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mental health

Why my ponytail is so important to my son

grayscale women with long blonde ponytail looking in opposite direction
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I wanted to laugh and not think about my mortality. I wanted to attend functions at my son’s school without a perfectly tied head scarf. By Kai McGee

September 21, 2017 Parenting Challenges

To the little girl on the train whose mother is on drugs

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As someone with a son dead because of heroin, I couldn’t look away.
By Bill Williams

August 28, 2017 Parenting Challenges

My daughter’s anxiety has grown with her

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We trot her out into the world, trying to help her gain confidence through exposure. But it only lasts for so long.
By Linda Pressman

August 15, 2017 Parenting Challenges

The myth of the instant family

drawing of a mother and child cuddling on a bed
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I love my baby, but I miss my relationship with my husband terribly.
By Abigail Rasminsky

August 1, 2017 Family, Parenting Challenges

When I first realized my daughter has an eating disorder

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She slid into anorexia at 16. She stopped smiling. She ignored her friends. She counted almonds.
By Amy Rumizen

July 12, 2017 Parenting Challenges

With new life comes a fear of death

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Kids—they break you wide open and expose parts you didn’t even know could feel pain.
By Katie Rose Guest Pryal

May 22, 2017 Parenting Challenges

Top surgery “show and tell” with my transgender son

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He’s passing as a boy now—as long as he binds his breasts.
By Katrin Grace

May 11, 2017 Culture, Family, Obstacles

The blurred boundaries of mothering an addict

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When you’re a parent, you have to believe that no matter what your child does or says they still deserve to be loved.
By Erika Sauter

April 26, 2017 Parenting Challenges

How to prepare for my son growing up

painting of boy in swirl of water
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I wait for sleep, for the fever to break, the tooth to fall out, the rash to go away.
By Zsofia McMullin

April 14, 2017 Family, Parenting Challenges

My teenage daughter is refusing the HPV vaccine

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The doctor finally looked at me and said, “We can’t hold her down. She’s sixteen.”
By Laurie Lichtenstein

March 13, 2017 Parenting Challenges

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

When reading at grade level is not good enough

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None of the parents I know are copping to having a kid who is average.
By Christie Tate

February 16, 2017 Culture, Parenting Challenges

Why politics matters to me in the college selection process

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I want my children to be part of a college community that is more in line with the ideologies of #Imwithher than #MAGA.
By Randi Olin

February 14, 2017 Culture, Parenting Challenges

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

Learning to be a worrier mom from afar

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I had to step back and let her stand on her own two feet—even when she was shivering feverishly under the covers.
By Candy Schulman

October 25, 2016 Family, Parenting Challenges

A mom, and still not feeling like an adult

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I waited until my thirties to have kids, but there are still moments when my feelings don’t match my age.
By Ann Cinzar

September 5, 2016 Parenting Challenges

How to break a bone and heal a mother

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After surgery, a mother comes to terms with the reality that a clean house is not the same as a loving home.
By Leslie Kendall Dye

August 16, 2016 Parenting Challenges

Parenting in the shadow of PTSD

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Both my children hate being around me and water—I’m the parent whose urgent, borderline hysteria ruins all the fun.
By Christie Tate

July 5, 2016 Parenting Challenges

My favorite part of motherhood? I’m not so sure.

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Is it possible to love being a mom without knowing why?
By Christine Organ

June 27, 2016 Family, Parenting Challenges

Lamenting the loss of summer for college kids

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A summer internship might help my daughter narrow down her career options, but I think she needs a break from the stress of her freshman year. By Randi Olin

June 13, 2016 Family, Parenting Challenges

Sometimes it’s painful to be a gay parent in public

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If my partner and I had been straight we might have all nodded to each other in recognition, but because we are queer, our difference is what stands out.
By Jennifer Berney

May 1, 2016 Culture, Parenting Challenges

A different kind of birth

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Would having another baby after 50 salve my grief over my children leaving home?
By Andrea Jarrell

May 1, 2016 Culture

This is your crappy childhood

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I can’t help feeling sad for all the things I imagined his childhood to be, but now know it won’t.
By Zsofia McMullin

May 1, 2016 Family, Parenting Challenges

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