Magazine

Toddler playing independently with natural wooden toys on a living room rug

Raising Kids With True Grit: A Normal Mom’s Take on Nepotism Babies

Three years ago, I marched right into the office of our local Methodist preschool, smiled at the director, and shamelessly dropped my grandmother’s name to bump my oldest kid to the top of their two-year-long waitlist. I didn't even blink....

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Exhausted mom staring at a budget spreadsheet on her laptop while drinking coffee.

Dear Past Me: Surviving The Ramsey Baby Steps With Kids

Dear Sarah from last October, It's 11:42 PM on a Tuesday and you're sitting on the sticky kitchen linoleum right in front of the dishwasher. You're wearing those black yoga pants with the dried yogurt stain on the left knee,...

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Pregnant woman in a comfortable pink baby shower dress holding a coffee.

The Sweaty Reality of Finding a Pink Baby Shower Dress

It was 2:15 PM on a Tuesday in late July, and I was standing in the dressing room of a maternity boutique that smelled aggressively like fake lavender, trying to pry a magenta wrap dress off my sweaty, thirty-two-week pregnant...

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A dusty 90s plush bear sitting next to a modern organic silicone baby teether

The Truth About The Most Expensive Beanie Babies

I'm sitting on the concrete floor of my parents' garage in the Chicago suburbs, sneezing thirty years of dust out of my nose. In front of me is a massive plastic storage bin labeled with my name and the phrase...

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A bewildered dad trying to put a tiny grain of baby toothpaste on a silicone brush

The Great Baby Toothpaste Debate: Brushing My Son's First Tooth

My son bit my index finger at exactly 6:14 AM on a Tuesday, and that was how I found out we had a breach in the hull. I was just doing my usual morning firmware checkβ€”feeling around his gums because...

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Mom looking through a dusty plastic bin of 90s stuffed animals

The Brutal Truth About If Your Old Beanie Babies Are Worth Money

My mom hauled a dust-caked Rubbermaid tub down from her attic last Thanksgiving, slapped the lid with a triumphant thud, and announced she was handing over my children's college tuition. We were standing in the garage, dodging wasps, while she...

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A tired mom holding a coffee and an organic cotton baby onesie in a city apartment.

Mom Truths: Those Brooklyn Baby Lana Del Rey Lyrics Explained

It was 2017. Maya was roughly six months old, and I was sitting on the severely scratched hardwood floor of our third-floor walk-up in Park Slope. My hair was twisted into a greasy topknot that was probably 40 percent dry...

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A realistic look at navigating crowded baby product expos and TV screen time rules for infants

The brutal truth about baby shows: Expos, screens, and survival

Listen. I was thirty-four weeks pregnant, my ankles were swelling over the tops of my sneakers, and I was standing in the middle of McCormick Place in downtown Chicago. A very enthusiastic woman with a microphone was trying to sell...

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A folded stack of soft earth-toned organic baby bodysuits and blankets

The Honest Truth About Switching to Neutral Baby Clothing Basics

I'm standing in my laundry room right now, staring at a hot pink, tulle-skirted monstrosity that says "Daddy's Little Princess" in scratchy sequins. My oldest daughter wore it exactly once. She screamed for forty-five minutes straight until her face was...

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