it
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If you know the taste of real yogurt, or freedom, you won’t give it up easily. By Daniela Elza

February 18, 2021 Family

A mother’s need for control in a pandemic

Zoom call with coffee mug next to laptop
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I repeatedly suggest that my daughter Zooms or FaceTimes more often, but she gets annoyed. “Mom, I know what I need.” By Laura G. Owens

January 21, 2021 Culture

Making toffee at the holidays with the woman I never knew

old recipe card for English toffee
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As I open my fifth holiday season as a single woman and a mother of three, I watch the butter and sugar vanish into one another again. By Samantha Shanley

December 10, 2020 Family

Finding the silver linings in a dark time

dark cloud with silver lining
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I’m having a good quarantine. Can I say that? By Lauren Apfel

April 24, 2020 Culture

Motherwell talks to best-selling author Ada Calhoun

book cover why we can't sleep ada calhoun
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Ada Calhoun gives a voice to middle-age struggles—and empowers a generation of women who were raised to “have it all.”

March 30, 2020 Books, Culture

Struggling to create a new life after my divorce

Used wine bottles lined up outside on a windowsill
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On Friday nights, I would rush through my daughter’s bedtime books, slurring words and skipping full pages. By Shelley Mann Hite

January 14, 2020 Culture

The Santa myth is hard work and I won’t miss it

Santa ornament on Christmas tree
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As much as I love Christmas, without Santa I felt only glee and relief at the massive reduction in my December workload. By Michelle Deininger

December 4, 2019 Culture, Family

The importance of friendship after divorce

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The hardest thing about divorce, I’ve found, is not the being alone. It’s the being alone when most of the people you know and love have a first port of call that isn’t you. By Lauren Apfel

October 8, 2019 Culture

Poetry | Housewife

Close up of pink peonies in a vase, with focus on one opening stalk
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“You’re a different person,” my husband said. This was years ago now. Thank god he was right. By Samantha Shanley

August 13, 2019 Parenting Challenges

To my absent dad on Father’s Day, with love

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My father was an every-other-weekend dad, then a once-a-summer dad and, finally, a phone-it-in dad. Then we lost touch. By Stephen J. Lyons

June 12, 2019 Parenting Challenges

How I spent the first Thanksgiving after my divorce

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My sister had asked me to bake. “Keep her busy” was the secret code among my family members that season. By Nancy Payne-Hambrose

November 19, 2018 Parenting Challenges

Why I don’t like to shush my kids

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Sometimes making yourself quieter for other people is the same as making yourself smaller. By Lauren Apfel

June 7, 2018 Culture, Parenting Challenges

How to explain blame and divorce to my son

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“Momma was crying last night,” my seven-year-old said. “She was crying because you left our family.” By Erik Raschke

May 30, 2018 Parenting Challenges

The very last bath of childhood

two little boys covered in bath-time bubbles
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I can’t imagine a time without children in my house, just as one month ago I could not imagine an evening without bath time. By Kelli Kirk

April 18, 2018 Family

After divorce, when a fish is not just a fish

single goldfish in glass bowl in front of ominous purple background
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Perhaps the fish were feeble replacements for all that we had lost, but they were also hopeful things. By Samantha Shanley

March 29, 2018 Parenting Challenges

How my fear of flying changed with motherhood

filtered photograph of young girl throwing paper airplane into sky
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It was so much easier to ignore my own pounding heart amidst the turbulence when I was worrying about my son’s instead. By Lauren Apfel

November 20, 2017 Parenting Challenges

When everything goes wrong, being a good enough mother

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My confidence in myself as a parent, a wife, and a woman were badly shaken. I was a mess. By Diane Pomerantz

October 10, 2017 Parenting Challenges

Will I ever share my bed with a partner again?

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It was hard enough to find somebody the first time, when I was young and untarnished by the scars of motherhood.
By Katherine Sargent

June 23, 2017 Parenting Challenges

Learning how to parent together, after the marriage is over

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I had to let go of the idea that I was the only one who could meet my children’s needs.
By Samantha Shanley

June 22, 2017 Parenting Challenges

If I divorce her dad, will she still be family?

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I could not teach my stepdaughter, this girl so quickly becoming a woman, that to stay was always right.
By Katie Gutierrez

June 20, 2017 Parenting Challenges

Separated from my husband, parenting my daughter

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What if our split isn’t the best thing for her? What if it does irreparable harm?
By Robin L. Flanigan

June 19, 2017 Parenting Challenges

Almost 40, dating, and I want another baby

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What shocked me most about online dating was the absolute scorn for women who wanted, or already had, children.
By Dena Landon

November 30, 2016 Parenting Challenges

At the end of a family’s difficult year: gratitude

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If bad things really do happen in threes, then my son being hit by a car had completed our 2016 trifecta.
By Samantha Shanley

November 28, 2016 Parenting Challenges

A stepson’s summer visit

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It is an awesome responsibility to be entrusted with the care of someone’s child, but for the first time I’m less anxious about it.
By Teri Carter

July 12, 2016 Family, Parenting Challenges
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