Dear Gentle Parenting Groups, Why Are You Silent on Reunification Camps?
I came into parenthood already believing that children were full-fledged humans with the right to be treated with respect and dignity, but I did used to think that my job would involve a lot more molding and forming than I do now. Pretty early on in my parenting journey, I was faced with a tiny…
Nobody Puts ‘Trauma Coping Skills’ on Their Baby Shower Gift Registry
Today I had to reply to a message from V’s second grade teacher to explain that shutting down and going nonverbal is a common trauma response and not defiance. Then I started reminiscing about how when I was eight months pregnant, I would rub my belly and daydream about all the coping skills my child…
Love & Hope Day
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -That perches in the soul -And sings the tune without the words -And never stops – at all – And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard -And sore must be the storm -That could abash the little BirdThat kept so many warm – I’ve heard it in…
What Must Be Mourned ~ One Year Court-Free, Finding Acceptance and Change
Lord forgive me, I’ve been running running blind in truthI’ma rain, I’ma rain on this bitter loveTell the sweet I’m new Beyonce, Freedom No longing for the moonlightNo longing for the sunNo longer will I curse the bad I’ve doneIf there’s a time when the feelings gone, I want to feel it. The Kills, Future…
Making Plans Instead of Having Nightmares
Yesterday was Father’s Day and it’s the second one since visitations were suspended. Since ending it with x, and seeing the damage he is not only capable of, but thrives on, Father’s Day is a day of guilt for me. Or, more accurately, a day of me battling mama-guilt that isn’t really mine to carry…
Trauma Tumor: Cut This Out of Me, Please.
To live in the body of a survivor is to never be able to leave the scene of the crime. I cannot ignore the fact that I live here. Blythe Baird PTSD is a whole-body tragedy, an integral human event of enormous proportions with massive repercussions.Susan Pease Banitt Three months ago I was diagnosed with…
Why We Stay on the Bus: On Cognitive Dissonance, Paralysis and All Those Words That Just Aren’t Enough.
Let’s just breeze past the fact that the first (or even the tenth) question anyone gets after leaving abuse shouldn’t be ‘why didn’t you leave sooner?’ because, for now, it’s what we hear over and over and over. It’s the mantra when any story even similar to what we’ve lived hits the news. It’s not…
Mad, Sad and Sick to My Stomach: These Deaths are Preventable So We Need to Stop Letting Children Die
We have a crisis, why is no one listening?Tina Swithin, One Mom’s Battle Last night there was breaking news about three children and an adult being shot and killed in a church in Sacramento before the shooter killed himself. The little bit of info (& every headline) made it clear that these children were killed…
There May Be 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover ~ But Shame is One of the Ways Abusers Get Us to ‘Stay’
Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change.Brené Brown You changed my lifeWe were as green as grassAnd I was hypnotizedFrom the first til the lastKiss of shame, shame, shamePJ Harvey, Shame I was standing at the bottom of the stairs, just outside of view of the front door,…
Day 731: It *is* Still Sad, Of Course I Know That.
Three weeks before the second anniversary of what I am now calling Love and Hope Day – my first day intentionally free from abuse in my own home – x no showed to court and my life suddenly became my own and my child was given the gift of an indefinite amount of time to…
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