I was recently reading a mother’s reflection about her choice to leave the workplace to focus on raising her children. Although I am a working mother I nodded along, resonating with her words. Juggling my work, marriage and children has pushed my boundaries. I have come to the conclusion that I cannot have any more…
➠ Continue ReadingThe author of this piece has asked to remain anonymous. Women are catching up in the workplace — fast. Time Magazine recently proclaimed that within 25 years most American families will be financially supported by women instead of men. I am part of that shift. When my husband and I began dating out of college…
➠ Continue ReadingI have three siblings and growing up I always enjoyed being part of a large family. My siblings and I would play elaborate games together, forming teams and coming up with complicated rules. And yes, at one point my mom turned us into a family band. I always assumed that I would follow in my…
➠ Continue Readingwww.encouragegrowingfamilies.com I wish I could paint this fairytale picture that where I am now in my life is what I’ve always wanted, but that’s the furthest from the truth. With a Bachelor of Science in International Business, I thought I was going places. It didn’t matter that I didn’t land my dream job fresh out…
➠ Continue ReadingRecently I was a member of a black moms Facebook group where the topic of discipline came up frequently. It’s one of those hardline subjects in black culture that folks debate heavily but rarely change their minds on. The main argument in defense of spanking seemed to be that children who are whooped grow up…
➠ Continue ReadingMy daughter drinking it up… Recently two breastfeeding stories have gone viral online. A mother was nursing her 16 day old baby at a rec center, and asked by a staff member to leave. The confrontation was caught on camera, and the mom had to invoke her legal right to breastfeeding to get the staff…
➠ Continue ReadingCarrie Mae Weems : The Kitchen Table Series, 1990 From seeking advice about teething and feeding, to getting help with the laundry and babysitting, family members and friends make up the village most women depend on to help them bring up their child(ren). But, the reality for some of us is that we have made our homes in foreign countries or other locations that make it hard to see our loved ones regularly. Some of us are in this…
➠ Continue Readinghttp://www.cincinnatibirthphotography.com/ When I delivered my daughter nearly four years ago, I planned on having a natural home birth. I had spent the majority of my pregnancy educating myself about the business of childbirth. I had a low-risk pregnancy and knew I wanted low-intervention childbirth for myself and my baby. But my daughter had other plans!…
➠ Continue ReadingI could feel it all crashing down on me — running two businesses, raising an energetic 2 year old, breastfeeding and co-sleeping with a 9 month old, supporting my husband’s new business, showing love to family and friends, and trying to lose my last 10 pounds of pregnancy weight. And I — my body, my…
➠ Continue ReadingWhen I was about 14, my mom came into my room to give me the talk. It went something like, “There’s a lot of boys in this neighborhood. Keep your legs closed.” That was it. It was woefully insufficient. Like many kids in the 90s, it was up to me to learn about sex. This…
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