Motherhood changes us. Celebrate the ups and downs with these honest, insightful essays about becoming—and being—a mom.
It doesn't matter your age. It doesn’t matter when you first became a mom or when you gave birth to your last. It doesn’t matter if you’re a mom of one or of many.
Recognizing the way my body’s biology works has made me feel like a superhero.
From being consistent to praising publicly, criticizing privately, here are the parenting and leadership rules that I (try to) live by.
"Distractions are everywhere, and we often forget to ground ourselves before connecting with our baby so we can be fully present"
"The news that Instagram (and, to a lesser extent, Facebook) is shifting away from a friends and family model to a content creator model had a lot of moms wondering, where in the world is my social network?"
1. Check your thoughts, and then challenge them
I hadn’t thought about how my homebody tendencies were keeping my son from building relationships and creating memories outside of our home, with other people.
And I realize that many of these moments will be "lasts" very soon, so I cherish them as if they are.
“It doesn’t have to be like this. I’m tired of being so tired. We can take our power back.”
I’m afraid that I will lack understanding—and that even with the wisdom collected in becoming a mother for the first time, I will have so much to learn and unlearn in becoming a mother again.
"I don't know how I'd endure motherhood without the hopeful, sarcastic, I-get-you, in-the-trenches of mom life texts."
Because most days, I am not even gentle with myself.
I have realized that I could be given the world (literally) for free as a "perk" of my job, and none of that would matter because it would mean leaving my children behind.
“It is the child’s way of learning. This is the path he follows. He learned everything without knowing he is learning it...treading always in the paths of joy and love.” — Maria Montessori
Given this backdrop of such unequal parenting for so many women, it’s easy to overlook the men in our midst who are actually doing the work and stepping up as equal partners. And I am lucky enough to be married to one of them.
"As moms raising fierce girls into the next generation of women leaders—leaders our world desperately needs—let’s celebrate the loudness and demands of our daughters that have so often been shunned."
Because doing so can foster their independence—and their creativity.
Every moment isn’t filled with laughter. Sometimes our tears hold the most weight. But it is all of these moments that make us mothers.
Thank you for seeing—really seeing—all the beauty in our day-to-day lives.