Nurshable

Letters to a Daughter

  • Time’s a River

    Dear Wren, It is 10PM on a random Wednesday in May. You will be five weeks old tomorrow. I am holding you wrapped up in a grey blanket that a good friend made for you. Your head is tucked up… Continue reading

  • What I Want My Kids to Know About Movies and Relationships (Fifty Shades of Whatever)

    Fifty Shades of Grey? What do I want my kids to know about movies like this one, when they’re older? Dating? Grown up? Honestly, I can’t think of a movie that portrays what I would consider a healthy relationship. So… Continue reading

  • Do As I Say! Or Else.

    Dear Kids, There are phrases that we hear that stick with us in one way or another. “Do as I say! Or else”. It means that there will be consequences, usually. That the child will face punishment unless they follow… Continue reading

  • Out-Tantruming a Tantrum is a Silly Notion

    The only path to peace is through making the personal choice to be peaceful. I can’t out-tantrum your tantrum. I can’t out-hit your hit. I can’t shame you into being any less sad or any less angry. That is suppression.… Continue reading

  • Manipulation is a Cloth Woven From Ordinary Feelings Warped by Bad Guesses

    Dear Kids, A random ordinary thing happens in our lives. You react. With joy, with glee, with sadness, with anger, with fear, with uncertainty, with hesitation, with upset, with confusion, with jealousy, with assertiveness, with argumentativeness, with a refusal to… Continue reading

  • “Just” for Comfort

    Dear Daughter, Sometimes you nurse “just” for comfort. Just. Because at two you “shouldn’t” need this anymore. Because the nutrition that you get from food, from meals cooked at the stove and from snacks picked from our garden, from the… Continue reading

  • Sex and Love

    Dear Kids, When you get older and all your friends are driving, maybe one of them will have a car and will say “let me show you how to drive!” I’ll expect you to say no. Why? Not because I… Continue reading

  • I Am Still Not a Human Pacifier- Comfort Nursing After Two

    Dear Daughter, You turned two this past April. Now it’s June. You are twenty six months and counting. We nursed past the minimum recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics. We nursed past the minimum recommendation of the World Health… Continue reading

  • When You Were Tiny

    Dear Daughter, Did you know that when you were tiny I’d hold you while you napped? I’d wrap a strip of white fabric around my body and I’d tuck you in to the place where the pieces overlapped, pulling them… Continue reading

  • One Day Someone Will Tell You That You’re Ugly

    Dear Daughter, One day someone will tell you that you’re ugly. Very few people get to go through life without hearing this one time or another. Not because they are ugly people, but because the world has a lot of… Continue reading