Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Families.
Fathers & Daughters
November 4, 2006: A Year of Great Change But first, I should probably tell the story as to why... the entire story. My parents divorced when I was too little to know what it meant. I was about 2-years-old when they split up, so I never truly saw them together. But moving forward, my dad would pick my sister and I up from school every Friday and take us back to our mom and step dad's place to pack for the upcoming weekend.
By Emily Gales7 years ago in Families
Lost at Home
Nearly 19 years ago, I was born in Bell County, Texas. My parents, as well as both sides of my family, are of Puerto Rican descent. Living in a Hispanic household, or at least mine, held a stigma. A stigma where mental health is taboo, and booboo's can be healed by saying "Sana sana colita de rana" and everything can be fixed with Vicks Vapo Rub. However, I was never properly prepared for the biggest sin that can be committed in the Hispanic culture. Not speaking Spanish.
By Le'Ann Hernandez7 years ago in Families
The Glory of a Child
I am always captivated by the joy of children. Their charming delight in everyday amazements like sprinklers, puddles, mud pies, bugs, and all manner of “don’t play with that” things. You can give a small child a string, and he or she will go on playing with it for as long as it does things that they do not expect. A piece of twine is an endless line of discovery. (Much like the thneads in Dr. Suess’s The Lorax). I was watching a little boy one time while his parents were away, and we were running out of things to do. He had already watched a movie, and we had played outside for a while. I decided that lunch was the perfect way to occupy both mind and body for at least a brief time, so we made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and sat at the table talking about the movie. The talking was more akin to a stream of sound effects and indiscernible jelly colored language mixed with the occasional roar for dramatic effect, but it was entertaining and kept him in one place effectively. After our brief stop for sustenance, we pondered over what the next conquest would be. The choices were limited to: the evil emperor (played involuntarily by the baby), the stairs (on hands and knees as a horse mind you), or the kingdom (a charming description of the backyard with the playset as the castle).
By Abbey Ness7 years ago in Families
Baby-Led Solids II
I hear you're interested in learning more about baby-led solids. That's great! In my last blog post, we talked about what baby-led solids are, and how to know when it's time to start. If you haven't read it yet, you can follow this link to catch up on the conversation. At the end of my last post, I promised to disclose the best foods to start off with. Read on to hear my two cents.
By Ashley Lichenstein7 years ago in Families
Ovaryaction
Isn’t it funny, you spend the first 5+ years of your sexually active life taking pills, getting injections, wearing patches and inserting rods and coils in all sorts of places trying to prevent unwanted pregnancy. When dreaming of your future as a child/teenager, you expect to meet someone, get married, have a baby and live happily ever after. Then the next minute, you're 25, married to your Prince Charming and hopelessly wishing you could complete your family with your own little bundle of joy. But for some, it isn’t always that easy. After a year and a half, I was trying to conceive the baby that I had been preventing for so many years. It took a year and a half of tears, blood tests, scans, samples and monthly heartaches to be told I have PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome). Due to this, I was not ovulating, therefore had no chance at all of conceiving. Now on Metformin, for the first time I got a positive on my ovulation sticks! With the future looking that little bit brighter, we smile, we hope and we plod along.
By Aisha Heath7 years ago in Families
Life with a Teenager
I remember them placing him in my arms. It was love at first sight. I knew I loved him before I met him. I often had dreams of him before I knew I was pregnant. I knew he was a boy. I felt it in every fiber of my being. I just knew. From the first smile, to the first coo, endless hours staring at his perfect face while he sleeps. Rolling over, his first tooth, rocking on his knees and getting frustrated as he is trying to crawl, then his first steps. I remember seeing it all. His first word was "mama." It made my heart melt, I was his whole world as he was mine. How did I create something so perfect. So pure. So beautiful. Bubba....The nick name is pretty fitting actually. He's such a kind gentle soul wise beyond his years. Always so smart, so intuitive. He embraces the world and everything in it. He sees things from a far better light then most. They say life with a teenager is hard. So many new challenges that come our way. Hormones surging, his life emerging. That beautiful boy placed in my arms can no longer fit in my arms, and not even on my lap. When you become a mother, you go through so many mile stones and so many crazy emotions. You bring home this little bundle and realize, you have to keep him alive. You have to teach him life. You have to teach him everything. Some times we don't realize even with out physically teaching them, we are still teaching them. They see everything we do. Everything that makes you, you. They absorb the world around them and the influences brought upon them. As a mother you hope you are doing it right and they grow up to be wise, to be honest, to be responsible and respectable human beings that one day can change this world for the better. You give them your all. My Bubba is 13 almost 14. Where has the time gone? I blinked and he went from this tiny baby placed in my arms to a teenager. My bouncing baby boy is almost a man. Through the years as a mother, we grieve. We miss our babies. We miss our toddlers, that 4 year old starting pre school. That five year old that just graduated kindergarten. The years start to fly by and before you know it, we realize the long journey we know that still lies ahead for them going into adulthood. We watch them struggle to find their way with out us. We watch them fail, we watch them succeed. We wipe their tears and bandage their knees. As they become a teenager we can no longer hold their little hand and tell them everything will always be ok. Truth to the matter is, they will go through heart aches, they will lose people they love. They will lose the pets they love. We want so badly to shield them from it. We want to take all their pain away. We are mother's, it's in our nature to protect them. Truth is, we can't always protect them from failure, from heart aches. We can't always shield them from life. They have to learn. They have to go through life, feeling life. They have to know what it is to fail so they know what it is to succeed. We can't put them in that bubble we all know we desperately want to keep them in...forever. What we can do is be there to guide them. Be there to listen to them. Just plain be there. It's important. If we want the world to change and be a better place, we have to let them live and let them learn. They don't quite understand what the world is about but this is the most important time in their life for them to seek who they are and what their purpose is here on this thing we call earth. Life with a teenager is not terrible. It's beautiful. It's seeing all your hard work through the years pay off. It's seeing the responsible choices they made because you were there to teach them. I hear all kinds of horror stories about teenagers. I don't know about you, but my teenager is smart. He keeps his circle small and he knows his worth. I can't say he always makes the right choices but I can say he learns from the wrong ones. Why? Because I let him make the choices. I let him live. I don't put him in a bubble as hard and heart wrenching as it is. I am there when he fails. I am there when he succeeds. I am there when he needs to talk or doesn't say a word. I will admit he tells me more then my ears want to hear. You know what though? I wouldn't change it for the world. I want so badly to change the world for him. I want him to be that change. I want him to know right from wrong. If he gets himself into a bad situation, I want him to come to me. I want him to be able to make decisions that are the right ones. I want him to succeed at life. I want him to know that no matter what comes his way, he is strong, he is resilient and he can do anything he puts his mind to. There is no such thing as "I can't" in this house hold. There is always "I can and I will." I will always be there to encourage him as long as I am breathing. I will push him to reach is full potential and he will know that his potential does not have to be everybody else's potential. We are all different. We all have different strengths and weakness and that's ok. Life with a teenager is so good, I promise you. It won't always be easy but in the end it will always be rewarding. To think, I made that. That came from me. So many times I question myself. Was I too harsh? Not harsh enough? As a parent you are constantly asking yourself if you are doing it right. When you have a minute, just think of all the years and the things you've been through with them. Look at that teenager, I mean really look at them. You will be glad you did and so so proud of all the work you put into raising that teenager. This is the time you see the impact you made and realize what an impact it was.
By Nicole Schukraft7 years ago in Families
Living at Home
Now, we have all been there in the same scenario…going away for college and enjoying the college experience and actually living on your own for a bit. On the weekends you would visit home every other week, weekend, or holiday right? Well in my case, I have finished college with my Bachelors of Science degree in Business Administration from California State University, Channel Islands. It was an amazing experience when I was attending the campus. Having the freedom of having my own dorm room and sharing a room with a roommate was a great experience. After college ended, I had to move back home with the grandparents after living on campus for two years to finish my Bachelor’s Degree.
By Alex Osborne7 years ago in Families
But a Dream: Chapter One
It always rained in Brighton. Winter, spring, summer, fall -- it rained. When I was five, it was time for me to start walking to school by myself. So on my birthday, I unwrapped a cherry red umbrella, and a pair of matching rain boots. I loved those boots. When I came home, I always stuck them in the tub and used my yellow pale to pour water on them, washing the mud and wet leaves away. On the rare days that it didn’t rain, I would put my boots on top of my toy chest, whispering to them before I left for school, “Tomorrow”, I’d say.
By something wilde7 years ago in Families
Young Motherhood
There's so much others have to say about people who have a baby early. Some support those mothers while others shun them. There's so many aspects to this that it's hard to draw a clear conclusion. A big part is how it started. Was it on purpose? Do they have jobs or a house? Are they mature? Have they finished school? All of these questions come into play as for how one should react.
By Aleesa Rudder7 years ago in Families
I Can’t Bare to Look
The McKenzie River flowed to the North of my childhood home. Past several farmer’s fields and a narrow strip of trees and brush that each year would ebb and flow as the river carved out its path from the cascades range East of Eugene Oregon to the southernmost end of the Willamette Valley.
By Joseph Shidek7 years ago in Families
Why I Moved Back in with My Parents
If you're reading this, you're most likely at the age where kids are expected to move out soon (or to have already moved out long ago), and wondering if you should or not. I can't tell you what to do—that's your prerogative—but maybe I can help you figure it out.
By Kjia Welte7 years ago in Families
