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A collection of essays from Mary Widdicks: writer, humorist, novelist, and former psychologist who can't remember if she fed all her kids this morning.

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When Your Boys Aren’t Babies Anymore

July 10, 2016 by Mary Widdicks 1 Comment

When Your Boys Aren’t Babies Anymore

Do you guys know today’s guest poster Tracey Schaefer?  If not, you should.  She’s a self-proclaimed mommy Jekyll and Hyde, taking care of her two boys by day and bitching about it at night!  I’m guessing most of us can relate to that feeling, especially those of us surrounded by hoards of boys.  She is hilarious and [Read more…]

They Grow Up So Fast

September 20, 2015 by Mary Widdicks 6 Comments

They Grow Up So Fast

When my oldest son was two he stopped sleeping through the night. He had been sleeping reliably since he was six months old and even when we transitioned him from his crib to a bed his nightly routine remained unaffected.  I thought I had all the answers, until one night when I was about six [Read more…]

Eight Failed Excuses For Not Cutting My Son’s Hair

June 8, 2015 by Mary Widdicks 5 Comments

Eight Failed Excuses For Not Cutting My Son’s Hair

My son is two years old, with beautiful blue eyes, and long curly blond hair. He was born with a mischievous and impish personality and a mop of wild hair to match. He is pure, unadulterated sunshine, and an entertainer to everyone around him. Strangers frequently mistake him for a little girl, but to me [Read more…]

Epiphany

March 31, 2014 by Mary Widdicks 32 Comments

Epiphany

I had an epiphany today while dancing unashamedly to Do You Really Want to Hurt Me by The Culture Club in the middle of a fast food restaurant. Parenting requires many sacrifices: most of them, while given willingly, are losses that we mourn for years. I haven’t slept more than six consecutive hours in four [Read more…]

The Wall

March 24, 2014 by Mary Widdicks 27 Comments

The Wall

It seems to me that our children dance impishly along the border between infancy and childhood for years.  From the moment they pick up their sippy cup and start helping themselves to the moment they wave to you from the doorway on their first day of school they are toying with the idea of independence. [Read more…]

Celebrate

March 9, 2014 by Mary Widdicks 22 Comments

Celebrate

It’s Sunday again, ladies and gentlemen, and that means it’s time to confess! Each week the wonderful Hot Ash from More Than Cheese and Beer give us a topic and we have to write a post confessing something related to that topic. This week’s subject was: celebrate. Which, as it turns out, is fate. My [Read more…]

The unbearable sound of silence

February 18, 2014 by Mary Widdicks 19 Comments

The unbearable sound of silence

Photo Source This is the world’s quietest room. Researchers at the Orfield Laboratory in Minneapolis, MN claim that as little as 30 minutes in the anechoic chamber can cause psychosis and hallucinations. In fact, the longest anyone has remained in the room is 45 minutes (source) When I first saw this story, my reaction was [Read more…]

10 things that have changed since my 20s

February 1, 2014 by Mary Widdicks 10 Comments

10 things that have changed since my 20s

Having children ages you. It has to. No one stays fresh-faced and youthful by sleeping 4 hours a night, eating grilled cheese crusts and too-soft grapes for lunch while chasing a toddler around the kitchen, showering once a week, and standing in the freezing rain while your child insists on strapping himself into his car seat at [Read more…]

Insecurities

January 18, 2014 by Mary Widdicks 14 Comments

Insecurities

This week I decided to participate in More than Cheese and Beer’s Sunday Confessions. Each week she gives a new prompt and we have to confess. This week’s prompt was INSECURITIES. Here we go: Insecurities are dynamic and powerful creatures that grow and change with you as you age, like your thighs, hairline, or ability [Read more…]

Brothers

January 8, 2014 by Mary Widdicks 7 Comments

Brothers

One of my favorite things about having two boys is watching how they grow into completely different people despite the fact that they are physically very similar. I think it’s the researcher in me that finds comfort in the beautifully controlled study. Two boys, born to the same parents, who look very similar at birth [Read more…]

Bittersweet Freedom

January 3, 2014 by Mary Widdicks 6 Comments

At 9:00AM this morning, I held my little man’s hand as we trudged through the snow in the sub-zero temperatures toward his future. Ok, technically we were trudging toward The Little Gym, but in the moment it felt like we were passing through some sort of portal. When I entered the portal I was leading [Read more…]

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