parenting at its most human

These touching bits on parenting belong in the same category as my recent quick-read, "Tell Me More," by Kelly Corrigan.

Gabes, these are for you--
you are doing so great, Mama! 

On working parents:

“My sisters and I were raised by parents with demanding careers who had full lives outside being parents and they loved.us.so.deeply. As I’ve become a mom, I’ve been party to many conversations about the right amount of time with kids so they feel loved, but I don’t know if I agree with the concept at all. What I do know is when I look back at my childhood I remember hectic mornings, pizza nights every Friday, babysitters who were like family, and such deep love from my parents that my sisters and I never felt anything but sure of our home and our family and ourselves. Isn’t that everything, really?” — Ellen

On birthdays:

“The night before my daughter’s birthday, while we were lying in bed, I said to her, ‘I can’t believe you’re turning three tomorrow!’ She was quiet, and then her little voice was full of hesitation as she said, ‘But, Mama, I don’t know how to turn.’ Apparently everybody had been saying this to her, and her little head worried about not doing it right! Thank goodness for her amazing preschool teacher, who told her that you ‘turn’ your next age by ‘turning over’ in bed; my daughter was ecstatic when I picked her up and told me that she had ‘turned three’ while sleeping the night before.” — Ashley

On knowing yourself:

“Yesterday I overheard my four-year-old telling her stuffed animals, ‘I’m going to ignore you now so you can find out what’s in your own little heads.’ I laughed at this obviously learned behavior and asked myself, should I feel bad about this? My conclusion was: nope. I’m an introvert and spending my days with small people who interrupt every private internal moment I have can be taxing, but I think I’ve done a good job of teaching them that everyone, including Mom, has a separate inner life that’s special and fascinating and worth exploration.” — Meg

On kids, man:

“I once went to my eight-year-old son’s room to say goodnight. He had a book on his bedside table with a tampon hanging out of it (string in, white part out). I was horrified (he has never played with them and I was not up for a discussion that evening). So, I calmly asked, ‘What isssss that?’ and he said, ‘I found them in the bathroom. They are ghost bookmarks. Pretty cool.’” — Michelle

“Me: Charlie you’ve really been great about bringing your dishes to the sink.
Charlie, nine (very sincerely): I have to say, I think it’s the nagging.” — Erin

On pregnancy:

“We had two wonderful surprises, a girl and a boy. I felt that these lines from an article by Jonathan Safran Foer put it beautifully: ‘My wife and I debated learning the sex of our first child before birth. I raised the issue with my uncle, a gynecologist who had delivered more than 5,000 babies… He said, ‘If a doctor looks at a screen and tells you, you will have information. If you find out in the moment of birth, you will have a miracle.'” — Marie

On love:

“The best thing my mom ever did for me sounds sad but has been a lifelong source of strength. I was 11, and my mom had just found out she had terminal cancer, although I didn’t know yet. We were lying on the couch, when she started crying and holding me, whispering ‘my baby, my babies’ over and and over again. I think she was simply experiencing her own grief at leaving us and not necessarily trying to impart anything, but I remember thinking that I hadn’t even begun to grasp the depth of her love for my brothers and me before that moment. Growing up without her, I’ve naturally wondered if she would have been proud of how I turned out, but that moment reminds me that nothing could have made her love me any more or any less.” — Courtney

via {cup of jo}