Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Families.
The "Other" Side of Step Parenting
Let’s face it… Parenting is not easy. I must hear that in some form or another at least once a week if not more. Now I do not entirely disagree, there are sometimes when it is difficult but I was blessed with a very easy going, smart and helpful daughter, who is now 11. Sometimes I have so much on my to-do list and all she wants to to “do something” with me. Sometimes she gets sick at very inconvenient times. Sometimes dealing with her father, my ex, is not fun, BUT all in all, I do not believe parenting is hard. In fact it is easy and fun and one of the things I know I was meant to do in my life.
By Jenn Gaskins9 years ago in Families
Habits Your Kids Need to Break and How to Help Them Do It
Children don't tend to have an aptitude for being able to tell what is socially acceptable and what isn't. What an adult or a parent might consider a bad habit is, to a child, a natural thing to do. However, your kid can't grow up and still be nose picking in public as an 18-year-old. With your guidance, those habits your kids need to break won't be so tough to conquer.
By Taylor Markarian9 years ago in Families
Making Our Way Through the Muck
Tonight my middle child, my youngest daughter, made me cry. We were sitting around the supper table remembering when my youngest daughter and her brother first met my husband. We talked about their first reactions and we laughed about them. As we cleared the table my daughter said, “You know mum I remember that I wasn’t very nice to you (at that time). I feel bad about that and I am sorry how I treated you back then.” I gave her a hug and told her how she was but a young child then and she was going through a lot; her father and I had split up and he had been abusive to all of us. I told her that I bared a lot from all three of my children at that time, but I had big shoulders and took it because I knew they were hurting. We hugged and she said she was sorry and that she loved me. I am grateful for her apology.
By Janet Rhodes9 years ago in Families
My Child Did Exist
You never know how much you love the tiny person growing within your own body until you hear the words: "I'm sorry, but it looks as if you are going to have a miscarriage." Those are the words I was told in a cold, heartless tone on Friday, November 13th, 2015. Ironic, right? Friday the thirteenth finally did bring hell to my life. I always have people messaging me whenever I share miscarriage posts online, talking about my angel baby. The only reason they message me is because they don't believe me that I lost a baby...
By Mother Mayhem9 years ago in Families
The Space Between
I had a space between my ears; it was empty. Or so I thought. I spent years conditioned to believe that whatever I had rattling around in there was useless, and definitely didn’t allow for my own thinking. In fact, whatever rattled around in there rendered my mouth useless, too. It seemed that, even though I had graduated with honours and headed to college a year prior to when I should have, sometime between when I met my first husband and we got married, it melted. I’m not entirely sure how I didn’t feel it turning into sludge as the weeks went by, and no one is really quite sure how I let that happen. My sludge brain made a family, brought little ones up and they mostly manage to function like normal human beings, except sometimes, like in the morning, or bedtime, or lunch time...OK, all the time. But basically, I raised small chimpanzees and they are doing just fine.
By Rachelle Hanlan9 years ago in Families
Being The "Stepmom"
Ever feel like being the "stepmom" to your children will just never be good enough to some people? Like no matter what you do, to some people you will just never be good enough? It is a constant battle between you and your mind, you and your stepchildren, as well as you and the biological mother, who constantly seems to be the biggest conflict of all stepmother situations that have ever been started.
By Mother Mayhem9 years ago in Families
Why I Won't Encourage My Children to Have Children
I love my children more than life itself. I’m honestly a little obsessed with them. I didn’t know what love really was until I became a mother. They are beautiful little souls and the mere thought of a life without them makes me burst into tears.
By Jessica Rowe9 years ago in Families
There's Always a Master and an Apprentice...
Yoda says, “Always two there are…a master and an apprentice,” in The Phantom Menace. So, considering today is the cusp of new beginnings, I started thinking and considering the people that’ve touched me and the people I’ve hopefully touched. Of course, coming up, my folks’ve been integral in molding me while finding my own path this year alone.
By Jason Rhode9 years ago in Families
Beloved
“Anything dead coming back to life hurts.” There is no experience that could possibly match that of being a mother. Valued for all they are, mothers have been created by the media to be the loving, nurturing type, but are never truly depicted facing the trials of what it means to be a mother in its entirety. Beloved, a love story rooted from the sincerest of love, is a Toni Morrison classic following the life of a woman found in the two greatest minorities: being a loving mother, and a slave. Throughout the novel, Sethe, the mother of four, is in constant turmoil after relentless abuse and mistreatment. It is this collection of experiences and her painful past that cause Sethe to face the most difficult of decisions as a mother. With the goal to provide and sustain a happy life for her children, her choice to kill one and attempt at the others was rooted in her love for each child.
By Kayla Starr9 years ago in Families
E.R. Drama
My doctor decided it would be best to have an inducement the week before my due date if I wanted to avoid a c-section at all costs, which is what I said I did not want. So I had an inducement. Sadly, though, my mom showed up after the birthing event was over. My husband was present for most of the entire time. Naturally he complained that he could not sleep, because the inducement I had took all day to put me into labor and my screaming from pain was very upsetting to him. So I also decided to have an epidural. The birth was so successful to the point that there was no death, and even though live birth is no fun for any mother, I am not here to complain about the contractions during labor. Most of the pain was just turning my spine into a melting bendy straw anyways. I was and am happy enough when it was over and I am not talking about the pain. I am here to tell what the doctors and nurses did and said and how they treated me. My first doctor and all the nurses were great at first. But as soon as the baby was heading down the birthing canal, my doctors' shift ended. The doctor and the entire nurse crew went home and were replaced by a new crew. This crew was not so nearly as delightful. My replaced doctor allowed me to be in any position I wished to lay. My previous nurses were so great they had just put a hot cup of mint tea in the sink for aromatherapy before they left. They spoke to me as if my wish was their command. This all turned around completely when the whole crew shift replaced. The second set of nurses were not so nice. The new doctor was impatient. As soon as the new doctor entered the room, they dumped the still hot mint tea that was in the sink down the drain. The new doctor put a catheter in the way of the opening along with other un-necessary equipment and put my legs up into the air and my head was then lower than any of my other body parts. No one any longer was listening to anything that I was trying to say. I could barely talk, and when I tried to speak a nurse told me to not to. My husband, at that moment had gone to the cafeteria to get coffee, so he didn't hear that sentence spoken to me, neither had the other doctor been present. By the time my husband got back the nurse decided to ask him to grab my leg and push it into my chest as if that were supposed to help me push. I could not push for myself, my body had to do most of it. I had an epidural. My legs were rubber logs. I could not breathe. The nurse had the one leg, my husband had the other leg, and there was no way I could let out a single squeak. I was so angry at that nurse, but I couldn't show it. The doctor returned and had them put my legs back into the cold metal stirrups that I could feel by then because the epidural was wearing out. My husband had no idea whatsoever that he was not exactly helping me out and he completely flipped out after the baby was born because the placenta fell out. He had thought that I had lost some stomach and other important organs or something and that I was going to die. He had not been raised on a goat farm like I had been. He had never witnessed anything give live birth before. He did not know that such a thing as a placenta even existed, I did. Let me tell you those goats had a better experience from me than from my treatment, because that is true. I was able to stand back on my own two feet very shortly after I was done giving live birth. But not before the doctor stitched up the slice they had made to make the opening down there bigger. My son was born after 11:00 am and is turning three soon. I am on my second pregnancy. I hope my experience is educational to any woman whom may want to know, or any caring husbands of theirs.
By Sarah Worley9 years ago in Families
