My eleven-month-old son Max is taking quite a long nap. It’s giving me the opportunity to do some admittedly long-overdue spring cleaning. I started in our bedroom but ended up in the bathroom, staring at our horribly disorganized closet. My hands are full of yet more stuff to cram in there. I look at the […]
Love is a Choice – Summer’s Story
Even though I have been a mother for over 17 years, I still smile and feel the wonder of what it means. You see, I never really longed for motherhood. I was not the girl on other families’ speed dials for babysitting services. When I did babysit, I just ate snacks and barely tolerated the […]
Doing the Best You Can with What You Have – Sarah’s Story
I was born in 1984. Glass ceilings were being established, and bras had stopped burning. My mom wore shoulder pads, huge rose-colored rim glasses, and worked in one of the largest accounting firms in my hometown. She had an AA degree and a car she had paid for all on her own. She also waited […]
The Difference a GOOD Foster Mother Makes – An Unnamed Mother’s Story
My parents divorced when I was nine years old after being separated for eight. I am the middle child of three children. My older sister was eleven, and my little brother was eight when our parents divorced. In June of 1997 on Father’s Day I told my father that I was moving in with my […]
5 Reasons Why Millennial Children Want Independence – Guest Post by Patricia
“To ask nothing, to expect nothing, to depend on nothing,” is how American author Ayn Rand described freedom. One of the greatest life aspirations of most children is independent living; free from curfews, scheduled chores and parental supervision. In a recent study, millennial children (growing up around the turn of the new millennium) are considered […]
Motherhood is Like Living in a Foreign Land – Casady’s Story
The night my first child was born the nurse handed him to me, pointed to a call button on the wall, and left the room. I was in a foreign country, recovering from an emergency c-section, with a strange creature in my arms and painful nipples. I could barely manage to drink from a glass […]
Mad Mama: Taming Adult Temper Tantrums
They say it’s those whom we love the most that are also the ones we hurt. I have found this to be excruciatingly true as a mother who struggles with sometimes uncontrollable anger. And sometimes a lot of it. I have memories as a child of my mother’s similar temper. I loved her so much, […]
Your Story Doesn’t Have to be a Train Wreck to Make a Difference
One of the most common things I hear from women when I ask if they’d like to share their story on M2M is, “but I don’t have an exciting story. Who would want to hear about my life?” I always respond that their story doesn’t need to be a show-stopper; it just has to be […]
Giving Up on Being “SuperMom” – Renee’s Story
After I became a mom I used to daydream about going back to the hospital. Not for anything serious; just an overnight stay after a broken bone or something like that. People would bring me chocolates and flowers, and my narrow hospital bed would have room for only one person. In this fantasy, I would […]
ReDefining Beauty – Reposted with Permission from Allison at Sisters of Katie Luther
As I washed my hands for the fifteenth time this morning I glanced up into the mirror and sighed. I looked tired, older than I should, and my skin has pores the size of the state I live in. To say I’m not happy with my appearance is an understatement. But I’m resigned to the […]