Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Families.
Silence
Life. How quickly it changes, without warning, as quickly as a breath, as suddenly as the blink of an eye. I sat outside her bedroom door, knowing that she wouldn’t call for me. She wouldn’t come out, and she wouldn’t make a sound for a while. It was her way. It was her custom to hibernate, to process, to ponder before she resurfaced. By the time she did, she’d have figured out a way to be okay. And I didn’t want that. I didn’t want her to journey towards acceptance alone. She’d suffered a great loss. My best friend was grieving, mourning, processing alone. In my selfishness I wanted to suffer with her, I wanted to dive into the trenches and wade through muddy waters with her. But she wouldn’t let me. She couldn’t.
By Tina Muzondo6 years ago in Families
7 Nigerian Fathers spill Worst Father's Day Gifts.
Wrong gift for the wrong person. Because I knew father's day was coming up, I wanted to write an article that would be relevant to the day. I've been getting a lot of emails and lists about the "Best Gifts to Get The First Man You Ever Knew in Your Life". I get the promo codes for free Father's Day shipping. I get the buy one get one free promotional deals.
By Jide Okonjo6 years ago in Families
Why I Don’t Post Photos of my Child on Social Media
Social media can be such a wonderful tool in our busy lives. Connecting with family and friends, building networks and getting up to date on current events has never been easier. It’s our norm to document almost everything about our lives. We ate at a restaurant and have to share with our friends if it was great or awful. The recent events of rioting and protesting have got you all fired up. We took an amazing trip and have photos to show just how much fun we had. Our kiddo does something so incredibly cute we have to share. Where do we turn to share with our friends? Most of us don’t make a phone call or send a text out. We go right to our social media accounts; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. That was me, until I had a child. Let me put this out in the open before I offend someone; I am all for you sharing your children with your peeps on social media. I think it’s wonderful you post about them because I know it definitely blesses others on your feeds. I’m sharing why I personally don’t, without hating on others for posting their children on social media. I know that can be confusing to you as to why I choose not to share my child with the social media world. The bottom line is; safety. I know what you’re thinking, your profile isn’t public, you don’t post bath time photos, all of your posts are harmless, etc. I get it, I really do. I had to think really hard about what I wanted my child’s life to look like in my home. And this is what I didn’t want; me getting an endorphin rush from others liking my photos and posts. So much that I am focused on the next thing I’m going to post instead of being present with my child. I can’t even imagine all of the things I might miss if I didn’t choose to put my phone down. I’ll catch my son watching me in my every day movements and I just think to myself, “What is he learning by watching me?” “What mannerisms is he picking up?” I turn to look back at him and he smiles! It warms my heart and feeds my soul to know he feels loved and secure. I wanted a typical day in my home to be my child and I, learning and growing with minimal technological help. I am so thankful for advanced technology, but babies learn from watching us. A live, human being; being present. They don’t learn as well from a screen as they do from watching us smile, laugh, and interact with them. I want to teach my baby to empathize and respond to other humans with warmth and authenticity. I want to teach him to be genuine. To be a listener, not just a responder. That is so hard to teach with a screen at a young age. What would he learn from watching me be on my phone? I’m sure there are some positives there, but I couldn’t think of any that outweighed the negative. So the bottom line is safety; keeping my child safe from me becoming a distracted mama. My child needs me to get my endorphin rush from watching him smile and play, not from getting likes on my post.
By Raylin Breider6 years ago in Families
The chair
I stood tall in the middle of Maize's back yard garden of her Victorian home in Chandon Nagar ,India.My sturdy trunk supported a foliage of luscious green leaves on very shapely branches with supple stems that stretched out over a wide circumference, enough to shade a good area of soft grass beneath me in the hot summer days.I was taken back in time to how I got to be so healthy and beautiful.
By Jacqueline Payne6 years ago in Families
Dorie, The Girl Nobody Loved.
This is not a philosophy, idea, or concept. This is a true story about a little girl that, literally, nobody loved. The story of a girl who desperately wanted to be loved by her mother and father. Who wanted to be loved by anyone, just one person to look past her outward appearance and love the girl inside. This book is called, Dorie, the Girl Nobody Loved, by Doris Van Stone. The first setting starts out in a dark, dumpy, apartment. Seven year-old, Dorie and her younger sister, Marie, are there while her mom is out. Dorie’s mom loves Marie, but not Dorie and she told her many times why. You are ugly Dorie but your sister is pretty, and when her mother would go out for the day she would threaten Dorie. “If any harm comes to your sister, you will regret it!” That was Dorie’s life, but not for much longer. Evidently, Dorie’s mom wanted to be rid of her for good. Talking kindly to them, she led them to an orphanage. She hugged and said “I love you” to her youngest daughter then walked away leaving the two there. After this orphanage, there is another, and foster home after foster home for Dorie. Her sister was cute enough to be adopted, but not Dorie. Nobody wanted her. This young girl cried herself to sleep at night and felt rejected from every angle. At some point, she is put in a foster house where she is treated like a dog. She is fed scraps and bones leftover from the meal and beaten fiercely any time the foster parents are angry. She slept on the floor hugging herself, crying from rejection and the painful bruises and welts all over her body from the belt. She is passed on yet again because the authorities soon discovered the abuse of Dorie from her school teacher, who found the marks on her back, neck, and legs. So the story goes on is a similar manner of misery. After a while, Dorie even finds her mother she loved so much that dumped her at an orphanage, working at a restaurant. She goes in to tell her “I’m sorry, Mom. I love you!” and there in front of everyone she disowns Dorie saying “You are not my child!” Heartbroken yet again, Dorie gets shuffled away. When I read this book I can’t help but cry for this little girl, who all her life has known pain, misery, rejection, uncertainty, and flat out hatred. My heart aches for her every time she is cast aside and let down, beaten and yelled at, and denied the love she very much needed. But reading this has also brought a new light to my life. It brings out for myself to see, how loved I am by my family and by my friends. Dorie was not loved or cherished by anyone until towards the end of the book when she is taken in by a pastor and his wife who loved her dearly. They bought her nice clothes, gave her a bedroom of her own, fed her as if she were really one of their own children. As wonderful as that is, her story doesn’t end there. More pain is yet to come when she finds her father, who loves her for a time, then despises her and then too, disowns her. At this point I look at my own parents. They love me. They never treated me with ill will or hatred. This book, Dorie, the Girl Nobody Loved, really makes me feel grateful and accepted. I never had to deal with all the things she did. If there is ever a time that I feel like nobody cares about me, reading this book educates me in a whole new way, every time. I highly recommend this story to you! You may feel as though nobody loves or cares for you or maybe you just need something to lift your spirit up a bit when you are feeling down. Either way this book has been eye-opening. It has taught me love comes in many forms and we all need it. If you aren’t one of the many who have read this book, I do suggest that you should definitely consider giving Dorie’s story a try at warming your heart and bringing out all the love in your life! It has answered my question on the days I am down. “Does anybody love me?” The answer is yes! Sometimes we just over look it. I hope that this helps you in the same way is has helped me! You can find this book on Amazon as a book or ebook. Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/Dorie-Nobody-Erwin-W-Lutzer/dp/0802422756
By Autumn Brown6 years ago in Families
Never Having A Father!!
I sit every year trying to find the words. EVERY YEAR! I sit here thinking, hoping, praying this will be the years; the year I will finally be able to come to terms, to understand, to gain closure about how I feel about Father’s Day. I am not sure, this is the year, nor do I believe I will be able to completely do this conversation justice, however I am confident because this is the year I can actually begin to look at it. To give more context, for Thirty six years, now I have just swept my feelings under the rug, asking why I have to deal with this again? I don’t want too, it is too painful, I just want to speed through, and get through. I am so glad, that was then, and this is now; but before we can deal with the now, we must deal with then, because its time.
By Erik DeSean Barrett6 years ago in Families
IS he Mr. Right part II
Hi, your friend Gin is back! Hope everyone is enjoying my story as much as I am enjoying telling it. My daughter, Amanda (Mandi) called and corrected me on her birthday; I apologize for the incorrect information, her birthday is June 19th, 1990; YUP the BIG 30 this year (she has a boy toddler)!!!! That sure makes me feel kind of old; plus the fact I have a almost 41 year old daughter and she has 6 children; her oldest son had a baby boy earlier this year and now she has a daughter that is getting ready to have a baby girl; I am blessed beyond words!! I hope and pray that I will get to meet them some day! They live in Ohio. That is all I am going to say for now; there WILL be more about them further in the story. I kind of got off the subject of the pregnancy of my daughter so I am going to back up to that and then skip over the part of my mom; I am trying to do all this is order but my mind goes faster than my fingers and I lose train of thought. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
By Virginia Green6 years ago in Families
A new single Father.
Hey Vocal+ Friends, My Vocalizers. I will omit my name for the moment, as I am uncertain of this platform. My Ex and I had a beautiful baby daughter nearly 8 months ago, a mere 2 months after we started dating and as you can expect our relationship went sour. I am not here to talk about what happen today; nor about the relationship at all, but to speak on my lifelong fears, that have come true.
By A single Father6 years ago in Families
Drowning in Grief
There are days; like today, when everything is fine, I've managed to move that pain that now lives in me to the back of my brain, to be picked up again at a later time (most likely when I try to go to sleep at night) and then, something triggers the wave - it pounds me into the ground, and threatens to drown me in my own pain. This wave is not something foreseeable, it's not something I can control. The very idea of being unable to control something that threatens my total destruction is unbelievably frightening to me.
By Kathleen Elizabeth Comfort-Steinbaecher6 years ago in Families
When Both Parents are Dying of Cancer, and the Hilarity That Ensues
Mom’s diagnosis came first, then Dad’s a few weeks later. After Mom started chemo and lost her hair, I started a twitter account documenting the craziness. Going bald was quite traumatic for my mom, as was the process of getting a wig. The lovely people at American Cancer Society provide one for free, and there was a location in the suburban strip mall close to where my parents lived.
By Linda Horton6 years ago in Families
