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Lauren Apfel

This is what happened when I came out to my kids

neon lights rainbow against purple love is love background
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I told my kids in McDonald’s. Because when you’re about to drop that kind of bomb, really you want them to be eating french fries. By Lauren Apfel

March 2, 2020 Culture

Motherwell’s most popular posts of 2017

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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!

December 14, 2017 Culture, Family, Parenting Challenges

A selection of Motherwell’s favorite parenting books

various parenting books on shelf
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Looking for the perfect parenting gift, book club recommendation or holiday read? Look no further. By Lauren Apfel

December 6, 2017 Books

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

What happens when an introvert parents an introvert

the creative mind of the sullen teenager
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My son is deeply comfortable with being an introvert. But sometimes I think he is too comfortable. By Lauren Apfel

November 9, 2017 Culture, Parenting Challenges

On opting out and not having it all

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Having a kid before establishing a career was part luck and part madness. By Lauren Apfel

October 6, 2017 Culture

Practicing who I will be when my kids are out of the house

A sketch of a woman's head with her face a palette of painted colours
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When the children are gone will I be something flimsier, something less than I was before? By Lauren Apfel

September 19, 2017 Family, Parenting Challenges

Choosing to have children, choosing not to

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Motherhood has become so consuming to me that I find it hard not to project onto others a desire for the sense of purpose it offers.
By Lauren Apfel

August 31, 2017 Culture, Parenting Challenges

On being a part-time working mom

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Mothers are not static entities. We evolve in this role, as in any other.
By Lauren Apfel

July 25, 2017 Culture

Sex-ed for kindergarteners? Yes, please

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The sooner a child has a framework to understand the nature of healthy relationships, the better.
By Lauren Apfel

July 6, 2017 Culture

An editor’s perspective: the personal parenting essay is not dead

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Whatever the political climate, we will continue to write about bruised nipples, maternal ambivalence, how to raise kids who believe love is love.
By Lauren Apfel

June 15, 2017 Culture

Yes, I know my kid is average

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“You’re not going to be good at everything,” I say. It’s a standard line in our house.
By Lauren Apfel

June 1, 2017 Culture

The 10 ways my sons and daughter are not so different at all

photo of three boys wrestling behind a girl sitting still
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Is my daughter a “tomboy” or a “girly girl”? She is neither and she is both.
By Lauren Apfel

March 22, 2017 Culture

What we neglect when the children are young

view of a blue-framed window and wooden table with a bowl and foliage on it
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Nobody told me while my house was falling apart that eventually I would start to see clearly again.
By Lauren Apfel

February 22, 2017 Family, Parenting Challenges

My tween will only read comics, is that okay?

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In an age of instant gratification, we are all losing the ability to focus on larger amounts of text—and that’s worrisome.
By Lauren Apfel

January 25, 2017 Culture

Confessions of a mom who doesn’t worry

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If actively fearing for your children’s safety is a natural instinct, my maternal hardwiring must be faulty. By Lauren Apfel

January 5, 2017 Parenting Challenges

Motherwell’s most popular posts of 2016

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Motherwell publishes provocative, evocative essays on all aspects of the parenting experience. Here are our most-read pieces from 2016.

December 20, 2016 Culture, Family, Parenting Challenges

Is there such a thing as too many kids?

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How do we decide when a family is “complete”?
By Lauren Apfel

October 15, 2016 Culture, Family

Girls & Sex, a review

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Peggy Orenstein’s Girls & Sex is a deftly executed, non-judgemental cultural commentary on the complexities of female adolescent sexuality.
By Lauren Apfel

October 7, 2016 Books

Sleepovers are an important part of childhood

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It’s important for parents to let their children take big bites of independence once in a while, even if it feels scary.
By Lauren Apfel

September 20, 2016 Family

Don’t separate my five-year-old campers by gender

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Surely what boys and girls gain from playing together should outweigh any inconvenience of having to organize separate changing areas.
By Lauren Apfel

August 4, 2016 Culture

Talking to my son about abortion

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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

June 27, 2016 Culture

What we tell our daughters about body hair

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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

June 20, 2016 Culture

Perspective | I don’t go to every school event

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Children are resilient little creatures and they don’t need our eyes on them, our attendance at every single school function, to know how profoundly they matter.
By Lauren Apfel

May 31, 2016 Family

On telling my kids I love them

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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

May 1, 2016 Culture
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