Category Archive

Families

Our sister site Offbeat Mama launched in 2009, became Offbeat Families in 2012, and was merged into Offbeat Home & Life in 2015. This archive contains all the posts ever published on those sites! We believe that while children change your life forever, being around kids doesn’t necessitate abandoning your identity. We believe in supporting and inspiring parents and caregivers who are moving beyond mainstream visions of parenting. We welcome anyone who’s interested in families, whether you’re pre-parental, in the process of becoming a parent, or choosing to live childfree.

Help! What's the best way to store dirty cloth diapers?

Help! What’s the best way to store dirty cloth diapers?

We are 32 weeks pregnant with our first child and planning on cloth diapering. I’m looking for a little bit of guidance on how to store the dirty diapers until wash time. I looked on the internet but still felt confused after reading about dry pails v. wet pails while other people recommend getting a bidet sprayer to attach to the toilet. I would love to hear what other people do in the time between a diaper getting dirty and laundry time.

How do I know if I want a baby or just want to experience pregnancy?

How do I know if I want a baby or just want to experience pregnancy?

I am 28 and I am in a serious relationship and I have the strong urge to have a baby. However, like this woman, I feel I am more interested in the feeling of being pregnant and giving birth than actually being a parent.

I am actually afraid I won’t be a good parent at all because I won’t be able to cope with the responsibility. But I ask myself, how does this make sense with my current, very raw urge to be pregnant?

I’m a teacher and I’m dreading this question when school starts

Colleagues will ask it, parents will ask it, students will ask it. Some will ask it because it’s the thing to do, some to fill dead air, some because they saw my (not to brag or anything) AMAZING vacation photos on social media, and some because they genuinely want to know. “How was your summer?”

You want to know how my summer really was? It was awful. I was an emotional, hormonal mess who was pregnant, but won’t be having a baby anytime soon. I had two miscarriages, my second and third.

Potter pregnancy announcement: Pregnant Potterphiles need to see these downloadable pregnancy announcements

Pregnant Potterphiles need to see these downloadable pregnancy announcements

If you’re waiting for a yet-to-be-named future wizard to join your family, these Harry Potter pregnancy announcement graphics are for you. Created by Mugglenet designer Cheyenne, these downloadable graphics can be plugged into an announcement email or into Facebook, Instagram, or your social media of choice.

Let’s peek at these Potterphile pregnancy graphic styles…

A mom's mental load: embracing and forgiving my forgetfulness

A mom’s mental load: embracing and forgiving my forgetfulness

I’ve been thinking a lot about forgetfulness and mental load. I had a boss at work who constantly referred to freeing up your “psychic space” as often as possible. Much like defragmenting your computer in order to free up memory. I have always been considered “forgetful” — even before I had a baby. During pregnancy, I had the luxury of blaming things on “baby brain.” Now that my daughter is crawling, my ability to keep up with everything in my brain seems exponentially worse.

Here are some of the more serious things I’ve forgotten this past month…

The realness of early pregnancy and loss

The realness of early pregnancy and loss

My pregnancy was real. Really brief. Really scary. Really exciting. Really surprising. Really sad. Really hopeful. Really exhausting.

There were three emotional weeks between the moment I saw two lines on a pregnancy test in my bathroom at 4am and the moment an ultrasound confirmed we’d lost it. This wasn’t our first pregnancy, but it was our first since knowing the pain of losing one. We were scared and sad from the start that we might lose it, yet we were hopeful this might finally be our time…

I’m pregnant and in a metal band: how do I protect baby’s hearing?

I’m an audio engineer and an electric violinist for a metal band, and just found out that I’m pregnant. It’s early days, but do I need to cancel gigs after a certain point? As an engineer, I experience up to 105db at work, but generally staying under 90db. As a musician, though, I’m onstage next to drum kits and loud amps, including my own, for an average set of 50 minutes. Is there anything I can do to keep them safe without cancelling gigs?

These photos of moms & babes nursing in protest of family separation will hit you right in the FEELS

These photos of moms & babes nursing in protest of family separation will inspire you

For the past two Saturdays, a group of mamas and babies have gathered outside of the ICE detention center in Portland, OR to breast/bottle feed their babies in protest of the Trump administration policies that have separated roughly 2,000 children from their parents.

They were invited to hold the line during the nationwide Families Belong Together march on June 30th and decided to make it a weekly event until meaningful change happens in regards to ICE…