List/Grid Author Archives: FreeRange
It’s Hard to Be a Mom When the World is Ending…Hurricane of Change
In today’s world, from the day we conceive a child and begin thinking of a being outside of ourselves, we are off to weave a complex web of conflicting emotions. In a way, I have heard some parents claim, it is US (the individual parent or family) against THEM (the world). We try to protect our kids from advertising of horrendously made television programs and the products that are cross-marketed, we try to scrape up…
More Than A Mom- Pursuing Passion Outside of Motherhood
We all know them. Those women and men from high school or college who, when easily found via Facebook, feature an image of their happy family as the profile picture. You don’t really need to look at their wall or their info to gather that they’ve had three kids and become a bit…ahem…rounder in the face. I hate to sound judgmental when I get a friend request from people from my past, but there is…
The Only Child…How Others Shame or Scare Us Into Getting Knocked Up
It, apparently, never fails. Your first child (with whom you remember staying up many nights, pumping pumping pumping, nursing, pumping, nursing, being terrified of everything, etc like it was yesterday) hits the age of two and your relatives begin to look at you with meaning in their eyes. Sometimes they nudge you and say things like “Look at how CUTE girls clothes are. Boys’ clothes just aren’t exciting. Don’t you hope the next one is…
The Difference Between Being a Mama Lion and Being a Snob (If There is One…)
There is certainly one aspect of being a mother that almost always catches me off guard and forces me to look in the mirror and examine my resolve and the way I communicate it to the world. You see, before I became a mother, I was the mildest, gentlest soul you’d ever meet. I got along with everyone, had a list of friends and acquaintances in multiple cities from all different walks of life, and…
Incense and I…Adventures in Parental Anxiety and Perspective
What is it about being a mom that makes even the most free-spirited, easy-going mother kind of a pain? I can say with confidence that it is the pain of love that somehow spills out against all wishes into her environment, wanting someone to tell her “Hey, it’s going to be ok!” I have come to think that two of the most important mothering qualities to cultivate are self-love and forgiveness for being human. My…
Is Everyone Broke? Urban Parenting on a Tight Budget…
Today was free day at the Bronx Zoo. Well, you know, technically donation day, but for my friend M and I, it costs a mere couple of bucks to get our two two year-olds through the big gates and into the madness of the summertime zoo. Upon entering through different gates (I drive, she takes the express bus from the Upper East Side), we were lost in a sea of technicolor camp t-shirts and a…
I Do….And I Don’t…(Contemporary Marriage)
Do I consider myself to be part of a nontraditional family? I would have to say no, but only after I can establish which tradition we’re following. Recently, while visiting my mother, I encountered an old family friend, one that has been around long enough to feel entitled to protective feelings and perhaps even “I just want the best for you” judgment. It was his first time seeing T-Words in action, and I couldn’t erase…
In My Element…
I suppose the best way to really get to know a person is to do the day-to-day with her. To really see her in her element. As I write this, I am sitting on the toilet seat of our bathroom next to my two year old while he splashes himself with water yelling, “Mama, I have fleas!!!” (we also have a dog….who had fleas last week…). It is ten pm, and I am fairly certain…
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