Real Talk

The Importance Of Your Girl Friends Once You Become A Mother When I was younger, my mother used to read those “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books or grocery shop late at night for her “me time.” She had her girl friends, but she never did prioritize her friendships. Her priority was my father and me, which should be on the most important list. My mom was a stay-at-home mom mostly my whole life so my mother raised me different than how I am raising my boys. The cost of living was cheaper, food was less expensive and some homes only had one working parent. In our home, my boys have both parents working multiple jobs. According to the labor force...

Mother’s Little Helper Is On Backorder I was officially diagnosed with “adult ADHD” in 2021 at the tender age of 45. It didn’t come on the heels of the TikTok frenzy of self-diagnosis, but instead was met with my suspicion the moment my doctor said, “Oh yeah, you definitely have ADHD.” No, no - I laughed at her. That’s just a silly “catch-all.” But this was before I knew what ADHD looked like in girls and adult women. I wasn’t even into my second page of Google search results on women with ADHD before I was staring, slack-jawed at the screen and wondering how this could have been missed. I just thought I was ... really, really good at some things and...

World's Okayest Dance Mom Tis’ the season of tutus and tap shoes! A new season of dance has begun. My daughter started her fourth year of dance this year and I’m not afraid to admit that I still don’t know what a plié is. You see, I love that she loves dance. I love that I’m able to provide her with an opportunity to be involved in dance. I know NOTHING about dance. Every week she puts on her tights and leotard and gets dropped off for an hour. What goes on in that class is a mystery to me. Only on our twice a year parent watch nights, and at the rehearsal and recital do I actually see all the...

Is Everyone's Life This Chaotic? Let me start by saying that I truly love my children. I have been blessed beyond what I deserve and I am intensely grateful for all that God has given me. I would also like to mention that God has blessed me with the truest form of variety when it comes to these children. Each of my girls are so different from the other, and it keeps our lives in a constantly unpredictable state. I sometimes wonder if that is the root of the chaos that seems to never end, but it could also be that I lack a sense of preparedness and flourish when it comes to last-minute anything. My husband and I recently decided...

Mom, I'm So Sad All The Time: Ending The Stigma Begins At Home In early 2021, both of my beautiful, amazing sons told their father and me that they were struggling with mental health issues. This was during a year that brought with it a cancer diagnosis for our 10 year old, more Covid chaos, the death of their grandfather (whom they loved dearly and saw almost weekly since their births) the death of their great-grandmother (whom they were also very close to), unrelenting anxiety and hopelessness for our 16-year old, plus the day-to-day struggles that life, middle school and high school brought with it.    As divorced co-parents, their father and I have made it clear that we are always open...