Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Families.
Finding the Silver Lining
I remember when one of my biggest fears was losing my parents. I was so attached to them; at times they were my world. I felt that if they died, I would fall apart and not be able to survive on my own. I knew death was inevitable. After all, none of us will make it out of this lifetime alive. And yet, death of a loved one seemed so incredibly foreign to me. It was as if death and dying only happened to others; it did NOT dare happened to me...Until one day, it did.
By lisa speranzo5 years ago in Families
Spankings as a Child
I wanted to start my first writing to you a little about my childhood spankings, but also to make someone laugh a little bit along the way. How many of you remember spankings when you were growing up? Can you count them on one hand? Psh. Mine would take 6x more hands to get halfway through my spankings. Growing up in a pentecostal church with my father being the pastor, Yes I did say Pentecostal and Pastor. He was a very strict man, we had to present ourselves in a certain way within the church so that meant no jewelry, shorts, pants, tank tops, or anything revealing and worse of all NO MAKE-UP and our hair was never to be cut. My father set very strict rules to follow, we were never too miss one day for a church not even when we were sick, I was 5 years old when a little brat that also went to Victory Christian Academy (FYI Christian schools are worse than Public Schools) This little girl had some kind of vendetta against me, I have no idea why either. She told me about the Bloody Mary. If you don't know what bloody mary is, here is how it works... You go into the bathroom, shut off the lights, and call 0ut to Bloody Mary and she comes to you in the mirror. As a child of 5, I didn't know any better so I did it. Little did I know the little girl had plans to beat me up, well, she lost and I was the one who got into trouble. I told the teacher she was a fucking bitch and needed to take her hands off of me.....My brothers were old which explains why I had such a potty mouth at 5 years old. My parents had to come to the school for a parent-teacher conference, why they were speaking to my teacher my brother and sister (who are both older than me) was throwing the ball back and forth over my head not letting me have a turn with it, I finally got so angry I told them to throw me the G** damn ball!!! yep, I sure did, I don't use that word now that I know how harmful it is but as a little girl I didn't know what it meant, unfortunately, my sister screamed out I am telling on you! WHILE MY PARENTS WERE IN THE CONFERENCE WITH MY TEACHER my sister runs into the room and says Hayley said the G.D. word Hayley said the G.D. word... Let me tell you, I was PETRIFIED!!! That night when I got home my dad pulled my pants down and spanked me with a wooden paddle that had over 30 perfect holes in it. When I cried, he would say stop crying or I am gonna spank you again! I was running in circles from this damn paddle Talk about pain? My hiney was Black and Blue. That never stopped me though, I still got whooped with that paddle almost every single day. Parents spanking your children do NOT get the job done, there are other ways to punish your child or put fear into them. Spankings too me is just a way to feel tough it does nothing for your children except make them want to disobey you more. Maybe when they 1-3 and your pop there hand a little bit, spank their butt to scare them, but at a certain point in there, life spanking becomes no kind of punishment because in 5 minutes the can get on their phone play PS4 or XBOX best and most effective ways these days to give direct punishment your child. I hope this story helped you and also I was able to share a little about myself during a childhood memory. I have many more stories to come so I hope you enjoy them.
By Jordan Cercy5 years ago in Families
The Winter Prince
Chapter Four I turned and looked out through the glass door. I saw a dark figure standing there looking at me. I couldn’t see their face or tell if it was a guy or a girl. Whoever it was turned and walked away but my body still felt like it was vibrating and my eyes were burning. I must’ve gotten something in my eyes, so I headed towards the bathrooms. When I headed over to the sink and saw my face in the mirror. I shrieked and fell against the bathroom stall. My eyes were bright green, kinda looked like they were glowing. My body still was pulsing and my head started pounding.
By Nicole Lytle5 years ago in Families
I Get My Smile From Her
I’m losing my mind. In the past four days I’ve lost a jacket, $100, and a new prescription. To be fair, I believe the jacket and pills were stolen from my vehicle while I was working, and I only think that because none of my camera footage at home shows anybody going into my vehicle at night. The $100 I think worked its way out of my back pocket at the post office when I went in for mail on the same day everything else went missing. I assumed I had misplaced all of it and couldn’t remember where because of my complete lack of sleep and a combination of said new medicine which makes me feel a little loopy.
By Vincent Maertz5 years ago in Families
Thankful for my son!
When I was 22 years old, I gave birth to the best part of my life, my son. When my baby was approximately 3 months old, I felt a lump in-between his rib cage. I made an appointment at the local Family Medicine clinic. The doctor told me it was a hernia. I researched hernias and my baby did not have hernia; it kept growing. I took my baby back to the clinic approximately 5 times. They gave me a referral to see a surgeon at The Children's Hospital in Denver. The only problem, it was 3 months away. I was referred to a local Surgeon. He confirmed that the lump was not a hernia, but the chance of it being cancer is so low, he recommended I wait the 3 months. The following day, I drove to Children's hospital and walked into the surgeon, Dr. Hendrickson's office. I was obviously distraught. He fit us into his schedule. After examining my son, he sent us to get a CT Scan. After the scan, I was approached and told that the mass was the size of a grapefruit. It was definitely cancer, they just didn't know what kind. They scheduled a biopsy. They told me I could admit him now, or go home pack and prepare because we would now be practically living at children's hospital. The night after learning of the enormous mass on my baby's liver, I prayed, called family and friends. The night after the CT Scan, I fed my baby like any other day, but this day has changed my life forever then he immediately started to projectile vomit. His screamed in pain, it was the worst feeling for a mother. I was terrified. I called 911 and Children's hospital. The EMTs arrived and said my baby's vitals are normal. I told them to take us to the ER. Once we arrived the emergency department had received the information from Children's hospital. I remember seeing my little baby tangled in medical equipment. They gave him an x-ray and determined that his tumor on his liver ruptured and he was not hemorrhaging. They took him on a flight for life to Children's that night. I don't recall what I said or how I reacted, all I do know is that I was scared, and angry at every doctor that told me to wait. What if I listened to them? They could not find the source of the hemorrhage. They pumped my baby with blood for almost 48 hours, then the pressure stopped the hemorrhaging. Dr. Hendrickson came to see talk to me. He told me the risk of the hemorrhage returning was high; he felt confident to remove the tumor and the left half of my son's liver. The surgery lasted about 3 or 4 hours. Dr. Hendrickson successfully removed the tumor and a portion of his liver. For the next 10 months, my baby was on chemotherapy treatments. 8/5/2020 was 15 years since my son's last chemo treatment; he is now a happy normal 16 year old boy. I thank god for him everyday.
By Tish Bendixen5 years ago in Families
Quarantine Thankful
Quarantine Thankful 2020 While we are all suffering in different ways and going through or own problems, its important to remember that we are all in this pandemic together. Two sides to the same coin. Its like being part of a well-built machine; we all have a part to do and while each job may be different, no matter big or small, they all need to function for the machine to work to its full extent.
By Sharee sav5 years ago in Families
Family is important
Being a full-time mom is so exhausting but fun. Many times we think that we will never accomplish to be good parents. We think that we are going to turn out like our parents where we thought they didn’t raise us right. What we do not realize is how much they had to struggle to take care of us where they have no money and had a hard time getting everything for us. Many times we think that we turned out to be a disappointment to our family. We may think that we are the black sheep in our family, but how can we know if many of us don’t figure out what family really is. How can we relate to family? Well we need an example as our parents struggled, they were poor, they built an entire kingdom from the bottom to the top . I remember my mom telling me that life will be hard but in reality we’re the only ones that will know how our life will look like later on in life. Our parents are the first generation to how life should’ve been but our grandparents are the ancient history of how hard life was earlier than our time. We should never underestimate family; they are the biggest blessings besides our kids. We might get scared of life and how we will turn out when we’re old whether we live a long or short life. How can you relate? Well as a kid I never got what I truly wanted, what I mean by that is having to spend time with my family instead of most of my friends. I would’ve killed more time with my mom and grandma and to know who my whole family is. My dad was only around when I was three years old and then he disappeared out of my life. How would I consider how my family should be? Well for one I love spending time with my kids and I dedicate a lot of time more than my parents ever did. I don’t blame my dad for not being there but who I do blame is my mom and my grandmother. They thought it would protect me, but in reality they hurt me from spending time with my dad. I would’ve killed more time with my dad, more time to be a daddy’s girl. I mean the love from a father is more important later on in life because we become more confident with ourselves. Family is really important to me because I wasn’t close with my family. That’s one reason why I’m a strict parent and also a loving one as well, but most importantly whether my kids think of it or not they know I love them and I do what’s best for them. Many times we think we failed as parents when your children say either “I hate you” or “you're not the boss of me”. I mean who can blame them if we’re on top of what they do every time. We only do what’s best for them and what we know they will accomplish in their life and that’s what we worry about. If we really think about it our kids are more successful then we would ever be. I never thought I would be a mom or even the thought of being a mom. I've never thought I’d ever be good at it. No one thinks we would be good parents but we try the best we can be for the ones we truly love. One day our children will thank us for what they will become in life and they will return the favor because they feel like they owe us their life. They don’t because no matter what they will always be our children and to us they will always be our babies in our hearts and in our eyes.
By Ezra Colton 5 years ago in Families
What I’m Thankful For
What am I thankful for? It isn’t a difficult answer, but it is a loaded question. There are so many answers that can come from a question like this. I didn’t have a lot to be thankful for growing up. I didn’t have anything to be grateful for until I was about 15. I had a tough upbringing with little to care for or care for me. Nobody in my world worried about me. They didn’t even act as I existed. So to me when you’re never thankful for anything, and suddenly have something to be thankful for, it means a whole lot more. I was mentally, physically, and sexually abused since I was 6. Never by the same guy and all of them were people that either knew my mom or my family. I couldn’t accept it for the longest time. I would refuse to think about it and would pretend it never happened, only to have to go through it time after time. I thought when I got my first boyfriend that things would’ve changed, but they didn’t. They stayed the same way until I was about 14. I personally became numb to it. Everyone that my mom brought into the house ended up being the same way. They would drink or do drugs beforehand and then be with my mom after. I never understood it. She knew what they did to me, but she didn’t care. She didn’t even acknowledge the truth when I told her myself what was happening. It took me until I got pregnant by my boyfriend at 15 to realize that I do have something to be thankful for. I’m thankful for my daughter and all the times we’ve had, as well as the time yet to come. I’m thankful that she’s here in order to be my beacon of light when I enter my dark days again. I’m thankful for the woman and her husband and two sons for showing me what a family can really be like. If it wasn’t for them I would be in the streets trying to raise a daughter on my own with nowhere to live and no food to eat. I’m thankful that the Lord looked upon me and saw something worth saving and showing grace and humility. I’m thankful that this family took my daughter in as if she was their own granddaughter. I’m thankful for the doting grandmother and grandfather that I got when I was brought into this family. I’m thankful that we have somewhere to call home. Somewhere my daughter and I can be safe while I venture out of my comfort zone and into a profession that I love. I’m thankful that my daughter will never want for anything now that we’re safe and happy. I’m thankful for the family I have now and the family it will grow into.
By Anna Devers5 years ago in Families
Thankful for the Struggles
I am thankful for so many things. The obvious things like my five year old son, my grandma whom we live with, my good job, coffee (so much thanks for coffee). And the not so obvious things like my smart watch, my always full fridge, my reliable car, and Netflix.
By Andrea Morgan5 years ago in Families
