On Friday nights, I would rush through my daughter’s bedtime books, slurring words and skipping full pages. By Shelley Mann Hite
divorce
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
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
“You’re a different person,” my husband said. This was years ago now. Thank god he was right. By Samantha Shanley
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
My sister had asked me to bake. “Keep her busy” was the secret code among my family members that season. By Nancy Payne-Hambrose
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 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
Perhaps the fish were feeble replacements for all that we had lost, but they were also hopeful things. By Samantha Shanley
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
My confidence in myself as a parent, a wife, and a woman were badly shaken. I was a mess. By Diane Pomerantz
It was hard enough to find somebody the first time, when I was young and untarnished by the scars of motherhood.
By Katherine Sargent
I had to let go of the idea that I was the only one who could meet my children’s needs.
By Samantha Shanley
I could not teach my stepdaughter, this girl so quickly becoming a woman, that to stay was always right.
By Katie Gutierrez
What if our split isn’t the best thing for her? What if it does irreparable harm?
By Robin L. Flanigan
What shocked me most about online dating was the absolute scorn for women who wanted, or already had, children.
By Dena Landon
If bad things really do happen in threes, then my son being hit by a car had completed our 2016 trifecta.
By Samantha Shanley
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