My four-year-old is my photography partner in crime
This is a story about having to make the most of every second. It’s also the story of how art is everywhere and made by everyone. Sometimes it takes a special person to come along and see everything as art. Sometimes lack of time forces you to see beauty all around.
Recognizing ourselves in the stories that we read
At bedtime, I read my daughter Alice a story. This has been our nightly ritual since before she was born, but now, after we read together, she reads on her own. She’s always loved stories, but more and more she’s caught up in words. Almost nightly now she pops out to read her dad and me a short passage: beautiful descriptions, scenes that seem especially funny or apt to her.
I had less than 24 hours to decide if I wanted to be a parent
On Tuesday, August 14th, at 1:00 p.m., I went into my OBGYN’s clinic to get myself checked out, and walked away two-and-a-half hours later with the biggest shock I have ever known: I was pregnant, and half of my pregnancy had already gone by. I had no symptoms, continued having a period every month, and never experienced any weight gain. But none the less, I was going to be a mother. And I had one night to decide if I was ready to change my life, forever.
Queer Parenting for Heteros (and anyone else who wants to teach kids that being queer is awesome)
Well, a lot has been said and written about queer parenting in recent years, but most of this commentary ignores the opportunity to actually engage queer theory and instead simply equates queer parenting with LGBT people raising children. But what happens when we attempt to apply the insights of queer theory to our relationships with children?
Do you take parenting advice from non-parents seriously?
I don’t have any kids of my own, but I have been a full time nanny for children ranging from newborn to 15 years old throughout the years. My friends have just started having children of their own, and the pleas for advice on Facebook seem endless. I feel that I have a lot of experience dealing with many common situations that arise during parenting but I am not actually a parent — so does that make me unqualified to give any advice?
Our New Year’s Day baby was nearly born into the toilet
There’s a lot you don’t know as a first time mom and nothing showed how unprepared I was than my son Owen’s actual arrival. On New Year’s Eve in 2010 my husband and I met friends for a celebratory dinner. At dinner I ate an entire appetizer, entree, and dessert — in retrospect this probably should have been indicative of impending labor since I typically struggled to finish half an entree. Early that morning I wandered out of bed to use the bathroom. I had become used to needing to pee at least three times a night, and right as I entered the bathroom I felt a gush of water exit. I looked down and thought, “Hmmm…”
A Cesarean birth story told by the birthing mother and her doula
This birth story is told by two people: Ashley, the birth mother, and Andrea, her doula. Ashley intended to deliver in a hospital with her midwife, mother, and husband present — but as life (and birth) has a way of going plans changed.
I was my best friend’s surrogate
All of the events and relationships involved in my birth story were put into place nine years ago when my best friend and I met. I’ve watched my best friend and her husband struggle with infertility for years, and one day simply said: “You know I’d have a baby for you, right?” That sentence started the most amazing journey.