This post all started as a response to these: smaller condoms designed for 12-14 year old boys. The thinking was, most 12-14 year old boys do not use protection when they have sex. So let’s make condoms that fit them.
Ahem.
Is this okay? Are we just accepting now that 12-year-olds have sex? I’m having a hard time believing it, even though I consider myself to be pretty open about most things. Ask me do I regret my first time. Yup. Was I too young? Yup. Did I really know what love …

I have to say I was moved to tears yesterday reading your comments about my big news.
It’s very difficult for me to write this blog as just…well, me. As one person. As ONE young mother.
It’s hard to express how much I rely on you all. Without you, this blog is just a screen with words. A pretty screen, but it doesn’t mean anything. I want to not only tell MY stories, but YOUR stories as well, because it isn’t really about me. I use my experiences to make points about the larger …

If you have spent any amount of time on Twitter in the past month, you have probably seen chatter about Disney’s Social Media Moms Conference. (Click the link to check out a variety of write-ups on the event.)
Yup, I was there. Or was I?
See, three days before we left for Orlando, we had to take my daughter in to the doctor. Long story short, she needed antibiotics. For 10 days. And we know that antibiotics can cause diarrhea. (Well, actually, I didn’t know but boy, oh, boy, now I do.)
The day before we left …

I never felt like I really crossed that line from girl to womanhood on my own terms. Once I had kids, I was forced to grow up. Quick.
Things didn’t really revolve around me and what I wanted, but more about how I could be better to give my kids everything they needed. I had to learn to be more patient, to trust that I knew was I doing, and to let go of baggage I had been carrying around for no reason at all.
I learned what “strength” really means. I …

The day started at 5 a.m., the alarm sounding and bringing thoughts of, “Didn’t I JUST go to bed five minutes ago?” Swing your feet over the edge of the bed, stretch a little and stumble through the morning routine: clothes, brush teeth, grab breakfast and lunches, head out the door.
Then there’s traffic. Then work. Then a lunchtime workout saps what little energy is left. A long day at work, then rushing home to get dinner on the table. Wrestle the kids into pajamas. Brush their teeth.
You are almost tapped out. If you were a computer, …

I’m not sure when it started or if it’s been a problem my whole life, but I’m definitely an emotional eater. It become oh-so-apparent after I had kids.
I always buy the healthiest things I can buy for my kids - organic apples, bananas, grapes, fat-free puddings and low-fat cheeses, etc. But whenever I was grocery shopping I’d always put a six-pack of cupcakes in the cart. Why? Well, I thought I needed them. Needed them to give me a quick pick-me-up after a long day at the office and wrangling …

1. Be nice to each other. 
2. Learn as much as you can. Read books more often than you watch movies. Expand your vocabulary. If you realize you don’t know the answer to something, go figure it out.
3. Be nice to others.
4. Be focused. Learn your strengths.
5. Love hard.
6. Be good people.
7. Accept when you’ve given something your best and it doesn’t work out. That’s just a life lesson, not a failure.
8. Situations usually work out best for people who choose to make the best out of situations they’re in. Always remember …

Confession time: Both of my kids were “Surprise!” babies.
The first one? Well, we weren’t careful.
The second? Well, we weren’t careful enough.
“Surprise!” babies carry a special type of “Mommy guilt” that comes even before the baby is born. Now a new study says that moms with unplanned kids treat them differently. Great.
There’s not much that can make me feel inadequate about my mothering skills. But the fact that these precious babies were created without so much as a thought on my behalf as to whether or not I could provide for …

Everyone always talks about the “Terrible Twos” like they are only one step below being set on fire. Or maybe one step above it.
But I find that (yes, even on the bad days) I’m enjoying my daughter’s second year. Sure, she doesn’t listen, and she wants to stomp on my head if I lay on the floor (true story), and she refuses to do anything that she doesn’t feel like doing right at that moment. True, she has these tantrums that I call her “BFs” - baby fits. She’ll scream, …

Dear son,
Hard to believe your first year is coming to a close in a few short months. It feels like you have been a part of my life forever.
But in the nine months that you have been here, I feel like I need to apologize to you for some poor planning on my part.
To put it bluntly, I should’ve planned this ish better.
By the time you made your appearance in the family, your big sis was 21 months old. Meaning - she was pretty much all I could handle. …

I never felt comfortable around kids. They seemed too needy, too whiny and they never smiled at me.
So when I found myself pregnant at 20, I wasn’t too happy. In fact, I do believe the first words that escaped my mouth once I saw “Pregnant” on the pee-soaked test was, “Oh, s&#@.”
To say that a baby wasn’t in the plans was the understatement of my life.
I actually didn’t even have health insurance when I found out I was pregnant because my mom had between jobs and my dad’s job didn’t offer …

By now, I’m sure you’ve seen or heard about the RealAge test, which looks at your lifestyle to determine how old you really are by taking account of good activity like exercising (+5 years) or smoking (-10 years)
Young motherhood is a lot like that in some ways. When people ask how old I am, I amaze myself when I say, “23.”
“23?” I think to myself. ”There is no way in hell I’m only 23.”
I think young motherhood (if you do it correctly, that is) ages you. But in a good way. You put …

…I eat all my dinners in less than 10 minutes. Usually standing up and with a baby on my hip. Forget chewing and savoring the flavor - half the time the food doesn’t even touch my teeth!
…My dining room table has a fine layer of Cheerios dust on it. At all times. That ish seems to just grow.
…I can’t walk past the kids’ clothes section in Target without buying at least one shirt.
…Even with their door closed, all the way down the hallway, through my door and to the bed, where …

This was me last summer. About a MONTH before I was due. Which means I got bigger than this. A lot bigger. I actually stopped taking pictures because I didn’t want to be aware of how big I was getting.  It’s not good when you enter the bathroom and utter, “Oh, my Jesus,“ everytime you see yourself in the mirror. 
Pregnancy, for me at least, was hell.
I had morning sickness (which should be called all-the-damn-time sickness) from the day before I peed on the stick until I checked into the hospital for my …

On Fridays, I work from home. (Yay for me!) My hubby works about 20 minutes away, so we often meet for a lunch date to celebrate the end of the workweek and start thinking of plans for the weekend.
This one Friday I was on my way to campus (the hubs works at a local university) and I stopped to get gas. My car, a big ol’ Buick I like to call Roberta, has a huge 16-17 gallon tank so it takes forever to fill up.
As I’m leaning against the car, …

Every day after my kids get home from daycare, I ask my daughter how her day was.
Usually, she’ll say something like, “I had fun with Darren and Irene,” her two best friends. Or she might switch it up and tell me something about her teacher. “Miss Kathy gave me a sticker today.”
But when I asked her earlier this week, she said something that shocked me and hurt my feelings all at once.
“Tasha said she don’t like me,” my wonderful, beautiful baby girl said.
*screeeeech*
Two thoughts go through my mind. One …

The only thing worse than having a child before you turn 25?
Having more than one.
Case in point: I was at work today, minding my own business, walking about, saying hi to people. I like coming to work because my coworkers are genuinely nice people. They ask how my day is going and I know they care about the answer.
So I get on the elevator and the nicest woman you’ll ever meet who works a floor above me asks me about my son. “How’s the baby doing?” she asked with a …

I used to be so proud of the fact that my two-year-old hardly ever watched TV. Whenever it was on, she would just go about her business, playing with stuffed animals or coloring on construction paper.
That was before Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
That little mouse has turned my daughter out! She comes home from daycare and then runs straight to the TV. “I wanna watch Mickey Mowse,” she says in her Southern drawl. (Why my daughter sounds like a native Texan I will never know.)
“Sweetie, why don’t we color instead? Or how …

cross-posted from BMWK.com

It’s very inspiring to see a couple who love and respect each other as much as President Obama and Michelle Obama do. It’s clear in every interaction that they are each other’s best friend, and closest confidante. Their public displays of affection (including the “terrorist fist jab”) are legendary. They’re always hugging and kissing and gazing lovingly at each other.
But seeing their public love fest every day is making me grumpy.
Take Inauguration Day, for example. My husband and I watched as the new president and first lady made …

 
It’s very common for a young mom to think her life is officially over the second the kid is born. From here on out, they must give up their carefree days and become the best slave mother they can be.
I’ve been giving it a lot of thought and here are my top 5 reasons I’m glad I’m a young mom:

I have more credibility among my peers. It’s funny how women older than me still look down on me, but my friends my age think I am the second coming of …

Ever have one of those weeks where nothing seemed to go right?
The kids got sick, your work was sloppy, you’ve been fighting with your husband/boyfriend, you’re tired, been eating crappy foods, the car broke down, got a D+ on a paper, etc.?
It’s at the end of those weeks when I have to sit back on Friday night, take a deep breath, close my eyes and remember the little things that give me strength and make me laugh. For instance:
There’s no one who brings the drama quite like my daughter. Oh, that girl is …

As you all know if you read that little blurb on the right side of the blog, I created this site in May 2008 to address the fact that most parenting magazines/websites completely ignore the young mother.
I understand we might not be as alluring to advertisers, but it doesn’t mean we don’t exist. In addition to this blog, I’m also a freelance writer for several parenting websites and I try to bring my experience as a young mother into all the articles I write. That means, I don’t recommend products …

Ladies, can I be real with you?
I’m exhausted. Just plain tired beyond words. Between my increased responsibilities at work, my desire to be a good mommy and wife, our upcoming move, and my freelance writing gigs, I am burned out.
I am up and moving from about 6 a.m. until midnight every day. From 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. I’m at work. Writing articles, editing newsletters, managing my company’s social media efforts. (Yeah, I’m a big deal in real life, too.)
Then, after an hour and some change commute home, I’m in full chef …

Watched a few episodes again and didn’t realize how chock-full of funny insights on motherhood there were in it. I still miss that show. *sigh*
When Miranda gets pregnant…
Miranda : He only has one ball and I have a lazy ovary. In what twisted world does that create a baby? … It’s like the special Olympics of conception!
Complaining about the pains of pregnancy…
Miranda : I’m telling you: the fat ass, the farting .. it’s ridiculous. I am un-fuckable. And I have never been so horny in my entire life. … That’s why …

I almost quit my job today.
Not because I hate it or any stress-related issues, but because of my daughter.
Every day for the past two weeks, whenver I go somewhere without her, she clings to my leg and cries out, “No, I want to stay with MOMMY!” She screams and fusses and falls out and yells for me. “Mommy, please! Mommy, stay with me! Mommy, I need you!”
Sigh. Hello, guilt. Long time no see.  
I know she just misses me, as both my babies have spent every weekend the past month with …