A sun-kissed, free-spirited California family photo session
This family photo session from California-based Arina B Photography has a great blend of all the perfect components: beautiful locations, willing subjects, and a family that clearly has a lot of fun together. My favorite thing about these photos is you can FEEL how close-knit this family of five is, and see all of the joy they have together.
My gay BFF wants a baby and I’m pregnant but don’t want to keep it: how do I broach the topic of adoption with him?
We had our son five months ago and have been using condoms as birth control since he was born. Much to my horror, I find myself pregnant again. My partner and I have discussed our options, and have decided we don’t want to terminate the pregnancy — but we also know that we don’t want to raise two children this close together. One of my best and oldest friends has been talking about having a baby, and he and his husband are having a hard time adopting. We’ve joked about one of our friends carrying a child for them, but didn’t think it would actually happen… until I became pregnant.
LeakyCon and 4 other nerd-tastic summer cons perfect for parent-teen bonding
Guys, summer is almost upon is… which means it’s TOTALLY time to get ready for con season! We’ve chatted about taking a small child to a con (totally doable), but never before have we waded into aspirational con territory for many a parent-child duo: taking your teen to a con. Luckily there are tons of options this time of year — there’s a con for just about every form of geekery you can drum up. Harry Potter fan? Check. Horror movie aficionado? You got it.
How do I talk to my Child-Free partner about maybe having kids?
My husband and I have been together for five years, and married for almost one. Up until recently, neither of us have ever wanted to have children. We’ve made this perfectly clear to all interested potential grandparent parties. However… I’ve recently started to think about having kids more and more, and it hit me the other day that I would very much like to have a kid.
Why parenting and relationships are hard: happiness doesn’t mean feeling good
Our habitual pleasure-seeking keeps us from being able to be truly and deeply committed to our endeavors in life. Our idea that we deserve to feel good all the time, and that anything that isn’t actively making us feel good is bad and wrong and scary, makes it so we inevitably begin to resist the things we have committed to.
I’m a single mom getting ready to move out with my kid — care to share your family budgeting tips?
I am a single mother with a rapidly evolving career. My three-year-old and I have been living with my parents for almost two-and-a-half years now, and it’s time to leave. I found a decent (read: not dangerous) apartment complex, and we will be moving in about a month.
A home water birth in a developing country with a homebirth ban
I woke up at 6:30 with what felt like menstrual cramps. I don’t know how many times I’ve read that phrase at the beginning of the scores of birth stories I’ve read over the months but it just didn’t seem real now that it was actually happening to me. I knew then that this was definitely labor, but couldn’t imagine I’d have a baby at the end of the day.
I’m an atheist but my step-kid is religious: how do I respect his beliefs while expressing mine?
I have a nine-year-old stepson. I’ve been in his life since he was two-years-old. We’ve always split time 50-50 between the houses. My partner and I are definitely offbeat. We’re tattooed, politically radical and activist-y, feminist, intentionally unmarried, and atheists. Around the time my stepson was four, his biological mom “found Jesus” and joined an evangelical, fundamentalist church. Needless to say, this was a difficult transition. Now, our little dude is coming to our house and evangelizing to us, trying to convert us.