Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Families.
Young Girl
As I wake Mollee up for school, we start fighting about being quite due to her siblings who are asleep (which are 5 and 20 months). I watch her brush her hair, she brings me a brush to style her hair, and she only brushed the middle in the back. WHY? You must ask. She doesn't like brushing her sides due to fly a ways and her bangs will get in her nose (she has side bangs), now that is done we move to breakfast. I ask her what she would like she runs (once again) quite please, to the kitchen. She yells from the kitchen “ I am quite”. I try to keep calm at this moment because I have been up all night with the baby who is teething. I ask again what she would like for breakfast. She wants a candy cane. I said no. She said cookies, I just gave the mommy look of no. She crosses her arms and stomps around because she doesn't want fruit or even a bowl of cereal. So I tell miss prissy she had one more chance to choose. She doesn't want ant anything and walks out. Five minutes till leave to go to school she decides she wants breakfast. I told her to eat it at school because she can't eat that fast and would be late, again I'm the bad person. So I ask her if she got her teeth brushed. Her answer was no because I wouldn't let her have breakfast. So she runs in the bathroom, tells me she brushed her teeth (I believed she did a mouth rinse and called it a day). So we go out the door to school she gets on her bike. Which it's 45° with a 40 real feel and windy. Told her I would take her and because I wouldn't let her ride her bike, she was mouthy and told me she was gonna be late if she rode in the car to school. So I got her in the car and listen to her cry and pout for three half blocks to school. Told her to dry to tears, can't go into school with a wet face. While I give her kisses on her forehead, hug her and tell her to have a good day. She turns to me and tells me she would if she could have a candy cane for breakfast. #dangcandycanes. This all happened in 45 minutes of our school morning. Once she gets to school about five minutes, her teacher calls and asked if my daughter had breakfast, and I told her the same story. Her teacher laughed and could hear a smile and said I have a child like that and stated her child is still that way after 13 years. So when my child came home that afternoon I asked if she had breakfast, she did and her teacher watched her. I said she did this because she called me. Mollee started yelling at me she told her teacher I starved her over his candy cane (I gave the mommy look of YOU DID WHAT). So after dinner that night I asked her if she wanted a candy cane for a snack, she didn't she wanted hot chocolate and I about fell over.
By Pasty Frazier8 years ago in Families
5,739 Steps to Her Last Breath
Five thousand, seven hundred and thirty-nine. That’s the number of steps I took the day cancer took you from my life. Statistics from the Canadian Cancer Society states that on average, 221 Canadians will die from cancer every day. And you Nannie, happened to be one of them on January 28th, 2017. Five thousand, seven hundred and thirty-nine steps. That number seems so small considering that day felt like an eternity. The steps I remember so clearly were the steps I took running barefoot outside to the car at the end of January. Although I had no time to put my old dirty white converse. I would simply have to put them on in the car, barefoot in the middle of a Canadian winter, it was. The drive to the hospital was excruciating. The car was full with whoever was at my house that night. My younger cousins were scared and screaming as we had rushed them into the car. The hospital is only a short drive from your house Nannie but wow did it ever go by so slow.
By Haley Steeves8 years ago in Families
Being Grateful
I cannot tell you how great it feels to hit that “Write” button after so many months of having a mental creativity block. Recently I was inspired to recreate the look of my blog and, when I did, I remember how I felt when I first created it…optimistic and motivated. Writing again, I feel as if I am in my comfort zone, sitting in front of my brightly lit computer screen at roughly 3 AM, listening to the clicking and typing of my keyboard, pouring out all my thoughts and feelings that have been kept inside of me for these past four months and, let me tell you, it feels amazing. As I am sitting here, trying to think about what I could possibly write about next, one thing in particular hits me, it was a conversation I had today with my mom and little brother. See let me start from the beginning. Growing up, I was extremely outgoing, friendly, and not one shy trait in me, basically carefree, but as I got older I became more conservative and really cared about what people thought of me. See growing up in Rosedale is pretty difficult, because a majority of my friends lived in large homes, had extraordinary birthday parties, and had a large selection of material objects you wish you could have, but realistically you know you cannot, so you say and do things to help you fit in. I was one of those children. See in fourth grade, I had a crazy, active, creative imagination. I kept my parents away from the school because little did they know, I was living a double life during school hours. I wasted a school year telling my friends I had my own Build-A-Bear workshop, McDonalds, and ferris wheel all in my larger than a millionaire's house backyard. Everyday during groups, everyone would lean in close to hear my stories about how I got to travel and I made so many friends…. I was the center of attention. Then, one day, my mom showed up at the school to surprise me and well, you can probably guess what happened… “Oh my gosh, are you Amanda’s mom? Can we go to your house? I want to build a bear! I want chicken nuggets! I want to ride the ferris wheel!” and let me tell you, I will never forget the look on my mom's face. As a child, you don’t know any better than just wanting to make friends and wanting to fit in, but that look on my mom's face made me feel ashamed and I knew exactly what I did was wrong. As you get older, you just stop caring about what people think and you start living your life, because, in reality, people are going to reject you no matter the choices you make. Looking back, I didn’t have to lie, we lived in a beautiful gated community with a home that my parents built together from scratch. We take these things for granted and we don’t realize we have these things until they are gone. It’s sad how society can turn an 8-year-old girl insecure about things she already has, but doesn’t realize it. I now see this happening in my youngest brother who is 12. Although, I started lying at a younger age, I can tell he doesn’t want us around as much as he used to. The idea of my parents and I coming to his school events makes him cringe and he slowly slips away. He stops giving us the school event papers and he doesn’t get excited for future days like his 6th grade party, Bulldog day, and graduation. He could still be lying and embarrassed, kind of like I was when I was younger, but that might not be the case here. I guess his friends at school believe it's uncool and weird to bring your family to family events like open house and things like that, and it’s sad, ya know? Society ruining my little brother's head like that… he is the last baby in the family, the last child for my parents to watch grow up. You may not believe me when I say his friends say these things, but we’ve been attending this elementary school for 15 years and the attendance rate for tonight’s open house was the lowest my mom and I have ever seen… and we’ve been to every single one, since 2002. Going back to the conversation that influenced me to write today, I found myself holding back tears as I explained to my brother that my biggest regret was not appreciating my parents being as involved in my life as they were. My parents showed up to every school event, or at least tried to, to the best of their ability, and now here I am, going to be 20-years-old next year, wondering where time went and realizing the only family event I get to look forward to is my college graduation. I no longer get to walk my parents around campus to show them my classrooms, my handmade art projects my teacher hung on the walls, my own desk I kept so clean with my FREE educational books. I no longer get to show them my Valentine’s day boxes, my AR reading goals, or take them to my Honor Roll Banquets. I am still a child to those who are older than me, but in reality, I am not. I just hope he and other kids realize… time flies. Don’t be ashamed of yourself or your family. You can feed into the ways of society and your friends, but remember this… “Friends come and go, but family is forever.”
By Amanda Ante8 years ago in Families
The Worst Day of My Life
When I was 20 years old, I needed to figure out what the fuck I was doing with my life, or so my mother said. I was perfectly fine wasting away, with my shitbag boyfriend, Luke, wasting days to countless different types of uppers and some downers. I weighed a grand total of 95 pounds, soaking wet, and was barely eating. I would live my life around being fucking traumatized by being fucking raped that eating seemed like such a fucking trivial activity.
By Mickie Hoffman8 years ago in Families
Pregnancy is 'Beautiful'
As a recently pregnant woman, I'm here to tell you the ten truths about being pregnant. Because once you've made that big announcement to friends and family, they will all tell you how great it all is. Well, I'm here to tell you a few truths about being pregnant.
By Faith Porter8 years ago in Families
Newfound Excitement of a Tired Mom!
So, it was my 27th birthday yesterday, and to be honest I was feeling pretty bummed all day with the stresses that come with this crazy adult life. I was worrying about finances with the holidays coming up, I was worrying about my house not being clean enough, and most of all I found myself worrying about the fact that I wasn't excited to be celebrating another year on this earth.
By Samantha Fushtey8 years ago in Families
Rainbow After the Storm
Miscarriage has always been kind of a taboo subject, yet one in four women go through miscarriage or loss of their infant. No one really talks about the pain, grief, guilt, or emptiness you feel, not to mention all the unanswered questions, like why did this happen? Was it my fault? There's the fact that you never got to hold your baby, to know what their life would be like, to even know whether your baby was boy or girl, the names you had picked out for them.
By Melinda Medley8 years ago in Families
Tired as a Mother...
I'm tired, and not like the normal tired. The tired of being a mom, tired of being a student, tired of being a wife, tired of being tired. I'm busy, like always, if I'm not taking care of kids, getting my husband set up for the day or doing schoolwork, then I'm doing laundry or cooking or doing something. When does it end? When do I get appreciated? Don't get me wrong I love my kids and my husband but why am I everyone's slave? My husband and I have been together a little over 3 years and we came to the marriage with 3 children (2 girls from his previous and 1 boy from my previous) we then added one more boy. All our children are under 8 years old and though we have 3 of them part-time, I'm a full time mom. Oh, side note, we also live with my in-laws, yes they’re great but that’s 2 more mouths that I’m responsible for feeding. That’s 2 more people I need to make sure have dinner plans before I just decide I don’t want to cook for.
By Mother Superior8 years ago in Families
The Most Tragic Event
I laid on the couch with my little sister, I was 7 at the time and she was only 4. We were of course, watching the same episode of Spongebob we had recorded on the TV that we’d watch every day after I got home from school. Snuggled up in our matching pj’s in our parents room, we ate our snacks and would fight over the blanket because someone always had more than the other. As innocent as we were, we had no idea what we were in for.
By Shay Gross8 years ago in Families
A New Life Was Created and Another Reborn
I had so much anger towards everyone and what I had been through. I felt like nobody wanted to hear my story. I never told anyone what he was doing to me. I let a monster get away with so many things. I always wondered, maybe I was the real monster. A monster of my feelings and my thoughts, my actions and my words. I was in self-destruct mode and I never thought I would get out of it. I was the master of my fate and I thought that he was all I would ever be worth. It took two years for me to realize my self worth was not all I thought it was worth. I deserved love and happiness, a chance to live my life free from control. I deserved all of this, but would it ever happen. I knew I had to change something and I was the only one that could make the change.
By Ashlee Grant8 years ago in Families
