How and why I voluntarily became a single mother at 22
When I was little, my rendition of “house” always included pretending I was a single mother struggling to make ends meet. I’m not sure if my eight-year-old self could foresee the future, or if I was just making do with the fact that I didn’t ever have a boy to play my “husband.” I dabbled in dating as a teenager. By “dabble” I mean my relationships never lasted more than three months and most were more like a few days. I just never had much interest in men (or women, for that matter), sexually speaking.
How did you decide you wanted to have a another offbeatling?
My first baby was a surprise (albeit an awesome one) but now that I know all of the work involved with parenting, I am finding it much harder to decide if I want another. I think only children are awesome, but sometimes I think I want to parent another child.
The year Santa didn’t come: why we decided to skip Christmas
If you’re like many children in the U.S., you probably read a few stories or watched a few movies that follow the same story. The holidays are here and a villain, bad weather, or plain old poverty is gearing up to ruin Christmas for everyone. Thankfully at the last moment the villain will have a […]
I’m happy I’m parenting with my more onbeat partner
After learning I was pregnant in December of last year I immediately embraced the idea of being a radical young mom. I was thrilled about planning a water birth at home, about babywearing, sleep sharing, cloth diapering, maintaining a vegetarian diet, questioning vaccines, etc. Excited about the baby but suddenly thrust into a whole new world of pressure, my partner was much more skeptical than enthusiastic about many of my parenting ideals.
That little plant is going to make it: making it through a miscarriage
The week before last Christmas, a friend of mine from work asked me to take care of her Poinsetta plant while she was away from the office. I don’t have the greenest thumb in the world, but of course, I agreed to help out. After all, how much damage could I do in a week, right?
That week, I had my miscarriage.
Needless to say, I forgot about my promise to water my friend’s plant and e-mailed her as soon as I remembered my mistake. My note said something like, “Sorry I forgot to water your plant… but I had a miscarriage.”
Having a kid in The Sims is like having a kid in real life — except for when it’s not
Until recently, the last time I had played was when we bought The Sims Castaway while I was pregnant. I may or may not have spent hours obsessing over my Castaway baby, which we named Lentil, and deciding we were having a girl after “we” did on Castaway (we had a boy in real life), and worrying about poor little Lentil, who had to deal with Castaways-Stephanie who apparently didn’t own any slings or want to breastfeed.
Should my estranged BFF be at my baby’s birth?
When I (unexpectedly) found myself pregnant this June, my best friend of nearly a decade was finishing an eight-month trip through Asia. Because of the deep bond we’ve shared for years I decided right away that along with my husband and midwife, I wanted her to be at the home birth of my first child. But since she’s been home (for several months) I’ve felt the distance between us.
Here’s something you can pull out the next time someone says you’re not parenting the way “people used to”
You know what I’ve learned since becoming a parent? Everyone just loooooves to talk to you about how you’re parenting your kid. This can be good, sometimes, when a stranger pauses to comment on how well-behaved your child is. It can be bad, sometimes, when a stranger pauses to obviously roll their eyes at you while you insist on counting backwards from ten before addressing your screaming toddler, or you insist on not using cups and utensils that aren’t BPA-free (because yes, those still exist), or maybe your kid is watching a third episode of Curious George because you need those twelve minutes for yourself.