A resource to inspire, inform and empower parents.

I Hope It Amounts to Something


Abby Theuring, The Badass Breastfeeder

I feel like we’ve reached a new level of chaos in this house. I’m constantly trying to keep up, make up for mistakes and be a good mom, but the chaos grows faster than I can work. I think back to right after Exley was born. Jack was 3 years old. It was an utter disaster around here. Jack hit the ceiling and I was trying to care for a newborn. But Exley napped. And during those naps I spent time with Jack. We played cards, board games, built things out of cardboard or towers with magna tiles. I know that I have always felt like I wasn’t doing enough, I’ve always felt like the chaos I was in was the biggest chaos that would ever exist in life. But looking back on that time now all I remember are the good times. I probably did a ton of things wrong, but I guess I did some things right too. And looking back it seems like it wasn’t so bad compared to now! Now once again it seems like the chaos is over my head. I feel like I am doing all the things wrong. I hope looking back on this some of the good times will come more into focus. It’s an insanely chaotic string of events and I don’t understand how it can turn out to be anything. I don’t understand how it can amount to anything, but I suppose it does. I hope it does. I hope it’s good.

Photo taken in between the first disastrous part of the day and the second explosive part of the day. This was the only way that they wouldn’t completely meltdown in the museum. I don’t like posting this happy photo because it doesn’t really match what I’m saying and it contributes to all the misrepresentation that goes on over social media, but it’s frowned upon to post tantrum photos. This is what I want to be even if I never feel like the person here.

I Get Angry at My Kids

I keep wanting to start this post off with, “I love my kids.” But I don’t like that sentence. It’s too obvious. And honestly I feel silly typing it. Everyone loves their children. It’s just how nature has us designed. It’s not something we work at. It just happens. [Read more…]

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…]