The Honest Truth: It Took Time For Me to Love My Baby

May 20, 2013 by Michelle

My daughter’s birthday is in a few days. She’ll be turning two and is just a totally awesome kid. The love I have for her is often overwhelming and I am constantly trying to squeeze in more hugs and kisses. I love seeing her develop and grow – she’s becoming quite the little chatter box and is using her imagination so much more. I feel sometimes like my heart is just going to explode out of my body from the deep love and affection I feel for her.

But it wasn’t always this way.  Read more...

Vagina is Not a Bad Word

Apr 29, 2013 by Sarah Bourne Perillo

My four and almost three-year old are obsessed with body parts. They are inquisitive about bodily functions, they want to understand how and why people are different shapes and sizes; we have had lengthy conversations about why Mom pees sitting down and Dad pees standing up. My daughters can properly identify their body parts.

The other day the two of them were playing on the porch. My four-year old has a strict policy at her school about using potty words inappropriately, and she has been working on refraining from using these words inappropriately at home and around her younger sisters. In the middle of playing my oldest daughter said something about changing her baby doll and having to wipe the baby’s vagina. My almost three-year old used this as a chance to tattle and came running inside, accusing her sister of using a “bad word.” This, of course, resulted in the classic argument: “did not,” “did too,” “did not.” I intervened and helped to guide the argument into a productive conversation about why vagina is not a bad word.  Read more...

Does Michelle Have a Husband?

Apr 24, 2013 by Kriste

Chicks dig a John Deere!
Photo credit: K. Stevenson

It was a beautiful day for a drive.  My girl and I were on our way to my friends’ Michelle and Brittany’s house for the afternoon.  The promise of a tractor ride was more than enough to get my usually slow child up and moving.  She loves Michelle and follows her around like a puppy.  As we drove to their house, she had a lot of questions.  Out of the blue, she asked me if they had a cage.  It took me a minute to grasp that she was a little nervous about their dog.  Then she asked me, “Mommy, does Michelley have a husband?” Um, no she doesn’t.  “Why not?” Because she lives with Britt.  “Why?” Um…  Read more...

Telling the Truth About Mommyhood

Apr 10, 2013 by Michelle

Credit: image from Momma Love’s FB wall.

The other day I saw a link to a video on Facebook about Ali Smith’s new book called Momma Love; How the Mother Half Lives (release date May 1, 2013). As I watched her beautiful video about trying to gain community funding for the printing of her book I was struck by how similar her message is to ours here at CTWorkingMoms.com. The premise of Ali’s book is that if moms admit that mommyhood is hard, we feel like we’re bad parents. If moms admit to any kind of flaws, admit that we don’t do everything perfectly and don’t always know the right answer, we feel like failures. This is so true, isn’t it? I think Ali’s point is that we should celebrate (or at the very least be honest about) the highs, lows and all the middle parts of parenting.  Read more...

When breast isn’t always best.

Feb 20, 2013 by Cora

A version of this post was originally published here.

This post is most likely going to infuriate a lot of people, but it will hopefully help a lot of people also. And so I go forward.  I realize this is a very touchy subject and people will have lots of reactions both good and bad.  Please share your experience in the comments, but please be kind.

When I told Honey that I got a gig writing a blog here he asked me what I would be writing about.  When I told him I could write about almost anything he asked, “Will you write about breastfeeding?”  I guess my answer is yes.

Let me be clear. I am not a formula feeding advocate. I’m not a breast-feeding advocate. I am a positive mothering experience advocate. Period. And for some women (myself included) breastfeeding is not a positive experience. For me, it was easily the most traumatic thing I’ve experienced in my adult life.  Read more...