Parenting

Teacher Appreciation Week kicks off May 1st! We've compiled a list of fantastic gift ideas to show the teacher in your children's lives just how much you are thankful for them!

City Moms Blog Network celebrates National Autism Awareness Month. Hear stories from moms sharing their experiences with autism.

For so many of us, we don’t get a big shiny bow on our lives. We live every day, a little banged up and bruised but still breathing, and we learn how to love our lives anyway, smack in the middle of the unexpected.

Are you not quite a Stay-At-Home Mom, not fully a Work-Outside-The-Home Mom, and yet also not technically a Work-At-Home Mom (mostly because you’re not home enough to get any of the work done)? If you’ve struggled to define your career status with one of the typical labels, you might be a Work-Anywhere-Possible Mom (WAPM).

Painful as it may be that I may not experience precious moments like these with another child, I am compelled to dwell not upon the bitterness of my motherhood passing me by. Rather, in realizing the brevity of motherhood, of life, I cannot help but surrender to the sweetness of each moment and give thanks for having experienced them at all.

Without warning, I felt the overwhelming need for a parenting mulligan - you know, a do-over, a fresh start, a second chance. Suddenly I questioned every single parenting decision that I've ever made. Normal, right?

In the very first second of meeting my baby girl, my heart dropped. The vision of what my daughter was going to look like wasn’t what I saw. The room became quiet, and everyone stopped.

I'm missing moments in this life that are fleeting, all because I can't say NO to the extras. I can't muster the conviction to say N-O to the things that pull me away from what truly fulfills me and gives me purpose - my children, my husband, my family, my friends.

One day in the not too distant future, you won't be under my roof. You'll be off making a life of your own, growing into the adult that I know will make me proud and stealing kisses in the night from your own sweet babes.

My own dear mom, who somehow survived parenthood without Google, e-books, Facebook forums, cell phones, or even her own mother, had the best words of wisdom for me when I gave birth to my son.