Today in our homeschooling coop, we were learning the Torah portion where God has Abraham look at the stars. He then promises Abraham that his descendants will be as innumerable as the stars in the heavens.
To demonstrate the lesson, how many desendants Abraham has just from our family, I had the children make a list of all the people they were related to. The list was long. And all those relationships matter.
It’s time to view your family more as a large clan of extended members rather than the small, weak nuclear model. We are stronger together and the bonds of blood create heritage, culture, and values.
Your family and legacy matter:
I am as pro-motherhood as they come.
But I can't stand this narrative that your body won't change from having children.
I lost all the babyweight and more after my third baby. And guess what? I still had loose skin on my stomach, stretchmarks, spider veins, and wider hips.
My body isn't ruined, but it's not the same or better.
And you know what? It doesn't matter. The only person who should be seeing you naked is the person who is building your family with you, and presumably he is grateful that your body did so much to give him children. Stop making an unchanging body the measure of your worth.
Take care of yourself. Be healthy. Be fit. But changing bodies, the marks of pregnancy, those are gifts
There are some women who might bounce back six weeks postpartum. And there are others who won't.
And it's okay to embrace all your body's changes rather than erasing those changes altogether.
If your understanding of pregnancy comes from that viral list on TikTok, you could be forgiven for thinking motherhood is where beauty goes to die. Read how Barbara Palvin is proof that pregnancy doesn’t ruin your body: https://t.co/i1XZZM3RuB
Saw this comment on a YouTube video today. I am so glad the goal is for people to live for themselves, not others. Children should definitely feel like they come second in their parents lives to their passions, whatever those are. That will definitely encourage them to want to have children themselves and have healthy attachment. Society can only improve when we really put ourselves first and continue to focus inward.
🙄🙄🙄
@bethanyshondark To be fair, people with two kids still think they can control the chaos. Those of us with more know that chaos is a part of the recipe that makes it great.
If you've noticed a lot of conservatives contradicting things they used to say or stand for, it's because they've been sitting around thinking, "I'll lose my audience if I don't go where I see them heading." And that, to their shame, determines what they say next.
New newsletter: THE DEATH OF THE AMERICAN HOST
The share of Americans who say they host friends or family at their home at least monthly has declined by 70 percent in the last 50 years.
https://t.co/pfubF2qz1v
This baby in my arms
Who five days postpartum
Returned to the hospital
And stayed in the NICU for three days
With jaundice that kept her from my arms
As she lay under bright lights
And I wasn't allowed to nurse
But pumped every 2.5 hours like clockwork to keep up my supply and keep her fed
This baby in my arms
Who I feared I wouldn't be able to breastfeed like the others
Because of her NICU stay
This baby in my arms
Breastfed exclusively for a whole year
And I weaned her tonight.
And as I fed her the last time from my body
I thought to God
Thank you for allowing me to feed my daughter
And give of me to her.
“ From their first months, babies are designed to form deep attachments to the few people closest to them—those who know them best and respond sensitively and consistently across thousands of small daily exchanges. Within these first relationships, a child's security, sense of self, and capacity to trust and connect with others are established, forming the foundation for lifelong well-being.”
"There’s a glaring gap in the case for expanding child care: what’s best for young children—the ones with the most at stake, whom no one is actually discussing." https://t.co/uqxnZJOwrD @FamStudies
It's wild how physical injuries that would have taken a real emotional toll on me before kids now are no big deal.
I sliced my finger open six months ago and needed stitches and all that I felt was annoyed that my daughter might have to miss one of her nursing sessions.
I probably broke my toe yesterday and was mildly frustrated I might have to wear a flat sandle for a few weeks.
These events used to be real rollercoasters for me, but getting hurt while surrounded by your children puts things in perspective really quickly.
Both times, my older children ran over concerned and asked if I was OK (they are 4 and 2). After about a minute and assessing I was mostly fine, the jumping on me and "mommy mommy mommy" resumed.
I prefer this version of me a lot more.
A clean kitchen that is never used except for reheating leftovers from restaurants is not a kitchen that has been lived in or loved. A kitchen has to get messy if you are really using it - flour might spill on the counters, oil might splatter on the stove, vegetable peelings might make it off the cutting board. But that's not a bad thing. You clean the kitchen up after, but you still use it in the process.
Life's a little like that. It can't be pristine all the time if you want to really live it.
Real question: do people do the 3-day potty training because their kids are in school and they can't keep them home that long? Because I think I just potty trained my second son simply by keeping him undressed whenever he's home and it gave him a million opportunities to practice. But it wasn't 3 days and only 3 days.