“As young parents I would call you crying because the task of being an adult was too overwhelming. I didn’t feel like enough of a wife or mother. You were kind to irrational postpartum me.”
‘When I lost my father at 18, you were there. You didn’t force me to talk about my emotions. You shared your father with me when I no longer had one.’
I Thought My Child Had ADHD—Turns Out, It Was A Treatable Sleep Disorder
“Children should not breathe through their mouths. Not while awake, not while asleep. Never.”
‘I prayed for him to be arrested. I didn’t want my brother to be harmed, but I wanted him safe. I wanted him to have a chance. I knew if he ran, it would not end well.’
“I finally got the courage to empty the room where you once slept, back when you were you. I have finally processed the pain. I’ve finally stopped blaming myself – for the most part.”
HERO OF CALIFORNIA BAR SHOOTING: Matt Wennerstrom smashed a window with a bar stool to rescue 30 or 35 people
“Bar stools go through windows. It works. That’s all we could do,” said Wennerstrom.
‘Did you hurt my baby?!’ My ex replied, ‘No!’ I looked into my 3-month-old’s eyes. Blank stare.’: Mom ‘heartbroken’ after ex-husband’s abuse causes newborn Shaken Baby Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, blindness
“The night before, her biological father picked her up and took her home with him. As I walked into the ER, I heard the worst noise. A moaning sound. ‘There’s no way that’s my daughter.’ It was. ‘Your daughter’s on life support. She’ll most likely never move or open her eyes.’ I still had no idea what was going on. It felt like a nightmare.”
‘She stuck around. Why? Why won’t she just leave? We are all miserable and it’s because of me. Doesn’t she see that?’: Man works to overcome his PTSD
“My wife and son would come home and tip toe around me as my anger would rear its ugly head. Unbeknownst to me, my wife was scared to be out of the house for too long as that caused my anger to rise as well. ‘What the f*ck were you doing? You know I am f*cked up and can’t ‘babysit’ our son!,’ I would shout.”
‘I get it. I finally get it. You see moms committing suicide. And I couldn’t understand it. How do you leave your kids behind like that?’
“And then everybody posts, ‘Oh, I never knew. She didn’t say anything. She seemed okay.’ She TOLD you.”
‘My daughter said, ‘There’s a light coming into the picture.’ It wasn’t just any light. This was a beam straight from HEAVEN itself.’: Mom receives ‘unexpected signs’ from late father
“This pregnancy has been exceptionally harder for me emotionally, knowing I won’t have any pictures of my dad holding this baby. I keep praying for him to show up in some way or another. And boy, did he.”
‘When I gave birth to my second child, I relapsed. I was running around, so it was easy to miss lunch. But then, I started missing that meal purposely.’
“’Just because I did it in the past doesn’t mean I’d do it again. Plus, I’m breastfeeding.’ That was the scary thing, I was BREASTFEEDING, and my daughter needed the nutrients. Hearing myself say those words out loud freaked me out. I lied.”
‘There’s a lot of fluid in there. I’m going to get your doctor.’ My heart sank, and I debated calling my husband, but just sat there, numb.’: Birth photographer shares her own stillbirth, encourages others to share
“I trusted my doctor dearly, so I knew she’d have something good to say. She always did. She did not this time.”
‘If I could sit down beside 25-year-old me, the one sobbing and screaming uncontrollably on the floor, I would have a lot of things to tell her.’: Motherless daughter reflects on the day she lost her mom
“I would sit right beside the younger me who is screaming, ‘Why her??’ and ‘Where are YOU?? How did you just disappear??’ and ‘How am I going to survive this without you??'”
‘His dying wish was to be home. I never got to thank him for drying my tears when I was broken inside as a victim of bullying.’
“It’s the things I no longer remember that hurt so deeply. What it feels like to wrap my arms around his neck to hug him. I no longer remember the feeling of joy he brought me. Loving him feels like a lifetime ago.”
‘I used to be the wild girl, could have 4 or 5 drinks and be dancing like no one’s watching. I had confidence to talk to anyone, had more energy than one should.’
“I am invisible. And that can hurt. There are still parts of the old me that I miss. You are born alone, spend years developing who you are, becoming an independent woman… and then suddenly you become someone’s mom, someone who is too exhausted to enjoy life.”
‘Where was I? Frantically driving around the streets of Detroit, trying to find you, with tears streaming down my face, fear in my stomach, yet determination in my heart.’
“I see the comment so often when it comes to addiction. ‘Where were the parents?’ That REALLY infuriates me. We feel judged, unsure of what to say.”
‘The miscarriage destroyed my relationship with my best friend. Neither of us knew how to process the grief.’: Woman details experience through pregnancy, miscarriage, abuse and hope
“I received a phone call from Dae who had just turned 14. She was calling to tell me she was pregnant. We ended up being due 3 weeks apart. I was shocked.”
‘I was terrified to take this tiny human home! How was I going to do this all alone? But Jager was always there to lend a helping paw.’: New mother relies on service dog to help her through postpartum depression
“I would cry for what seemed like no reason. I would get so overwhelmed at the sound of my baby crying. Jager fetched bottles for me, diapers if I asked him to. Mostly he would just sit and listen to me. Always offering a good old-fashioned, wet, slobbery kiss if I needed it. He is so much more than just a dog to me.”
‘Candy is delicious and it’s okay to give ourselves a REWARD for being awesome moms.’: This mom’s HYSTERICAL candy chart is pure parenting genius
“I kept seeing this picture that listed different candies, their calorie count and what kind of exercise you should do to burn them off. Um, no thank you.”
‘I am the Jewish nurse. The one people are talking about in the Pittsburgh shooting that left 11 dead. The nurse that cared for Robert Bowers who yelled, ‘Death to all Jews,’ as he was wheeled into the hospital.’
“I’m sure he had no idea I was Jewish. I wanted him to feel compassion. I chose to show him empathy. I felt the best way to honor his victims was for a Jew to prove him wrong. Love. That’s why I did it.”
‘BE CAREFUL!,’ I yell, like the neurotic helicopter mom I never thought I’d be. Don’t these kids know I made them from scratch?
“’I made you from scratch, you know.’ Teenage me rolled my eyes every time my mom said that. ‘Okay, so you gave birth to me. Geez, I get it lady. Now let me do my thing!'”
‘Toddlers are the worst. During rest time they were doing everything, but resting. At one point they were jumping on their beds and peeing all over the floor.’
“I could hear them laughing hysterically and I knew they were probably doing something they shouldn’t, but I was already so upset with them for their behavior so I wasn’t about to go in.”
34 Things I Wish I Knew When I Was Younger (From A 34-Year-Old)
“Don’t live by other people’s compliments. Don’t die by other people’s criticisms. Take it all with a grain of salt.”
‘I was in my mom’s ICU room when I received the call from my husband. ‘It’s stage IV pancreatic cancer. I’ve got 6 months. I’m a dead man walking.’: Woman shares grief losing her ‘anchors’
“It was a cruel one-two punch. The next six months became a battle for both of their lives.”
‘My husband caressed his cheek and told him we’d be okay. His eye searched ours, as if to be sure.’: Mother of angel baby says their son ‘brought a light to our lives death could not shadow’
“He was ours. I knew exactly where I wanted to go. I wanted our first family picture to be of our entire family. In our favorite, most special place. We drove straight from the hospital to the cemetery.”
‘He was perfectly healthy with no fever. I called 911 while mom made sure Sawyer didn’t harm himself. By the time the paramedics arrived the seizure had stopped.’: Mom details son’s experience through seizures, EEG and the Emergency Room
“After being in our room at the ER for less than 10 minutes Sawyer had another seizure followed by another one less than an hour later. At this point, our new doctor was taking it very seriously. Sawyer got a CT scan and was admitted to the hospital. He had a few more seizures before we saw the neurologist on call.”
‘They tell you stressing over it makes it harder. But we can’t help feeling jealous when we see another pregnancy announcement on our timeline.’: Woman opens up about the pain of waiting for her own ‘positive pregnancy test’
“Before we take the test, in our minds we count out to see what month the baby would be born in and think about all the cute ways to announce it… something like ‘Red, White, and Due’ on the 4th of July. Then it turns into possibly making a surprise trip home to tell the family before summer is over. Then August and September pass and you decide it’s okay because announcing at Halloween is just as exciting. And then Halloween passes.”