Joni Edelman

Do you want people to for-sure panic? Tell them not to panic.

Suffering is America’s favorite thing to do. We starve ourselves to lose weight, and we’re a success story. We don’t sleep, and we’re just getting SO MUCH DONE. We do a thousand things a day and involve our kids in a thousand activities, because somehow, in some perverted way, that makes us successful.

You can work your butt off and still be left with a tummy. Bummer.

4. A high school government class.

Good god, where will I ever find someone who will love me in such a pitiful condition?

As the mother of three teens, I'm here to tell you: You have nothing to freak out about.

It doesn’t get any more difficult to insult ourselves, regardless of how old we are. It would be ideal if it got easier to respect ourselves, but it generally doesn’t do that either. Every year you age, and every year the aging you looks at the you of the years before and thinks, I can’t believe I thought I was fat/ugly/etc.

Psychiatric illness is still stigmatized. And that’s hard when you have a psychiatric illness.

The argument against homeschooling is always the same: “Kids need to socialize.”

You should know that she is a really awesome human.