Arranging Playdates For My Kid Makes Me Feel Like I’m In Middle School
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This Mom’s Rant For Being Shamed For Her Stretch Marks In A Bikini Is Perfect
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Sometimes it’s hard to talk about the joys of parenting without coming off like a sanctimommy or upsetting the child-free people out there. Just know that when I talk about being single compared to being a parent, I’m talking about my own personal experience. If this doesn’t jibe with you, cool story, bro. More
If you’re opening your home to single and childless relatives and friends this Thanksgiving, there a few tips you should probably keep close to that defrosting turkey. More
It can really suck being the single, childless person at a big family function. I’ve been married for eight years now, a mother for six, but I can still remember feeling like a second-class citizen at certain events based on the fact that I was single (never mind that I was truly happy). Like the time, for instance, when I got seated at the “kids’ table” at a distant cousin’s wedding; my brother, just one year older, sat at the “grown-up table” with our parents and various extended family members because he had his wife there with him, which I guess made him worthy. I got stuck eating chicken fingers for dinner and making small talk with random teenagers going through their awkward phase. (Do I sound bitter? Pass the plum sauce!)
Anyway, this got me thinking about Thanksgiving, and the fact people across the country will be forced into similarly uncomfortable situations over the next few days – be it at an intimate family dinner or a 40-person feast. As a former single woman – and for the sake of a peaceful family Thanksgiving – I offer my top eight things not to say to your single sister or to that third cousin twice removed who’s uncomfortable enough as is. Trust me, they’ll remember you fondly from here ’til eternity. More
Parenthood is something I may want when I am a twenty-something no longer — and adoption has always appealed to me. I started babysitting children quite young and even though that experience of watching women navigate both motherhood and their professional pursuits gave me an early understanding of the importance of feminism, I also found that I could bond enormously with children with whom I had no biological connection. More
I’m not a big Jennifer Aniston fan, but even I take issue with the tabloid-narrative of her career. The 90s icon and The Good Girl star granted has made quite a few questionable films in recent years — all of the romantic comedy variety in which she’s made to wear a tight dress and make awkward faces into the camera. But since her career has taken a turn for perhaps more lighter roles, magazines and gossip sites have become obsessed with feeling sorry for her, specifically because she doesn’t have a baby or a husband. More
Ever since I took this editorial post at Mommyish, the question I receive soon after introductions are made is inquiries about how many children I have.
The shock is always the same when I say that I don’t have kids. I don’t have a partner either. I’m a single 20-something — and I help run a parenting website. More
Confessions of a Governess is a Mommyish series from the perspective of someone who gets paid to watch other people’s children. Moms, take a deep breath.
I’m not suggesting that we become BFF or even get mani/pedis together. But consider for a moment that I pick your child up from school and help with the homework. I bathe them and feed them and assuage them when you’re late coming home from work. My work makes your work possible, and yet the women who I work for always seem fearful or disinterested in really knowing me. More
When Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg addressed the graduating class at Barnard this year, she made some interesting observations. The theme of her speech was that “this generation’s central moral problem is gender equality.” One of the things she implored of the graduates was that they not plan their careers with children in mind. She acknowledged that not everyone is going to want to be an executive and that some women will choose to raise children full time, some will choose a balance between work and child-raising and some will go whole hog with the work goals. More
