The story of Nicole Madison Lovell, the 13-year-old Virginia girl who was murdered by people she met on social media, renewed many parents’ fears of raising kids in the technological age. We hope that our kids will be smart, we educate them about …
Why We Can’t Fight Fear and Hate with Fear and Hate
“Love is a light that never dwelleth in a heart possessed by fear.” – Bahá’u’lláh I’ve been thinking lately about what I want to teach my children about fear and hate. I thought we had it covered when we studied …
Letting Childhood Linger in a World that Rushes Adulthood
My 11-year-old daughter plops down next to me on the couch, curling her legs up into a ball. She says nothing, but her furrowed brow makes it clear something is bothering her. “What the matter?” I ask, praying it’s not something horrible. (I always pray it’s not something horrible.) …
Motherhood and the Search for the Holy Grail
When our first daughter was a baby (14 years ago—WUH?), I was ready to rock motherhood. I was going to be an AWESOME mom. I imagined I would stand high on the mountain of motherhood, plunge my victory flag into the soil, and spend my days in …
Someday There Will Be Silence
Lately I feel myself teetering between two worlds—lamenting how VERY LOUD my young kids can be, while seeing into the quiet near future with my eldest. So I wrote this as a reminder not to wish away the noisy days (and nights) too quickly. Someday …
The Brave and Beautiful Act of Asking for Help
A mom friend of mine wrote this in her Facebook status the other day: Dear ones, my family is going through a difficult time while P’s cochlear implants are not working. She feels cut off from the world and very …
I Didn’t Have Children to Make Myself Happy
A new study made waves online this week, describing how having a first child makes parents more unhappy than divorce, unemployment, or even the death of a spouse. My first thought upon reading about the study was, “Huh. Interesting.” My second thought …
Parenting Off Paper
3:30 a.m. A mother’s voice shakes as she hums, pulling the swaddling blanket tighter around her baby. That’s got to be too tight, she thinks. The Book says swaddling tightly will calm him down. Baby wails and kicks against the blanket. It just …