“Stop trying so hard, little girl. Know who you are. Know you are strong. Know you are smart. Know you have a voice, are capable and worthy. Know you’re never ever alone.”
‘Stop crying tears over the group that doesn’t want you. Stop pleasing everyone. Stop thinking invitations from cool kids will make you feel complete.’: Woman encourages her younger self ‘you create your own happiness’
‘I fed him the F-word. Yes, formula.’: Mother admits she ‘hated breastfeeding’ after trying every remedy for newborn diagnosed with failure to thrive
“I had tried 13 different bottles at this point. I walked around with the nipples of each bottle in my bra all day long, so they would get my scent on them. Friends tried. My husband tried. But the boy just wanted my boob. The doctor’s advice? Feed every 2 hours. Tell this to an already sleep-deprived mom whose baby was being passed around from specialist to specialist like a hot potato.”
‘That’s stupid! EVERYONE in my class has that.’ She threw it in the trash and slammed the door.’: Mom teaches daughter ‘tough love lesson’ on being grateful
“WHAT. COME AGAIN? I went to 3 different stores to get that popular L.O.L. Surprise! pencil box. I thought I taught her to be grateful, but apparently sis needed a small wake up call. Before going completely Madea mad on my child, I checked myself. ‘Okay, that’s fine. Let me get the pencil box you’re going to use.’ I came back with a good ol’ Ziploc bag. She lost her mind.”
‘I was a teen at a nightclub. I lied. I got scouted, but there was a catch. He needed $3,000 for the ‘lessons.’: Daughter reconciles with addict mom after being signed over to the government as a child, living in 11 foster homes
“I saw my mom inject heroin. When the social workers came, I would hide all her needles. I didn’t want to be labeled ‘the foster child’ at school. When I turned 12, only 2 couples came forward wanting to adopt me. I felt like I was betraying my mom. I no longer wanted to be here, and inhaled poisonous fumes. But now I know why I’ve had this life.”
‘Lucky you,’ she replied with an eye roll. Yes, lucky me. My children have autism.’: Mom explains the ‘one time’ she’s envied is ‘when we get to enter an airplane first’
“I was waiting to pre-board a plane with my two young children when another passenger grabbed my shoulder. She told me I needed to wait for family boarding. I responded it was indeed our turn to go. ‘How’d you manage that?’ she asked. ‘We have different circumstances,’ I replied.”
‘An elderly woman behind us said, ‘he’s beautiful.’ We both responded with a resounding, ‘Thank you!’: Adoptive mom says her son’s 17-year-old birth mother was her ‘saving grace,’ she’ll forever ‘be in awe’ of her
“She was innocently attempting to make sense of us 3. I followed up quickly. ‘I had nothing to do with it,’ I said, winking at the mother of my child. Nicole, his birth mom, responded with her trademark wisdom. ‘I’ll take credit for his good looks,’ she whispered. ‘You can take credit for his smile.’”
‘My son’s wrestling photos ended up on a pedophile page.’: Mom offers safety tips for ‘online parenting’
“Someone named ilikestrongkids50 ‘liked’ my son’s picture. His account was private, so I put in a request to follow. I opened the account to see over 4,000 photos of prepubescent boys with their shirts off, girls in bathing suits, and my son’s pictures.”
‘I was 32 when my husband suddenly died. I wanted to have children with him. Being without him is terrifying.’: Widow finds the ‘beautiful balance of life after loss’ with 2-year-old son
“A counselor I met with looked at me and asked this simple question. ‘Would Albert want you to grieve with fear, or grieve with hope?’ I immediately knew the answer. As I sat there on the couch, tears streaming down my face, I knew I needed to live. Just because Albert died, doesn’t mean I have to as well. That would be the last thing he would want me to do.”
‘She growled that nothing was wrong. She skulked off. ‘Would you like a hug?’ She paused, and moved closer.’: Mom’s heart aches for daughter whose friends ‘never have time for her’
“I wrapped my arms around her, kissed her head, and told her I love her. Her arms tightened around me. We stood there quietly, and then her words came in a rush. She has struggled with friendships. I hate this for her. Then, she sobs.”
‘This is when my daughter is most beautiful, covered in layers of extra skin. Celebrate her, instead of giving me pity.’: Mom of daughter with Harlequin Ichthyosis wishes people would ‘stare at her beauty’ instead of ‘hiding their stares’
“I remember vividly the first time Anna opened her eyes. She stared with such intent that I couldn’t bring myself to look away. The swelling from her eye lids had finally gone, and she opened her eyes and stared directly at me. I get mesmerized by the beauty in her skin. I know she was made for something special.”
‘There’s NO ISSUE with kids wearing knockoff shoes. None. Your kid didn’t care about a Nike logo until YOU did.’: Mom urges us to let ‘kids be kids,’ makes plea to end off-brand shaming
“Recently, I have come across a lot of people making fun of these shoes. In fact, it’s coming from a lot of parents with children (shaking my head). So, what happens? Your kid goes to school, sees the less fortunate student who has on the ‘off brand’ and now your child is mimicking YOU and bullying another student. Please quit teaching kids that name brands means something.”
‘Call the attorney. Tell her you changed your mind,’ he said with gun-in-hand. I was breathless.’: Husband adopts formerly abused wife’s adult sons after their biological father dies from addiction
“I got a call that my 3-year-old had been left at Disney daycare at 2 a.m. The daycare worker called the police. My husband was a master manipulator. This was the last straw. We fled to another state. One night, I got a knock on my apartment door. The door NO ONE knew where I was. My ex was released from jail 2 days prior. With every being in my bones, I knew it was him.”
‘I went home after my son’s transplant, only to receive an angry letter about the ‘eyesore’ exterior of my home.’: Woman’s son diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, community unites to clean her home in wake of insensitive complaint
“My son kept holding his right side and screaming. They told me he was ‘just constipated’. ‘Constipation shouldn’t be making him scream.’ They thought I was some crazy helicopter mom. The doctor’s response? ‘Well, if it was real pain, you holding and consoling him wouldn’t be making him feel better like it is now.’ Boy, was she wrong. I could feel in my spirit something was wrong with my baby boy.”
‘My husband is still alive because of a nightstand. A nightstand I purchased 6 months prior, when we moved into our dream home.’: Wife credits ‘magic, miracles’ for her husband still being alive after his heart stopped
“I awoke to the worst kind of alarm clock: a thud. My healthy, 31-year old husband hitting the floor. When his heart stopped, and his body dropped, he didn’t just fall gracefully to the ground. He hit our bedside table and broke his back. That break restarted his heart. Miracle.”
‘I started to panic. I told my friend we were having this child regardless. ‘Would you really?,’ she responded.’: Mom grateful for taking the ‘scenic route’ with son diagnosed with Down syndrome
“I was home alone. I completely broke down after this phone call. A part of me believed he didn’t have it. Maybe a part of me just wished he didn’t have it. ‘Look at him,’ my husband told me. ‘Think of how hard he fought to be here. He is the best thing to ever happen to us, and we have this under control.’ As long as we all had each other, we would live the best life – and I believed him.”
‘I was vomiting. My doctor said it was because I was ‘promiscuous.’: Woman with chronic illness claims pain won’t rob her ‘passion for living’
“The pain got so bad. I pulled over on the side of the freeway and called my dad, begging him to come get me. I became confused, disoriented. I remember thinking I could understand why my mother took her own life. It made me realize I either had to fight for my own health, or continue to fade away. I had to be stronger than my mom was. I couldn’t stop fighting.”
‘How blessed are we that I got pregnant?! I would’ve never known I had a tumor if it weren’t for the baby. I felt fine.’: Mom-to-be learns of cancer diagnosis thanks to surprise pregnancy
“This photo was taken 5 minutes before the doctor told me my tumor was cancerous. At our first ultrasound, my doctor found ‘a baseball size tumor’ on my ovary. She thought it was benign, but couldn’t tell me without biopsy. They don’t do that to pregnant women. ‘So I have to wait 9 months to find out if this thing is benign or cancerous?!’ My mind was racing. This little miracle inside me saved me from letting cancer go further.”
‘Come on, you’ll be fine. Your friends did it.’ She gave in, inhaled helium. Mid-laugh, she collapsed.’: 14-year-old girl dies of helium inhalation, ‘My life will never be the same’
“‘Mom, can I go to a slumber party?’ It was 5 minutes away. Of course, we said yes. ‘Be careful. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.’ The mother of the birthday girl became ill, so she asked her daughter to host. Instead, she took our kids to the liquor store, brought 30-year-old men in the house. A helium tank was brought out. My daughter kept pulling her head away. The man insisted it wouldn’t hurt. Nobody saw it coming.”
‘When she left for Heaven, my mom felt she didn’t leave us with much. She apologized, wishing she had more to give us, a fancy house or nice car.’: Daughter hopes late mother knows she left her with ‘more than she could have ever dreamed’
“She said sorry so many times in the end that I lost count of how often she mentioned it. I wish I would have stopped right there in the middle of all that chaos that death brings and all the stress and regret that comes with it, and just grabbed her hand.”
‘You spent 30 years chasing something, only to get ahold of it and realize your dream is completely, utterly exhausting.’: Mom says family life isn’t for the ‘faint of heart,’ but tender moments make it all worth it
“Family life will nickel and dime you. It’ll squeeze you until you’ve got nothing left. Then it’ll squeeze you even harder. And right when you think you’re completely tapped out and you don’t have what it takes… You walk in on a moment like this.”
‘I can’t tell you about your future because I need to tell your past.’: Fortune teller reminds mom suffering from trauma, PTSD she is a ‘hero’ for parenting with mental illness
“A man had a sign that said, ‘Tell your future for a gold coin.’ I laughed, and told him my name. He stared at me for a while, told me I had mysterious eyes, then finally said, ‘Tell little Laura it’s okay. She’s safe now. Know it’s going to be ok.’”
‘How did I end up here?!’ I awoke in jail to the sound of a cell door slamming, no idea what happened the night before.’: Man beats life-long addiction, says ‘as long as you’re still breathing’ there’s hope for recovery
“I lost everything. I stepped out of jail with a few one-dollar bills and 3 cigarettes. I was missing a shoe, had blood on my shirt, and one of my fingernails was completely ripped off. I had taser burns on my arm and chest, and zero memory of my arrest. I faced the biggest decision of my life. I had to fight.”
‘Get me off speaker now!’ She hangs up. ‘We have to go, something happened.’ I see ambulances at the river.’: Woman loses husband in boating accident right after micropreemie daughter regains health, family ‘starting to live again’
“We purchased a vacation home at the river where we could bring our daughter. Our plan was to start showing Emma a world outside of hospitals. We planned an entire summer there, living happily ever after. Little did I know life had a different plan. ‘What happened?,’ I ask. Something inside me knew Danny was hurt. ‘Don’t go to the hospital, follow those firetrucks!’”
Life With Congenital Melanocytic Nevus: I Never Fit In, Now I Know I Was Never Meant To
“We are all different in our own ways and are so. damn. valid.”
‘I looked down at my wedding ring, and my heart broke. Where would she wear a wedding ring?’: Mother learns of child’s limb difference diagnosis, looks at her as ‘my perfect daughter’
“Our daughter was missing part of her left arm. Would I look at her differently after her arrival? ‘This is her eviction notice,’ the doctor said. They paused to let me see her. As she turned, I saw her little eyes ever-so-slightly open, looking at me, her mom. My heart melted. She was my perfect daughter.”