I’ve always thought I was adept at change. In the early years of our marriage, when jobs and apartments and even regions of the country where we lived were fluid, I embraced new beginnings and found them exciting. If things …
Perfectly Broken and Whole
While growing up, through a series of explicit and implicit messages, I believed “order” was necessary to be accepted, chosen and loved. In other words, I needed to be perfect. I couldn’t change the freckles on my skin (which I …
How Having Social Anxiety Has Shaped Me as a Mom
Social Anxiety. That’s what the therapist called it as I sat across from her on the mahogany leather couch. Her office was devised to look like a living room to make me feel at home, but all I could think was, “I wouldn’t be here if I was normal.” The list of my oddities lay like the stacks of magazines recklessly piled for bored fingers to flip through at the doctor’s office: No friends, no one calls, head down, ignores people, anxiety attacks
A Message to the Mum Sitting Across From You Today
I saw you today. Everyone was staring at you caring for your child. Sitting so close to his well-positioned wheelchair, you kissed his forehead, wiped his face, kept him calm and held him tight when he became anxious. I see …
4 Tactics for Facing Mom’s Back-to-School Anxiety
As a girl I loved back to school. The pencil boxes and new school clothes always held the possibility of something unanticipated. Of potential. However as a mom, I’m not a big fan of this time of year. It reminds …
Letting Go of My Mothering “Shoulds”
My first few years of parenting were hard, really hard. If they were a journey, they were climbing a steep mountain face with a hundred pound pack on my back and a baby carrier strapped to my chest. It was …