Magazine

A very confused mom holding a baby while looking at a smartphone

My Kids, The Ice Age Baby Meme, and Freezing Winter Survival

Let me tell you about the exact moment I realized I was officially old and entirely unprepared for both internet culture and actual, literal winter. It was like, negative three degrees outside on a Tuesday in January, I was wearing...

Read more

A spilled cup of coffee on a kitchen counter next to a smartphone showing a celebrity baby news headline

My Coffee Disaster and the Wild Reality of Sixty-Year-Old Parenting

My feet were literally sticking to the linoleum. It's 6:12 AM on a Tuesday, I'm wearing Mark's faded college hoodie that smells permanently like old milk and vague regret, and Maya is aggressively trying to shove a plastic triceratops into...

Read more

Jess's baby in a frog-leg position wearing an organic cotton bodysuit

When Your Baby Refuses to Flip (My Honest Breech Experience)

I was thirty-six weeks pregnant with my oldest when the ultrasound tech got real quiet, typed something furiously on her little keyboard, and excused herself to get the doctor. Cut to twenty minutes later in the H-E-B parking lot where...

Read more

Exhausted mom holding a crying newborn in a dimly lit nursery at 3 AM

The "Be My Baby" Delusion: Surviving Your First Year Alive

I'm sitting on the edge of a creaky glider at 4:17 AM while my oldest, Wyatt, arches his back like a feral cat who just got dipped in cold water. I remember standing there in the dark, smelling vaguely of...

Read more

A realistic modern baby nursery with neutral colors and a bare crib next to a half-empty coffee cup

Chasing the Pottery Barn Baby Dream Without Losing Your Mind

When I was seven months pregnant with Maya, I was a walking target for unsolicited opinions. I remember my mother-in-law cornering me at my own shower, wearing this aggressively floral blouse, and insisting I needed to buy a massive, heavily...

Read more

Exhausted dad holding newborn twins in the middle of the night

Why the Sparkle Megan Baby Drama Hits Hard for Exhausted Dads

It was 3:14 AM on our second night home from the hospital, and I was holding a cold, wet wipe in my teeth while trying to untangle a tiny, thrashing leg from a heavily soiled sleep sack, desperately hoping my...

Read more

Portland dad holding an eleven-month-old baby otter in a community swimming pool wrapped in a towel.

Debugging Infant Water Safety and the Sea Otter Parenting Method

I'm currently losing a wrestling match with a wet, angry noodle on a bench that smells aggressively of bleach. My eleven-month-old son has somehow managed to triple his body weight purely through the physics of being slippery, and the acoustic...

Read more

Exhausted dad staring at a glowing baby monitor smartphone app in the dark

Why I Cannot Stop Staring at the Night Vision Baby Monitor

It's 3:14 AM, and the blue light of my smartphone is the only thing illuminating our bedroom ceiling. My wife is completely unconscious next to me, breathing in a steady rhythm that I deeply envy. Meanwhile, I'm zoomed in 400x...

Read more

A confused dad looking at a tiny baby roach on the kitchen floor.

The 3AM Kitchen Intruder: Dealing With Baby Roaches

It was 3:14 AM, and I was doing something I explicitly knew I shouldn't be doing. Maya, who's two years old but possesses the demanding palate of a Michelin-star food critic, refused to go back to sleep unless her milk...

Read more