Magazine

A tired mom wearing a baby in a floral pattern soft structured carrier.

My Messy Journey With the Tula Carrier (And Why I Kept It)

It was a hundred and two degrees in July, right in the middle of a rural Texas Target parking lot, and my arms were bent backward like a stale pretzel. I was leaning heavily against the side of my minivan,...

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Stressed mom sitting on the living room rug looking at a baby percentile calculator on her phone

Dear Past Me: Please Put Down That Baby Percentile Calculator

Dear Jess from six months ago, You're currently sitting on the faded living room rug with a floppy yellow sewing tape measure in one hand and your phone in the other, furiously typing slightly inaccurate measurements into a baby percentile...

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Mother sitting on a park bench watching her toddler climb a wooden structure.

Watching my kid fall off the playground cured my helicopter anxiety

The wind coming off Lake Michigan was aggressive enough to make my eyes water, but I couldn't blink. My two-year-old was fifteen feet up a rope climbing pyramid at Maggie Daley Park. His left foot was wedged between two cables....

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A very tired mom wearing a stained t-shirt holding a coffee mug and looking thoughtfully out a window

The Myth That Ruined My Newborn Days (And The Baby Orangutan Fix)

I was wearing Tom's vintage college hoodieβ€”the gray one with the mysterious yellow mustard stain from 2014β€”and it was somewhere around 3:17 AM. Maya was three weeks old and screaming like I'd personally offended her entire bloodline. I had a...

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Confused mom holding coffee while looking at baby contest pictures on her phone.

The Baby of the Year Contest Reality Check No One Gives You

My husband just walked into the kitchen and caught me hunched over my laptop like a sleep-deprived gargoyle, intensely scrolling through the baby of the year 2024 contestants pictures. I had half-drunk, room-temperature coffee dribbling down the front of my...

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Exhausted mother singing softly to her toddler in a dark nursery room

The Complete Chaos of Baby Lyrics and What Actually Soothes Them

My mother-in-law cornered me in the hospital recovery room to insist I strictly sing classical raagas if I wanted a smart child. Twelve hours later, the night nurse doing my vitals told me to skip singing entirely and just use...

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Baby wearing a breathable organic bodysuit playing with a wooden jungle gym.

The Truth About Buying a Baby Lion Costume for Your Kid

I was sitting in the third row of my Honda Odyssey in a Target parking lot, sweating through my favorite t-shirt, trying to peel my screaming six-month-old out of a baby lion costume that seemed to be actively melting into...

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A tired mom in a hospital bed doing skin-to-skin with her tiny newborn.

The truth about kangaroo care and why it’s not just a photo op

The biggest lie we're sold about the immediate aftermath of birth is the glowing, serene Instagram photo where the mother, looking dewy and perfectly flushed, delicately holds her pristine newborn to her bare chest. It’s framed as this beautiful, magical...

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Mom holding a newborn wrapped in a soft bamboo baby blanket near a sunny window.

Dear Jess: Surviving the Baby in Yellow Phase (And Other Shocks)

Dear Jess from six months ago, You're currently sitting on the peeling linoleum of the downstairs bathroom at 3 AM, holding your three-day-old up to the harsh vanity lights, trying to figure out if you're sleep-deprived and hallucinating or if...

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