Magazine

A frustrated mom adjusting the straps on a rear-facing infant car seat.

The Brutal Truth About Car Seats For Babies And Surviving The Setup

It was late August in Texas, meaning the hospital parking lot felt like the inside of a preheated oven. My husband Dave was violently yanking a seatbelt through a gray plastic base, sweating completely through his shirt, while the discharge...

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A very tired parent holding two identically dressed babies in white organic cotton sleep suits

The Absurd Reality of Buying Newborn Outfits for the First Time

It's 4:13 AM on a Tuesday, and I'm actively wrestling a pair of miniature, stiff denim jeans onto a creature that has the structural integrity of a warm Yorkshire pudding. This was my grand introduction to the greatest myth of...

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A pile of folded secondhand baby clothes next to a wooden toy

The No-Nonsense Guide to Buying Secondhand Baby Stuff Safely

I was standing in a humid church gymnasium at 7 AM on a Saturday, seven months pregnant with my oldest son, fighting a woman in a denim jumper for a plastic bouncy seat that smelled faintly of sour milk. I...

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A baby covered in orange sweet potato puree chewing on a flat silicone spoon

The sweet potato incident and the messy truth about infant spoons

There was sweet potato puree on the ceiling. I still don't fully understand the physics of how it got there, but there it was, a bright orange smear right next to the smoke detector in our Chicago apartment. My son...

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Tired mom sorting through a pile of useless baby clothes on a bed.

Surviving baby clothing stores: a nurse's guide to what works

I was thirty-four weeks pregnant, ankles swollen to the size of grapefruits, standing in the middle of a high-end boutique in Lincoln Park. The air smelled like lavender and expensive regret. In my hands, I held a pair of stiff,...

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Pediatric nurse Priya checking the harness tension on a rear-facing baby car seat

The freezing truth about strapping infants into baby car seats

It's February in Chicago, the wind chill is somewhere around negative twelve, and I'm standing in the concrete wind tunnel of Northwestern Memorial's parking garage at two in the morning. My husband has his phone flashlight clenched between his teeth....

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A dad looking exhausted in a brightly lit toy store aisle.

A Letter to Myself: What I Wish I Knew Before Entering the Toy Store

Dear Tom from exactly six months ago, You're currently standing in the middle of aisle four of a massive, warehouse-style toy store just off the M25, sweating profusely into your supposedly breathable cotton t-shirt while the twins double-team a meltdown...

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Marcus's 11-month-old baby reaching for a wooden block on the living room floor.

Why I Stopped Trusting the Internet About Early Development Toys

When my son was about four days old, my mother-in-law bought us a plastic command center that flashed strobe lights and yelled the alphabet in a robotic British accent. "He needs cognitive stimulation," she told me with absolute certainty. The...

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A dignified floral adult dining scarf protecting a woman's blouse during a messy family dinner

How to Buy Good Bibs for Adults Without Sacrificing Dignity

We were twenty minutes into Thanksgiving dinner two years ago when it happened. My grandmother, who has always dressed like she’s about to have tea with the Queen, was trying to lift a spoonful of gravy. Her hand gave that...

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