Beneath the Surface
Subscribe to Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers and see why we’ve been receiving awards for literary excellence since 2000. By Francesca Kaplan Grossman The first time I found one, I had...
View ArticleThe Right Time for The Talk
By Ellyn Gelman I sat next to my mother at the kitchen table, our eyes glued to the bulky television on the Formica countertop. It was the summer of ’78 and the lead story that morning was the birth of...
View ArticleSweet Child of Mine
Last week I waited in front of our local pool club for my 15-year-old daughter Emily to emerge. Em’s my oldest; after a ten day community service trip to Costa Rica, she’s home for two weeks then off...
View ArticleLeaving
By Nina Sichel I. I have come full circle, and it is nearly time to leave. I arrived here two decades ago, just months from the birth of my first child, and now the youngest is ready for college, my...
View ArticleMothers at the Microphone: Sharing Our Stories
Imagine the most loving, honest conversation you’ve ever had with a best friend and multiply that feeling of connection a thousand times and you could be me, last Thursday at the Listen To Your Mother...
View ArticleMothers and Fathers
By Lauren Apfel When I think about what a mother is, I tend to think about what a father is not. My mother was day in and day out, my father was summers and some weekends. My mother was the endless...
View ArticleWhat You’re Left With When She is Gone
By Ronit Feinglass Plank In a box of old things my sister recently sent me I found a photo of my mother from when I was thirteen and my sister was ten, when Mom had just come back from her second cult...
View ArticleShorts Story
By Tyann Sheldon Rouw Early Thursday morning, I awoke to a shadowy figure leaning over my bed, wielding a big pair of black scissors. They weren’t scissors one used to cut paper. No, they were the...
View ArticleGrandma’s Secret
by Kate Washington When she was three, my daughter Lucy was interested in many things: fairies, swimming, “Call Me Maybe,” ice cream, the alphabet, families, death. The last two interests led her to...
View ArticleThe Good Mother
By Sarah Minor When I found out I was pregnant, the first person I told was my mother. At least, that’s what I told her. I called my mom on my drive back to work after my first doctor’s appointment....
View ArticleCancer Mom
By Kristen Brookes I am a cancer mom. Like a gymnastics mom or a swim mom, but different. At gymnastics, we would all huddle around the window into the gym, admiring the strength, grace, and...
View ArticleConnect
By Sarah Layden My brain is a box of wires. Some connect to appropriate portals, some fray at both ends. I sort the tenth tragic email update from a friend to the folder marked Baby. I begin to reply...
View ArticleTransitional Objects
By Lauren Apfel This is the story of two blankies, Rough and Purple. Blankies that came into a house, impossibly soft, like the fur on the back of the softest animal you can imagine. Blankies whose...
View ArticleMountains to Climb
by Julie Polhemus I. “I want to work mountaineering courses,” I told my husband. He smiled. I had just summited Eldorado Peak, heavy with spring snow, in Washington’s North Cascades. I had even led the...
View ArticleDisbelief, Suspended
By Kelly Garriott Waite Evenings, just prior to giving each of the three door handles (one front, two back) a final twist and firm tug, to reassure myself that the deadbolts were engaged, I would...
View ArticleMothers at the Microphone: Sharing Our Stories
Imagine the most loving, honest conversation you’ve ever had with a best friend and multiply that feeling of connection a thousand times and you could be me, last Thursday at the Listen To Your Mother...
View ArticleDisbelief, Suspended
By Kelly Garriott Waite Evenings, just prior to giving each of the three door handles (one front, two back) a final twist and firm tug, to reassure myself that the deadbolts were engaged, I would...
View ArticleThe Joyful Mysteries
By Maria Massei-Rosato Prayer beads are used by many different religions, including Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Catholics use a form with 59 beads and pray the Rosary. I don’t remember owning a set...
View ArticleThe Decision
By Francesca Grossman My childhood stairs were carpeted red with little black flecks. The rug was threadbare in places, and I spent hours every day pulling the little wiry strings back to reveal more...
View ArticleThe Dance
By Allison Slater Tate Though I think I have blocked most of middle school out of my consciousness in the interest of self preservation, I do still possess a few vivid memories 28 years later. Among...
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