You think your kid is special? Of course she is. She is a unique combination of two unique individuals with her own unique personality, unique fingerprints, and unique theories about the world. Just don't go telling her that unless you want to raise a big ol' jerk.
Five years ago, when Katharine Zaleski was a hard-charging manager in the media industry with no kids, she routinely found herself assuming working mothers were less reliable, less focused. Then, she had a child of her own and realized what a dick she was being.
The very prospect of parenting a child can seem completely odds with honesty. By wanting so nakedly to raise a decent non-liar person who makes you look good, you are essentially pleading to be told intricately embroidered nonfictions of your own shaping. That's right. When your kid lies to you, rest assured you…
It's not an exact science, but there are little ways you can tell if you're carrying a child who is college-bound. One kick to the uterus every now and then with no discernible rhyme or reason? Eh. Roundhouse kicks to the bladder every hour on the hour? You've got yourself an overachiever.
Here's a thought: Instead of filling your daughter's head with nonsensical fairytales, how about filling it with real-world facts—science!—and see if you can't foster a love for a subject that's still and notoriously more encouraged in boys. This is the subject of an essay by Wendy Thomas Russell at PBS NewsHour, and…
Hate to break it to you, Bible thumpers: Parents who raise their kids without religion are doing just fine, studies say, possibly even better. Overall, not believing in God seems to make people and their offspring more tolerant. Less racist. Less sexist. Enviro-friendly. And their kids care less about what's cool,…
Unsolicited emotional forecasting is a well-known side effect of pregnancy: the unavoidable comments, questions and advice from complete strangers thirsty to tell you how your life will change for the worse. But one new mother would like you to know that the real warning for expectant women revolves around how utterly…
Let's say you have a couple kids who have been acting way too ungrateful, seriously entitled, and majorly disrespectful this year. You want to teach them more gratitude but you don't know how to do it. Guess what? Christmas is just around the corner. Try canceling it. It's easy!
You'd think it would be a cakewalk to make friends with other parents. After all, you're both parents! With children! Presumably at the same daycare or preschool! But no, you would not believe how difficult it is to find other people who both feel the same way you do about Cry it Out and also like the Pixies.
Designer Nickolay Lamm has created a "Normal Barbie." It has the proportions, according to CDC data, of the "average" 19-year-old woman, which means she looks more healthy and realistic. But in spite of being committed to encouraging a healthy body image, I don't think I'd buy my daughter this doll for Christmas.
It is hardly shocking anymore that some women have mixed feelings about motherhood. Blogs, books, TV shows, and social media have given us access to an outpouring of the general meh many women feel about breeding. The problem is, it's changed virtually nothing in terms of the expectations on women to be perfect moms.
In news you have always intuitively understood to be indisputable but knew was routinely dismissed, ignored, or downplayed because of raging sexism, it turns out that women who have kids — at least two — are more productive than literally everyone who has ever existed. In other news: FACE.
Possibly the only thing worse than people who bring their babies to bars are the people who hate those people insistently. Talk about babies: they're all, WAH LEAVE ME ALONE I'M DRINKING WAH DON'T LOOK AT ME!
Given that literally all costumes remotely associated with women or girls are run through the Naughty McSexy meter at this time of year, you may be astonished to learn that regular old moms, those tireless handmaidens of domesticity, have not been adequately sexed up for the season — UNTIL NOW.
Guys guys guys. I think it's safe to say we've reached a critical mass of ludicrousness when a woman who cannot breastfeed DUE TO A DOUBLE MASTECTOMY still can't dodge the heat of the breastfeeding brigade, intent to force breastmilk on her child or lecture her about how wrong she is.
This Just In: From deep inside enemy lines, proof that the Dumb Mommy Wars rage on in the hearts and homes of women in spite of our best efforts to move on. Today, a stay-at-home mother speaking from an unknown location forcefully advises other SAHMs to, and I quote, "Shut up and love your life." The charge: Unchecked…
The battle royale over how much weight you are or are not allowed to gain during pregnancy rages on: In one corner of the Internet, a "stick-thin" mom says having a baby is just an excuse to get fat. In another, a woman argues that no woman has ever said the best thing about pregnancy is getting fat. They are both…
I don't know if you've heard, but having kids will destroy your marriage. It used to be just because kids are terrible, but now it's allegedly because everyone is so obsessed with their children. But I say neither of these things will destroy your marriage automatically. Allow me to present a more reasonable way to…
Generally speaking, girls have vaginas. Boys have penises. I did not think this was a groundbreaking thing to teach a 4-year-old (even at 2), but it is according to her teacher, who informed me my kid was telling other kids that babies come out of vaginas. First, I was so proud. Then I realized she was asking me to…
It's hard enough for women to talk about not wanting to become mothers at all, or to admit it isn't all its cracked up to be, but imagine the experience for women who straight-up discover it is not a good fit, a troubling experience, a series of disappointments, a bum deal? There is no good way to discuss this.
