Allison Cooper

Disney can be exhausting if you don’t enter the parks with a plan, use your Fast Passes strategically, and always know where they nearest Starbucks is.

There are days when you look in the mirror at yourself, nights when you looks at your husband, and moments when you squeeze your son that you wonder if you have anything left to give. You have given so much to being a mom that there are moments when you lose sight of it all. Don’t lose sight of me, the person that you were before and the things that made your happy. Don’t let me disappear.

10. 15 minutes alone in the grocery store has become your equivalent to a therapy session.

My husband left for the army and in many ways I've found myself. I had to be strong for my kids and strong for myself. I learned that I can do it.

So you have made it all the way up to the end of the finish line? Congratulations!

[CN: mention of suicide] It’s not all real. We don’t live curated lives that are built around purposeful omissions of reality...

We do our best as parents, but there is no plan or prediction that can determine how your relationship with your children will be, grow, and change throughout the course of our lives. That is one of the most unpredictable things in parenthood.

Parenthood is so chaotic that we find ourselves spewing words sometimes that we probably never, ever pictured ourselves saying. Then parenthood happened.

I can't just embrace the chaos. I wish I could follow the advice: “Stop stressing, Allison, you work full time, stop comparing yourself to mothers who don’t." But I can’t help but to play that comparing game and label myself as the inadequate mom.

Being millennials, we seem to have a creative spirit and entrepreneurial drive to do things on our own. Whether it’s the people you're working with or the big ideas that are brewing in the back of your mind, if you are feeling the “start your own business itch,” then it’s time to scratch it — even if you only work on the weekends until you get things up and running. Believe it or not, there are some easy ways to start your own business and get things moving in the right direction for yourself.