Mamas! It's time! There has been a call to our group to help some families up north. We need to send diapers and formula (recently a few newborns and babies have not had the basics and this just isn't acceptable!) We can also send winter goods, sponsor a family, or just make a donation! In Canada's north there is a #foodsecurity crisis and families who used to be able to sustain themselves can no longer. The prices for basic necessities is through the roof. This is an issue t

I became a parent 5.5 years ago. The timing is important for the purposes of this piece, because, well, a lot has happened since I first experienced the responsibility of someone else’s life. A “new wave” of feminism began in the last decade—yup, this is extremely critical to the story of my experience. Women’s rights have come into question or been re-questioned in all parts of the world including in the great country of Canada (thanks politicians). Also in that time, I have

I was cleaning bottles and pump attachments in 2016 for the zillionth time. She was washing dishes. I was overtired, cranky, over-burdened with the minute annoying tasks of parenting a baby, completely unable to crack a smile at the time, she was being patient, wise, and non-judgemental. Because that's who she was, even when it was really hard and people really sucked. And as I finished what I was doing I said "ugh, I can't wait until this craziness is over, constantly pumpin

If you follow my posts, you'll notice a bit of a common thread: I think I'm doing a real shit job most of the time. I deal with a lot of mom guilt, that's probably my go-to emotional state. I feel guilty about EVERYTHING. I don't forgive myself easily and I have a hard time getting over the "bad". If this were a movie, we would cut back to the scenes from two years ago where I was at my wits' end with my first son and throwing him into his bed 4-5 times a day because of his i

Anxiety almost ruined my life. What began as postpartum depression, turned into postpartum anxiety, and it lasted for six years. For six years I suffered terribly. At the time, I didn’t know what was wrong. I knew that I didn’t feel right. I knew that I felt like I was out of control. I knew that I felt guilty and ashamed and that I couldn’t do anything right. I believed that I wasn’t a good mother. I believed that people didn’t like me and didn’t want to be my friend. An

Your bladder is going to be in seriously bad shape…if that baby comes out your vag…don’t be hard on yourself about it. It’s going to happen. Two days after I had my daughter my husband starting recounting my birth stories and was taking some liberties with the materials. Well it was funny shit and I realized my bladder was a fucking mess when a 2 foot perimeter was saturated in piss and there was not a damn thing I could do about it…except grab for my newborn daughters spare

I’m sitting on my couch crying right now, because I’m the worst mother, ever. I yelled at my four year old this morning at the park because despite me asking 14 times, he wouldn’t let his brother on the swing he was on, and finally pushed his 2 year old brother, making him cry. So I yelled in public at my son. I’m the worst mother, ever. I have only a few days with my kids that are truly “ours”, where the pressures of my job don’t intrude on our precious hours as a little cla

I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who cannot possibly even see it as a family trip if 25% of the family is getting the shaft. The way I see it though, is that 2 months ago when I booked the trip I thought that 75% of the family would get the shaft if he came so basically it was just a numbers game. Having a spirited high needs toddler means that the attention that everyone else in the house is looking for ends up taking a back seat...the squeaky wheel gets the gre

I have been asked by so many people how I have survived summer with 4 kids at home. I would love to be able to rhyme off some very well put together list with really helpful tips and tools that have helped me survive my summer, but that would be a total lie. The truth is: I don’t really know how I have survived. I think I’ve been in a sort of “survival mode”, and the thing about survival mode is that there really is no plan or strategy, it’s just about doing what needs to be

A very wise person once said: ”Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but it doesn’t get you anywhere….write that down.” When baby No.2 was about 8 weeks old and we were 8 weeks into the nightmare that was his infancy as is well documented on this blog, I was thrilled when a relative volunteered to pull a night shift for me. Hubs was out of town and having experienced children with colic, this aunt was more than sympathetic to our plight. I was so thri