From time to time a weary mother plops down on the couch in my office looking like something the cat dragged in. I soon discover that she has been running on fumes. She sleeps five hours a night if she’s lucky, and her slumber is usually interrupted by a child visitor climbing into her bed and thrashing about, making peaceful sleep something she can only dream about. For s … [Read more...] about Your Community of Mothers
Natural Family
Motherhood Saved My Life
Since I was 12, I've struggled with an eating disorder. I don't really remember a time when thoughts of food and my body image didn't occupy my mind. The history of my eating disorder is complicated—like many fragmented pieces of a large intricate puzzle. I could fill a book with the origins and details of my struggle but that's not what I'm writing about here. Over the ye … [Read more...] about Motherhood Saved My Life
Attachment Parenting
Here is a talk I was to give at the Attachment Parenting, International's recent conference at Notre Dame. The shutdown of flights out of Chicago that weekend made it impossible for me to attend so I filmed my talk and sent that instead. Here below are the text of the talk and the video. It’s profound to think of the significant contribution that Attachment Parenting, I … [Read more...] about Attachment Parenting
My Osteopathic Shaman
Noah is one year old. He enjoys torturing Gwen and me by climbing onto the headrest of the couch and walking back and forth like a tightrope walker. One evening, midtightrope, he took a misstep and started falling. As he slid between the wall and the couch, I dove onto the couch to catch him. I got him, but I landed in a very awkward position, arms extended, and I couldn’t get t … [Read more...] about My Osteopathic Shaman
The Healthy Family
That love is the foundation of healthy families is no secret. Of course we love our children, but love is more than a feeling—it is a commitment, an action. It is the successful translation of love from feeling into action that explains why some families work and others do not. Ross Campbell, in his book, How to Really Love Your Child, reminds us that the only kind of love t … [Read more...] about The Healthy Family
Profile of a Mom of Courage
I am the African-American adoptive mom of two sons—one Caucasian and the other African American. I am trying to raise them equally in a world full of inequality. As a foster mother for years, I’ve watched many children come and go from my home. NATHANIEL Nathaniel, who is white, came to me when he was a little over a year old. I was living in Maine and it was assumed th … [Read more...] about Profile of a Mom of Courage
Here is Why I Vacuum
Some days suck. Like yesterday for instance. My toddler immersed our cordless phone in water, swallowed a marble and caught the cat’s tail in the fridge. My five-year-old rejected her pancakes as too crunchy, applied eye shadow to most of her body and cried inconsolably because all of the pink crayons were ‘naked’ without their wrappers. It was 9:45 in the morning. I don’t ha … [Read more...] about Here is Why I Vacuum
Moms Tired and Happy?
If there is a mother on the planet who hasn't felt slammed by fatigue, I haven't met her. And if a mother says she hasn't ever been tired, she's clearly an alien or been drinking society's Kool-Aid—you know, the kind that tells women that admitting they're tired is a sign of weakness. A REAL MOM'S DAY My day starts like this: rise at 6 AM., shower, eat breakfast, remind m … [Read more...] about Moms Tired and Happy?
I Yell: I Roar at Him
I roar at him in the dog voice. It comes from deep within; from way down low in the belly as if coming from another being, another species even. Immediately I am sorry and I look down at his little face, innocent in so many ways but now in one less. I hold him and tell him I’m sorry and I want to somehow erase in our collective memories that bellowing voice. MY MOM I tell … [Read more...] about I Yell: I Roar at Him
Now It’s Daddy Time
Gwen has gone back to work part-time after six years at home with our boys. Noah, age six, couldn’t be happier with the extra Daddy-time, but for Benji, age two, it’s an adjustment. This past Sunday was our first full day without Gwen. Noah and I were setting up a puppet show when I realized Benji was no longer in the den. Last I had seen, he was arranging his Schliech farm a … [Read more...] about Now It’s Daddy Time