Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Families.
Dealing with Grief
From the age of eight, I’ve had an understanding of what ‘grieving’ was. Unlike my classmates who had only ever experienced death and grief in a film, I was hit full force with it. The hardest part about it all was I knew it was coming. Even though I knew what was only around the corner, you weren’t what I expected at all. You broke me.
By Chloé Downeycain8 years ago in Families
An Embarrassing Story
Let me just start this funny short story off by saying, I'm really awkward. Like, way worse than even Princess Anna of Arendelle (from Frozen) awkward. I'm also really clumsy. Horribly clumsy, even. My dad used to call me Grace as a kid, simply for the blatant fact that I was so ungraceful. That's the truth. I'm quite familiar with tripping, and falling, and running into people, but one day, I had to go and be clumsy in Disney World. Yeah, I had to go and mess up the happiest place on the whole earth.
By Lena Reynolds8 years ago in Families
Why Do We Leave Mementos?
My high-school-age son had an old Casio keyboard. It was handed down to him by his grandmother when he was small. He composed some of his first tunes on it. He played sing-along songs for his little sister. He sang to me, accompanied by that little electronic piano. When our family home was foreclosed, my son took his keyboard deep into our woods, propped it against a tree, and left it there. It was the day all of us became briefly homeless. No other place else could be called home by any of us, for a long time after that.
By Sarah Terra8 years ago in Families
Losing a Loved One
The death of a loved one is possibly the hardest thing a person will ever have to go through in their lifetime. There are so many books to assist you through your grieving. When a loved one dies you receive all kinds of advice from people offering words of encouragement to help you heal from your loss. The grieving process, or ten steps you will go through when left behind, I believe is different for everyone.
By Jodi Roberts8 years ago in Families
Cloth Diapers Update
This post is for all of my mothers who follow my blog. If you a frequent reader of my blog and have read my original post: Why we switched to cloth diapers; you are aware that my family made the switch to cloth diapers a year ago. I wanted to give you an update and discuss: the reality, struggle and real talk that comes from using cloth diapers.
By That Broke Bohemian8 years ago in Families
Evan
Everything changed when Evan was born. Things changed for me more so than anyone else, including Evan's own parents. She was our mother's fourth child, and she was her father's seventh child… but she was my first child. Her conception was a failed attempt to bandage a broken marriage, and thus her arrival into this world was something I had been dreading as the big sister who was left to clean up the messes of our mother; yet when that day came on July 23, 2008, the pure joy I felt was such that Evan's birth bandaged my broken adolescent heart. While her mother was on an operating table getting her tubes tied, and while her father was at the bar getting drunk, it was me who stood at the window of the nursery. I looked at Evan in awe from behind the glass. I remained there alone, watching her well after our other family members had dispersed. I couldn't even see her face, but to hear her tiny cry and to see her tiny body was enough. All my twelve-year-old self could think was 'That one is mine.' When my mother was finally back in her room after her procedure, the nurses brought my new baby sister in. I nervously walked up to her crib with eyes wide open. I saw her sleeping face for the first time, and she was simply beautiful with brown skin and curly black hair. You would think I had all the secrets of the universe swaddled up in my arms the way I slowly, delicately picked the little bundle up out of the crib. But instead, it was Evan, and if I had to choose, well, the universe could keep its secrets because I had something greater.
By Ashton McHatton8 years ago in Families
Motherhood
What are some of the things that come to mind when you think of an infant? Is it their pink and tiny faces, breath, smooth bottoms, minuscule toes, toothless smiles, and their cutest infant coos? What about: how it felt seeing your baby for the first time? Did you think about the way that they first cried? What about the feeling that you felt in your heart when your baby smiled at you for the first time? Or when they looked directly into your eyes? The late night cuddles? The closeness of when they nursed? The skin-to-skin contact? Their smell? Those are some of the topics that are always mentioned when discussing motherhood; am I also right?
By That Broke Bohemian8 years ago in Families
Switching to Cloth Diapers
Before I was pregnant with my first born and currently only child, Delilah, I started researching the best alternatives for everything that her skin would come in contact with. I didn’t purchase Johnson & Johnson products, Orajel, chest rubs, or anything that had even a slight negative review for fear that it would harm my child. But what I forgot to research was disposable diapers and alternatives for them. Was that possible? Did they make organic diapers? The Honest Company’s disposable diapers were the only chemical-free ones that I found but the prices were outrageous for our budget. Besides, some still claimed that they weren’t as chemical free as the company had claimed. I was at my wit's end until I found cloth diapers.
By That Broke Bohemian8 years ago in Families
