A resource to inspire, inform and empower parents.

Parenting on Social Media

Abby Theuring, The Badass Breastfeeder, attachment parenting

Here’s a peaceful picture taken this afternoon in Chicago as the snow started to fall. I saw this scene from across the room and immediately took out my phone and was about to put it on my personal Facebook account. But then I stopped. Today was a really bad day. I feel all out of sorts. I was across the room because I couldn’t deal with them close up anymore. I’ve yelled at my kids many times. Exley has thrown several tantrums. Jack has bucked against everything out of my mouth. I feel overwhelmed and broken down. We have these days sometimes. We struggle to get along and flop around like fish out of water. I apologize and try to make right, sometimes I make it worse. When I think I can’t take it anymore the day ends and we wake up new tomorrow. This is just life, but the idea of posting this photo on Facebook today made me feel like a fraud. Like maybe there was going to be someone out there having the same bad day and when they saw this photo it would make them feel more isolated. They might think, “Look at all these families in my newsfeed having pleasant days ands I’m over here crying in the bathroom.” I’d hate for anyone to see this and not know that it was absolute bat-shit crazy chaos in here just moments ago. Remember this when you see perfection on social media. Here’s to all of us who cried in the bathroom today.

A New Kind of Birth Control

The wait is over. Have you been searching for the perfect birth control method? Are you tired of swallowing pills and inserting medical devices into your body? Do you need a 100% effective way of preventing pregnancy? [Read more…]

A Book Review of Benchwarmer: A Sports-Obsessed Memoir of Fatherhood

By Andy Malinski
Benchwarmer: A Sports-Obsessed Memoir of Fatherhood

My dad owns a baseball signed by a man named Carlton Fisk—once a catcher for the Boston Red Sox.  But it’s not his affiliation with the Red Sox which caused my dad to make this purchase—after all, my dad is a life-long Yankees fan, so such a piece of memorabilia treads toward sacrilegious.  He has this ball because, as young boys, my dad and Mr. Fisk played sandlot ball together in Vermont. [Read more…]

What Does a Playground and the Moon Have in Common?

On July 20, 1969, four days after blasting off from the only planet known to have life, Neil Armstrong flew a Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) to the surface of the moon. Buzz Aldrin sat next to him secretly sweating out the final seconds while Neil found the perfect spot to land humans on another world for the first time. Neil sat the LEM gently down on the dusty surface and billions of people breathed a sigh of relief and heart-pounding excitement at the same time. [Read more…]

5 WAYS PARTNERS CAN SUPPORT BREASTFEEDING MOMS (A DAD’S PERSPECTIVE)

by Danny Pitt Stoller
Danny Pitt Stoller holding newborn

When I read articles and stories about breastfeeding, I frequently come across the comment that breastfeeding leads to a diminished role for the dad. After all, if only Mom can feed the baby, how will Dad get a chance to bond with his child? This comment always surprises me because my experience wasn’t like that at all. I have two sons, and both of them breastfed. (They subsisted exclusively on breastmilk for the first six or seven months, and continued nursing for a significant period after solid foods were introduced.) But at no point did I ever feel excluded, nor did I feel I had a lesser or unimportant role in my children’s lives. [Read more…]

Crappy Days: Attachment Parenting With a Temper

I woke up tired today. I guess I didn’t sleep much, but what’s new? I have a 1-year-old who nurses through the night, a 4-year-old who still nurses several times a day, and let’s face it, after 4 years of breastfeeding I just don’t sleep that well on my side for hours on end. I’m pretty much tired all the time. I figured I would get dressed while my husband was still around so I wouldn’t have to try to entertain the Tantruming Twosome while trying to brush my teeth and hide my boobs. [Read more…]

The X-Files: A Story of a Second Child

Recently I was carrying Exley on my hip and rushing around after Jack. Suddenly I started spinning and darting my eyes around the floor.

“WHERE’S EXLEY??!!” I yelled.

It took my mom to burst out laughing for me to realize what I had done.

Abby Theuring, The Badass Breastfeeder, with son. [Read more…]

Two Different Moms

I feel like 2 different mothers sometimes. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but not the flying into a rage part. Well, ok, sometimes the rage part. OK, OK, often the rage part! Get off my back!

But what I want to highlight here is that I feel like each child brings out a different part of me. It’s the anxiety ridden mother versus the calm, cool and collected mother. I had heard from other mothers that the second baby is easier. I didn’t know until I actually had a second baby what that meant for us. [Read more…]

The Exclamation Point

Jack is 3.5 years old, but it feels like he has been the closest person to me forever. He changed me in ways that no one has. He changed my purpose in life from little things to the biggest things. I always knew I wanted another child. I also knew that I would experience a heartbreaking change in my relationship with Jack. I predicted it so vividly that it made me choke with sobs. [Read more…]

Sibling Relationships and Avoiding Rivalry

I am not any kind of parenting expert, but we have now welcomed number 2 into our home. It has been 10 months and there is one measly little thing that I can say that I feel like I am doing well. It was a concern of mine, and many parents who are adjusting to 2, that my first son, Jack, would feel left out or jealous. I knew that Jack would have complicated feelings about my second son, Exley. I wanted to be sure not to shame him for his feelings. I wanted him to feel as doted upon as always. [Read more…]