Category: Parenting
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Sensory overload Saturday
Welcome to a day in the life of me and my SPD kid. Some days are manageable, and some days are so off-the-chart bonkers that it really tests my faith in my ability to be a good parent. Today was definitely one of those days. I have to keep reminding myself that she (as of yet)…
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What does it mean to be a mother?
This is a question I’ve been pondering since my daughter was born four years ago. The fantasy I entertained about my first moments and days of motherhood took a hit after my emergency c-section and post-partum hemmorhage. For the first week of my daughter’s life, my husband primarily took care of her. Once I was…
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What I learned from my c-section
April is Cesarean Awareness Month. It’s also the month when my daughter was born, via emergency c-section. I never expected for my body to be sliced open to bring my baby forth into the world. I did prenatal yoga, practiced Reiki, hired a doula and set out to have a natural birth. After 36 hours…
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When enough is enough
I recently had to make a very difficult and painful decision to sever my relationship with a family member. I won’t get into specifics here, because it is ultimately a family issue. Just know that this was not a decision made out of anger or spite, and it was made after setting a firm boundary…
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Saying goodbye to Friday
In the nearly four years since my daughter was born, I have spent almost every Friday with her. When I went back to work after my 4 months of maternity leave were up, I chose a compressed schedule that allowed me the opportunity to spend one day during the week with her. After I lost my job…
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Who do I need to be now? Shifting my priorities
In the six months since losing my job, I have had to re-evaluate many of my own assumptions about what it means to be “successful” – as a business person, a mother, wife and maybe even as a woman. It’s amazing how easily we can become attached to our own notions, and also how groundless it feels…
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Learning to navigate through the sensory landscape: life with SPD
I’ve recently started blogging for the SPD Blogger Network, a website designed for those writing about raising a child with Sensory Processing Disorder. A couple of my posts should be published soon, and I’m hoping it will be helpful for others who are trying to understand what it’s like to live with and help raise a…
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Everybody up on the poop deck!
Spend enough time around toddlers and old people and it doesn’t take long before you realize that bodily functions is a favorite conversation topic. With toddlers, I think it’s because it’s something they’re learning to master, whereas with old people, their ability to control it is slipping away. Either way, someone’s just getting out of…
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The good old (birth)days
My mom and I are already planning her annual trip from NYC to Atlanta for my daughter’s birthday in April. In her email to me today, she asked what we were thinking of doing for A’s birthday and then observed, “It seems that these days you don’t just go to somebody’s house where their Mom…