Lifestyle
For the lives that we love, and everything that comes with it.
Postpartum Depression Made Me a Better Mother
I dreamed of being the girl in the movie scene, crying in the bathroom, holding a pregnancy test, and hugging her husband that could not wait to see how beautiful she would be carrying their first child. Never once did I think that pregnancy could be traumatic and brutal and not so hard to accept as "beautiful" and "a miracle." Pregnancy reared its ugly head, and snapped me into reality when I was 23. Postpartum depression was inevitable for someone like me, who suffered from mental illness, someone who had just spent a summer partying with the worst of them and doing things any parent would tremble at. Out of everything that was difficult, being a mother would not be. I may not have realized it when I wanted nothing but to be cool and get high and go to the bar, but being a mom was always my very first dream. But still, I was completely and utterly devastated when the doctor came into the room and said, “The rabbit died,” an old phrase used to describe something very new. I understood neither. I accepted neither. I was incapable of loving myself, I was still looking for someone to save me, I was still completely dependent on everyone else. How was I supposed to validate the existence of another being when I was still using other people to validate my own? Within ten minutes, I was expected to plan for a life and a future of someone else; I hadn’t even cared about my own for the last ten years. The fairytale scene I wanted was robbed by a man in a white coat that wrote me a prescription for prenatal vitamins instead of the painkillers I was there for originally. That doctor said, “Good luck to you,” as I left his office, and the only thing that remotely resembled a movie scene was the white-knuckle grip I had on my paperwork and the words I screamed to God as I flew down the interstate to inform a soul as lost as my own that he was (regrettably) the father of my child.
By Jessica wilson7 years ago in Families
Why I Joined a Grief Counseling Group, and Why You Should Too
About a year after my mother's passing, I started reading a book by Cheryl Strayed, an author whose mother also died when she was younger. Her two-page account of that event made me cry six times that night. I cried more times in one evening than I had over the entire first year of my mother being gone.
By Aspen Drake7 years ago in Families
12 Fun Art Projects for Kids
Coloring is the perfect rainy day activity. It’s kid-tested and parent-approved, and it’s undeniably better for brain development than sitting in front of the television for hours. However, even the most creative children run out of artistic ideas eventually. What follows is a list of fun coloring projects to try out when a little inspiration is needed.
By Alice Minguez7 years ago in Families
A Doggy Love Story
My family has always had a Golden Retriever as our family dog and even bred two of them for several years. Henry was the male and was always "my dog" as a teenager. I always said that one day I would have one of his puppies. For as long as I can remember from us having golden retrievers, I always wanted a puppy of my own when the time was right and I was capable of caring for my own dog independently. Unfortunately; after several litters of puppies, my parent's female dog Lilly was pretty worn out so my parents decided to neuter Henry and stopped breeding the two of them. I was devastated because I was still not in the right place to care for my own dog and I really thought I had missed my chance of having one of Henry's puppies. Shortly after the two stopped breeding, I moved to Dallas for several years and then to Austin, TX. The only dog I ever got to see during that time were on the rare occasions I would visit Henry while staying in East Texas for the holidays.
By Hannah Joy Stacy7 years ago in Petlife
5 Countries Making Surprising Gains In Women's Rights
America's women's rights groups are not happy right now. Attacks have been launched to defund Planned Parenthood, abortion restrictions are at an all-time high, and many states are now allowed to fire women based on sexual history. This is not the America that feminists wanted to see, and unfortunately, we are stuck fighting against it until tyrants realize they can't stop progress.
By Ossiana Tepfenhart7 years ago in Viva
The Sandy Boys
Hi! I am The Sandy Boys' mummy! It all started a few months ago whilst The Sandy Boys, Leighton Sandy, five years old, Louis Sandy, three years old, and Chad Sandy, eighteen months old, were watching YouTube. The Sandy Boys love watching YouTube so much! But my eldest asked me if we could make a video of our own. I told him we could but didn't really have any idea of what they could do. Our first video was in the back garden of my husband's (Daddy Sandy) nan and granddad. They have a big garden and this is just a small section of it. It is where they grow all of their fruits and vegetables. In this video The Sandy Boys climb up and across a ladder, which their great grandad built, it's for their runner beans to grow up, but as their runner beans hadn't started growing yet, there was no risk of The Sandy Boys ruining the plants. You can see the panic on Daddy Sandy's face when the boys climb so high! Chad Sandy doesn't appear in this video as he was fast asleep! He does love his sleep, which he shows in some more of the Sandy Boys YouTube channel! The Sandy Boys great grandad encourage them all the time, just like he did to Daddy Sandy when he was a boy!
By Cara Sandy7 years ago in Families