Raising children in France has provided me with an enriching experience—ranging from outdoor activities in stunning landscapes to high-quality healthcare that significantly eases the postpartum recovery process.
When our child's fifth birthday came around, we found ourselves utterly exhausted not just from the day-to-day work of parenting, but from the pressure that seems to accompany birthday parties these days.
Vale created a drawing for her mom, featuring Savannah's initials 'SCG' and highlighting her various roles like 'Journalist,' 'Winner,' and 'Mom.' Vale attempted to charge her $5 for it.
Despite consistent efforts with strength training, improved diet, and increased activity, stubborn midsection weight remained unchanged, leading to frustration and emotional distress during a check-up.
"I am quite literally begging us to stop normalizing this. If you are bothered by babies and kids on planes, you can just remember that you are entitled to a child-free life; you are not entitled to a child-free world."
As a parent, you spend a lot of time in waiting rooms. It starts in the maternity hospital, then the public health nurse, then the GP, the dentist, maybe the school principal a couple of times if you are blessed with an especially terrible child.
Parents experience mixed feelings when school ends for the summer. On the one hand, there are no more early morning wake-up calls, last minute panics over forgotten homework, lost PE kit or the sudden realisation that the deadline for that history project is imminent.
There's definitely some things, some ads that I'm like, 'Oh, I wish I could have gone back and maybe not done that ad.' But you learn and you go back and you go, 'All right, I'm not gonna do that one again.'
The one exception to that has been the OXO bottle rack that's been with us from day one. Purchased after our initial rounds of baby stuff research, the drying rack had earned the "space-saving" title in nearly every best-of list and came with glowing reviews on Amazon.
It feels like you come into the darkness, says Keira, her body frozen. Now I have to count the minutes. That pure joy was gone.
"Everybody jokes, 'Oh my gosh, who spends all this time looking for a Labubu?' But for me, this is much more about my daughter - seeing that she's excited about something, and I want to get excited about that thing with her."