Children

The Internet has told us that instead of selling our wild summer children to a band of traveling performers, we should go swimming with them instead. At a beach or at the pool, your choice. The Internet also told us that us moms should get over our silly body issues and just play! Have fun!

Every single day of our lives, since the moment that we bring home our beautiful child from the hospital — well, actually, well before that — we are faced with a multitude of decisions that will impact their lives. Some decisions are more serious than others. Yet the constant need to rip parents apart for the decisions they make is so unnerving to me that I simply can’t take it anymore.

My son is, without a doubt, the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. He’s also taught me invaluable lessons about myself that I could have never anticipated.

I was 40 years old the first time I said the words I need help — even though more than three decades had passed since I first became aware that something was not right.

My beliefs about people’s rights, including my own, are a significant factor in how I define myself, how I identify, and how I treat other people. And since I happen to be raising people, my approach to parenting must reflect those beliefs too.

When we are left to make sense of the senseless, how do we help our children navigate the same waters we tread? When the fear of the unknown incapacitates us, how can we help them to be less afraid? How can we help them to go on, even when we don’t want to? Especially when we don’t want to.

She was beautiful; I wanted to love her. But there was this nagging voice inside me: "What if I can’t love this baby as much as my son? Is there enough love for both of my children?"

Now, I would love to sit down and watch a movie without interruptions as well. But alas, motherhood brings with it many occupational hazards.