Mental Health

I have a confession to make. I often find myself daydreaming about being the perfect Pinterest Mom, with her on-point hair and outfit, seemingly having everything together. The one with the patience for Montessori-type activities, home-cooked well balanced nightly meals, and matching themed pajamas for the entire family. Yes, I can be crafty and over the top sometimes, but for the most part, I consider myself a “lazy” parent. Let me go on record saying that I love being a mom. My whole world has changed since having children. They have brought out both the best and worst in me and I’ve learned so much about what I’m truly capable of throughout this parenting journey. While I love my children...

My beautiful, sensitive, emotional first-born child sat in my bed last night, screaming in my face that he could not take it anymore. And then he said the words no parent EVER wants to hear: I am having suicidal thoughts. My entire world ground to a halt. HARD. STOP. When your child- your entire reason for being, tells you they want to die, NOTHING else matters. Not. A. Single. Thing.  I sobbed hysterically as I called my sister- a doctor, for advice. My stomach roiled as I talked to the pediatrician's after-hours nurse who had just recently gone through the same thing with her own child. She comforted me as I cried softly through her directions. When she asked if he would be admitted...

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Red Stick Mom has partnered with the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence to help bring awareness to this important topic. Resources for getting help or reporting domestic violence can be found at the bottom of this page.  “Why didn’t she just leave?” The first question most people have when reading about the aftermath of domestic violence is, “Why didn’t she just leave?” I speak to this as someone who spent most of her life pondering (or rather, dismissing) domestic violence in the same way. After speaking with many victims, counselors, professionals, lawyers, and law enforcement officials, the below list is a summary to begin the conversation as to why “just leaving” is not that simple. ...

As soon as I heard about you, I looked you up on Facebook. My heart broke when I saw you’re a mom. I scrolled through your page. While I know everything is not as it seems online, you seem like a nice person. You seem like a good mom. Being a single mom is hard. Trust me, I know. Being a single mom that is balancing romance with mothering is hard. However, being a single mom in a toxic relationship… that’s something I would not wish on anyone. My friends and family want to reach out to you. They want to send you his page on the sheriff’s inmate roster. They want to send you the narrative I wrote to obtain...

When did the norm become filtering our lives down to only the perfect details to brag and show off? To get the approval of others? Scrolling through perfectly curated feeds being influenced to buy outfits that make us match every other girl out there? Do NOT get me wrong, I LOVE a good blog just like the next girl. But I think I am finally exhausted of it all. I am worn out of looking at sales that are not sales, beauty products that might not even work, and a filtered snapshot of what seems to be a perfect life.Yes, I know, “instagram is only a snapshot,” and I’ve seen the “instagram Vs reality” posts. We all read about bloggers going...