Top Stories
Stories in Families that you’ll love, handpicked by our team.
Harvest
The sun had not even begun to crest the horizon when I heard the clang of pans in the kitchen, followed by the crack and sizzle of eggs frying. Grandma Nellie did not even try to be quiet. She wasn’t too used to having others in the house. Besides, it wouldn’t be long before MaNet, her daughter and my grandmother, would creep into the bedroom to gently rouse my brother and me. The smell of bread toasting to a near black wafted like lit charcoal across the bed linens and was quickly replaced by the sweet, salty scent of bologna hitting the cast iron.
Andrew Forrest BakerPublished 2 years ago in FamiliesFrom David to Dad
The pain was so intense. I sat on the hot sidewalk, holding my foot as tears streamed down my face. My mom bent down and reached for one of the six sticker burrs that had penetrated the bottom of my foot when I ran through the neighbors yard. I screamed, or perhaps it was more of a screech. The thought of her touching it was just too much for my five year old brain to take. What if she pushed it in further by mistake? How was I ever going to be free of this agony?
Brandon PhiferPublished 2 years ago in FamiliesI Can Set Up My Own Tent
As a kid, I saw my dad every other weekend. Sometimes though, not even every other weekend, work would come up or he couldn’t come pick up my brother and I. Regardless, I would see my dad as much as he could. I never really had a close relationship with him as a kid. He is a typical Mexican man, he was brought up to believe that women belong in the kitchen with pregnant bellies and obeying their husbands. That word in our culture is, machismo. That’s why my parents didn’t work out. My Ma is and always has been a firecracker, and through the years that didn’t sit well with my dad. They divorced when I was 3.
Why'd It Take Me So Long To See?
We all change as we get older. Yet we all have core values and personality traits that define us from early in life. My dad is a good man. One of the best I ever met. And he’s always been that way. That hasn’t changed, and it never will.
Staci TroiloPublished 2 years ago in FamiliesHow I've Accepted My Kids are Delaying My Dreams and Goals
I had so many high hopes and expectations When I was pregnant with my son last year, I made a vow that when the time came for my maternity leave*, I would go guns blazing, writing, recording, and creating, while he napped. I learned with my daughter that newborns sleep A LOT and they don't need me to stare at them while they're safely bundled in their crib. I can sneak away and do things for myself.
Katharine ChanPublished 2 years ago in FamiliesA Dad Worth Fighting For
My childhood was nothing short of idyllic. I grew up in a nice house with a big driveway that I could ride my bike around, a big backyard where I played soccer with our dog, and a dad that would do anything for my brother and me. Now, it’s our turn to take care of him.
Katherine Carnes ColemanPublished 2 years ago in FamiliesStolen Socks
Dear Mom, I stole your socks. It wasn't intentional, I just borrowed them, but I never got the chance to give them back to you. I still have them, despite my many moves since. I keep them in my sock drawer, and I feel guilty even after twenty-seven years.
Mary HaynesPublished 2 years ago in FamiliesA Letter To My Beloved Daughter On Your Graduation Day
Well, here we finally are. Graduation Day. For you, it likely seems to have been a long, often-fun, sometimes-difficult journey. But here we are.
Jason ProvencioPublished 2 years ago in FamiliesWarnings
I close my eyes and scrub my hands over my face. It’s the second “well-meant-warning” post I’ve seen in the last two hours: someone has written another article/interview/parenting critique to parents everywhere on the danger children are perpetually in. The title is something like, His Daughter Is Abducted Right Under His Nose, and it’s a set-up scenario with real people and fake “abductors” filming the events. Some poor Dad, (who took his kid to the park and pulled his phone out of his pocket to text his wife back and say Yes, he will get milk on the way home, is pictured as the ‘negligent parent,’ while two filmmakers ‘abduct’ his little girl and send my blood pressure through the roof.
Alice J. LutherPublished 2 years ago in FamiliesTo Mom: My Surrogacy Journey was to pay off my debt.
Mom, when I told you I had decided to do something remarkable, you sat down to listen to me. When you first heard me say I was in the process of becoming a gestational surrogate and I was going to help a couple achieve their dream of becoming parents, you got so upset and walked away.
Meri Jaan
Dear Mama, I think I knew you were going to die. Okay, hear me out, I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous, but a month before it happened, I had a dream that all my teeth were falling out. Each and every one of them. One by one, they would slip into my hands. I would try to shove them back in, anxiously trying to put together an undone puzzle. In the dream, my gums gushed raw blood. My hands dripped with the aftermath of loss. I screamed for hours. At the time, I thought my biggest issue was going to be, how will I chew my food? When I woke up, I wrote it all down in my silly notes before, of course, texting my friend.
Speaking Into The Ether
Dear Mummy, You’ve been gone a long time. Far too long in my opinion. But that’s the weird thing about life and death isn’t it? There is not enough time in life; we will always say that we wish we could have longer with our loved ones before they depart. Yet when the time does indeed arrive, the aftermath seems to last far beyond what seems bearable; there is too much time in death. That’s my takeaway from the past 13 years without you anyway.