Sometimes making yourself quieter for other people is the same as making yourself smaller. By Lauren Apfel
relationships
“Momma was crying last night,” my seven-year-old said. “She was crying because you left our family.” By Erik Raschke
Unlike the majority of her peers, my mom does not consider being a grandma the single most important and satisfying aspect of her life. By Lauren Apfel
When we use #blessed, we are saying that we have been chosen for joy. The problem is what this word suggests in the context of suffering. By Liz Becker
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
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
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
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
Catherine Newman offers advice to a grandmother, who is raising her 15-year-old grandson, about the reality of teenagers and conflict.
To throw away the cigarettes, and choose to run instead. To stop running when my hips hurt, and walk instead. By Kathleen Harris
It’ll only occur to me months later, in the flurry of taking you to college, that this was the quiet part before the big crescendo. By Jennifer Niesslein
Catherine Newman answers this question (and more!) in her next installment of Motherwell’s advice column for the parents of teens. Her kids weigh in too!
Both of my sons are the male equivalent of a tomboy. But there isn’t a word for that. By Marya Markovich
Decades ago, boys who lacked motivation were called late bloomers. Today, we call them underachievers. By Adam Price
He can’t reconcile where we’d find the time, money and energy. I feel like we’d figure it out, the way we did with the first. By Abigail Rasminsky
Catherine Newman’s next installment of Motherwell’s not-so-ordinary advice column for the parents of teens.
Your friends from college may be the best you ever have, guard those relationships like gold. By Francie Arenson Dickman
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 son is deeply comfortable with being an introvert. But sometimes I think he is too comfortable. By Lauren Apfel
Catherine Newman’s not-so-ordinary advice column for the parents of teens.
I’m raising two boys. And I am conscious of raising them to be people who hear and respond to the word “no.” By Brianne DeRosa
My confidence in myself as a parent, a wife, and a woman were badly shaken. I was a mess. By Diane Pomerantz
The sparks of ambition, even in the middle of life, can become flames. By Sonya Spillmann
When the children are gone will I be something flimsier, something less than I was before? By Lauren Apfel