Magazine

Exhausted mother holding a clinging infant in a baby carrier inside an apartment

The brutal reality of raising a velcro baby and keeping your sanity

Listen. It was two in the afternoon on a Tuesday in mid-February. The Chicago wind was rattling the apartment windows, and I had needed to empty my bladder since ten that morning. Dev was asleep, heavily draped across my chest...

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Mom holding a fussy newborn baby with red acne bumps on his cheeks

My First Kid's Face Looked Like a Pizza: What Causes Baby Acne

I was sitting on my living room floor surrounded by beige tulle, two ignored piles of laundry, and absolute mounting panic. I was trying to wrestle my oldestβ€”who's now five and still my primary cautionary tale for everythingβ€”into a perfectly...

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A tired mom holding a teething baby in a dimly lit nursery

The 3 AM Teething Triage: Surviving the First Tooth

It was three in the morning, mid-January in Chicago, and the wind was howling off Lake Michigan. My toddler was thrashing in her crib like she was possessed, her sleep sack completely saturated with drool. I stood there running through...

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Tired mom holding a baby wearing a custom cranial helmet and an organic cotton onesie

Why Do Babies Wear Helmets? A Letter To My Freaking Out Past Self

Dear Sarah from exactly six months ago, You're currently sitting cross-legged on the dusty attic floor. You're wearing Dave's old college hoodie that smells intensely of damp cardboard, and you're literally crying into a plastic storage bin of Leo's outgrown...

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A woman looking stressed at her phone while holding a coffee cup

The Truth About Taylor Swift and the Pressure on Women to Have Kids

When I was twenty-nine, I was sitting in a aggressively air-conditioned Starbucks wearing leggings that hadn't seen the inside of a washing machine since Tuesday, crying into a venti iced macchiato because I had just received three completely conflicting pieces...

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A stack of organic cotton custom baby outfits next to a spilled cup of coffee.

The Truth About Custom Baby Onesies: A Letter To My Past Self

Dear Sarah from exactly six months ago. It's October 14th, 2:13 AM, and you're sitting on the very edge of the living room rug, wearing those disgusting gray fleece college sweatpants with the mysterious bleach stain on the left knee...

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Baby hands covered in safe sweet potato puree paint on a wipeable mat.

Why I Stopped Forcing Aesthetic Crafts and Let My Kids Make a Mess

Dear Jess from six months ago, I'm writing to you from the future, and you need to drop the organic sweet potato puree, step away from the canvas, and take a deep breath. You're currently sitting on the kitchen floor...

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Stressed mom spilling lukewarm coffee in the driver seat of a minivan

Why I Googled the Brooklyn Baby Lyrics in the Minivan Today

Tuesday, 8:14 AM. I'm sitting in the school drop-off line wearing black leggings that haven't actually seen a yoga studio since approximately 2019. There's a crusty white stain on my left knee that I'm aggressively ignoringβ€”it's either toothpaste or yogurt,...

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A frustrated mom holding a roll of baby-proofing tape next to a toddler

Why Diaper Tape Fails When Your Tiny Infant Becomes A Toddler

3:14 AM. The bathroom tiles are freezing. Mark is standing there holding his phone, looking absolutely bewildered, while intense, bass-heavy Russian hip-hop blasts out of his tiny phone speaker. He was literally just trying to google "big baby tape" to...

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