by Jane Becker

Motherhood is no job for Saints.  Just look at St. Jane de Chantal.

by Southerngirl

I was reading an article about Oprah's interview with Michelle Obama and there was a line that just got me.  When Oprah asked her about getting up at 4:30am (YES, AM!!!!) to workout she said  "Well, I just started thinking, if I had to get up to go to work, I'd get up and go to work.

by futureblackmail

This is how I measure success as a MOM.

Mom's Day is special to me--because it reminds me of the one thing I did in life that I know, without a doubt, changed the world. It was something I succeeded at. I may fail daily by not making the best dinners, skipping bath time and using the TV as a babysitter but I also know that I hold in my back pocket the ability to push a 6 lb, 13 oz baby out of me.

by rconejr

Occasionally it happens that your life spews out onto your front lawn and flows into the street in one big volcanic upchuck that gives your neighbors a little lascivious peek into your life.

by TheDailyB

Bronwynn's morning to-do list is pretty simple. She wakes up, snuggles with Mama and Dada, hugs Ollie, has a diaper change, eats breakfast, and then wanders over to her bookshelf where she collects as many cardboard books as her chubby arms can hold and brings them over to me, demanding to sit in my lap and read each and every one. Repeatedly. For hours.

by Her Bad Mother

Stop me if you've heard this one before - and yes, you 've heard this one before - but if you're a mom, and you spend time on the Internet, you might have a problem. A mental health problem. An addiction.

by Morra Aarons Mele

Swine flu anxiety is making me agoraphobic. I've been through an entire bottle of organic purell today alone. Normally, I take the baby everywhere and am secretly pleased with myself when people touch him without washing their hands and I don't flinch- "more immunity," I say with a smile that shows just how un-neurotic a mother I am. A dog licks his face and I crow. But now, I want to enclose my baby and me in a sterile plastic bubble and emerge only when the WHO says it's safe. I know the risks are low. But...

by Rita Arens

Every kid-related movie seems to have it: the sleepy child in snuggly pajamas, cuddled up to a favorite adult reading a fairy tale and drifting off to gingerbread dreamland by the third page. Is this your reality?

by Rita Arens

In the past few months, we've had one credit card raise our interest rate by five percent and another lower our limit by $13,000. We've never missed a payment and never paid less than the minimum amount due on either of these accounts. We're the good guys -- but that doesn't seem to matter right now. What can a family do to protect its credit in times of uncertainty?

by Maria Young

I don't believe in cleaning up after my children in any way that they are capable of handling themselves. Sometimes I do it because it may be faster, or they may be feeling unwell or leaving to go out with their father, but other than those rare circumstances, it's their job. It has been since each of them were old enough to handle it.

by Karen Walrond

My mother has always had a well-appointed home. At any given time in my life, from the time I was still living with my parents up to and including today, my parents' house has always been decorated beyond reproach: the couch always matched the loveseat, the art on the walls always complemented the colours of the furniture, and each room always had a theme:  mid-century Scandinavian. Antique Oriental. And twenty years ago, when I moved out on my own and started building my own home, I tried very hard to emulate her style.

And then my daughter was born.

by cutiebootycakes

To put it succinctly, I am a digital mom. I am plugged in to the world around me via my computer screen more often that not. I write a blog, use facebook, twitter, and belong to numerous social networking communities (no less than ten ning groups among others). I own a desktop and a netbook as well as an iPhone and I am never further than two feet away from one of these devices. I telecommute for a National non-profit organization from the comfort of my home and in addition to writing for BlogHer, I author my own blog and frequently write guest posts for other sites.

by Morra Aarons Mele

One of the hardest things about being a new parent is the urgent and intense sense that the world you're bringing your child into is a mess, it's partially your fault, and you can't do anything about it. Put aside the deficit for a second. How will my baby cope with the seemingly limitless amount of toxins he passively ingests every day?

by moonfever0

It must be a rite of passage into adulthood, the knowledge that clean and orderly surroundings lead to peace of mind. Of course not all adults make it to cleanly bliss, but one thing is true, no children are born that way.

by Rita Arens

I've had at least five conversations with moms lately in which they say, "I just wouldn't know what to do with a girl," or "he acts like such a BOY." I actually believe nature is often more influential than nurture in long-term development, but is our early childhood behavior really so defined by gender? Are we helping anyone out by making comments like that? No, we are not.

by brisher7

My husband started a new job in January. It's a good job and we're lucky, that's what I keep telling myself. But the hours are a pain in the ass. He works in the city from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m.. You add the additional 4 hours of commute time everyday and that's a long day.

Sorry, brief interruption: My son just asked me what is sperm? He's 10. Then he asked me, "What time is it?" That's the fourth time he's asked me what time it is since 8:03. It's 8:10 now.

by Blushblog

I received a phone call from a family member yesterday saying that our cousin had busted her son having a party at her house. Did she walk in on the party? Nope, she was about four and a half hours away when the party was going on. Did she call and hear the party going on in the background?

by Her Bad Mother

I've been hard on Gwyneth Paltrow in this space. I've been hard on Gwyneth Paltrow in a lot of spaces. I find her a little bit hard to take. I find her website, GOOP, a LOT hard to take. Maybe it's the "don't you all want to be just like me?" tone of the site, maybe it's the total out-of-touchness of it all (why, no, Gwynnie, I am not interested in where you stay on your weekend jaunts to Paris because, you know, I don't cope with the stresses of motherhood with first-class global travel. Funny huh?)

by thedspot

Its not communication, its "Ex-Management."

Soon after my divorce, I realized that my ex-husband and I no longer knew how to communicate with each other.

Fifteen years, two children, 4 years of therapy and a divorce later, we were unclear as to how to be "partners" instead of "spouses".

by Nordette

At long last comes the Obama puppy! He's 6 months old and his name is Bo. The name may pose a problem for some bloggers and some Obama opponents who insist on calling President Barack Obama "Bo," but isn't the little doggie cute? And yet, Houston, we have a problem.

by Chris--MomathonBlog.com

Now here's an iPhone app moms will love. You might not like the name, but you'll love how SitOrSquat.com will help you find the cleanest public bathroom anywhere in the world. This free mobile app for iPhones and BlackBerry's is courtesy of Charmin.

by Rita Arens

Faith is very important to me.  I get a lot of peace and strength from my relationship with my Maker. I'm not doing as well finding a church home, and that bothers me a little from a parenting perspective. I want my daughter to understand my faith and my beliefs and be familiar with the Bible, but I also want her to be open-minded about the rest of the world. I can't seem to find a church that gives me everything I want. They all seem too full of human beings, who are often motivated by things other than the Lord.

by Mir Kamin

You thought you'd heard it all about the ramifications of the current state of the economy, but maybe you hadn't heard this: In addition to everything else we're going to blame on the economy, it's also causing more vasectomies.

by adivahisrael

I am very diligent every November. In preparation for the impending holidays, every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas I and my children clean out our closets, bedrooms and every other nook and cranny of the house. The idea is that between hauling out all of our holiday decorations and being completely spoiled by loved ones who shower us with lovely (and, yes, some hideous as well) gifts there just isn't any room in the house for unnecessary crap. And, boy, do we ever have tons of unnecessary crap!

by Suzette1

Winter's end is near, but we're shivering with anxiety as we look a the calendar and see exam dates starting to line up like a series of storms on a weather map; ominous approaching deadlines for tests any student with dreams of going to college has to take. The relative calm of our 17-year-old high school junior is about to turn into a rainstorm of the El Niño kind: relentless, merciless and abate less for the next three months.

by Yesha Callahan

I remember my last visit to my pediatrician, Dr. Monroe, when I was 13 years old. Dr. Monroe was a family staple who was passed down to us through our older cousins. From my first visit, when I was only a few weeks old to my last in my teen years, my pediatrician became more like a family friend. Not only was she my doctor, but also my siblings and other family members. On her office wall you could see pictures of all the Callahan children, from first violin recitals to high school & college graduations. During my last visit she gave me a gift.

by cutiebootycakes

I have noticed that as the seasons change there is an upswing in the rhino-virus in my household. My son inevitably comes home from daycare with a running nose, coughing and sneezing--usually on me. Over the weekend the season changed from Winter to Spring and like clockwork, this morning I woke up with the telltale scratchy throat accompanied by intermittent sneezing that signals the onset of a cold. My only hope is that my husband will make it to the store so that I can load up on Zicam. In the past it has effectively decreased the length of my colds.