Parents love to document every milestone their kid reaches. A child's first steps, first word, and the first day of school are all recorded carefully by their mom and dad so they can relive that memory for years to come. However, the most memorable moments of a kid's life usually happen when the cameras aren't around. When I was a kid, I somehow got my parents to give myself and my sister the s*x talk by asking endless questions about the biology of conjoined twins. There might not be a scrapbo…

Today, August 11th is National Daughters and Sons Day. If you're a parent, you're probably thinking, “isn't EVERYDAY daughters and sons day?”

The city I used to live in had a local cult. They preyed on international college students, those searching for a religious community, and straight-up loners to build an army of members. With promises of friendship and community, they'd isolate people from their families and other friends to the point where they'd spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with the cult. They'd provide housing for members and “strongly encourage” them to get in relationships and marry. As bemusing it is to have a…

The only phase of life where being chubby is socially accepted as a positive thing is infancy . Once you stop being young enough to carry, being thin is societally enforced with an iron fist, with anyone who doesn't fit into that mold being endlessly criticized for their size. It makes sense that we make an exception for fat babies in such a fatphobic society. After all, nobody wants a skinny baby. Well, almost nobody. Mayci Neeley is a TikToker who makes family content, sharing cute videos of…

Parents' expression on social media has only grown in the past ten years. I remember when millennials started having kids and documented their entire parenting journeys via Facebook. The landscape of parenting social media has vastly expanded, with some of the most popular accounts being “gentle parenting” accounts. This content's conceit is to teach parents how to parent their kids without traumatizing them. They post videos of their kids doing something naughty and then show parents how they…

For people who don't claim to be experts

There's something ethically murky about posting your kids online. What started as parents posting their kids on Facebook to share with friends and relatives has become an uncontrollable monster. Children are not old enough to fully comprehend the possible repercussions of having a digital footprint, especially one out of their control. In an era where family vloggers and parenting TikTokers can make thousands of dollars from plastering their child's face all over the internet, it's worth questi…

A wise woman once told me, “Darling, if you have a baby, then you can't be the baby .”

Parents: Who needs them? Who's got them? Who can't live without them? The answer to all of those questions is…everybody. Sure, not everyone has a relationship with their biological parents , but two people had to do an act of collaboration for you to be alive. Even if you are the product of IVF or were a tube baby, you were created by two people who may or may not have the parent title. The most critical parents aren't the people who made you with their bodies, but the people who raised you. Th…

Every now and then I see something that makes me think “Holy crap, thank god I do not have children."

Time flies when you're having “fun.” That's what I've been thinking to myself as I am reminded that I'm a childless 33 year old woman. Here in New York City, my friends have taken longer than most to go on the long and exhausting journey of procreation. My married and coupled friends, though, are starting to pop them out, slowly but surely, and I'm completely mystified. The woman who is making her kid's baby food from scratch every week is the same woman I used to run into at clubs three years…

She went from selling a vagina scented candle to fighting for lower income families…

This is dedicated to all the struggling parents out there

We all hear it from parents at some point. When I was your age, I had to walk twenty miles just to buy a carton of milk. When I was your age, we didn't have electricity, plumbing, beds, or clothes. When I was your age, I literally wasn't allowed to breathe. So think about that next time you complain about anything, ever! We get it, things sucked when you were younger. But guess what? Everything is relative. Which means your specific flavor of generational suffering doesn't make your kid's suffe…

Mommies and daddies and kids, oh my!