Parenting – Human Parts

in Human Parts

I Raised My Child in a Shopping Mall

I raised my child in a shopping mall. Not the kind of my youth: An enclosed, 1980’s dark-floored cave with a Spencer’s and The Limited, Orange Julius and Chick-Fil-A; a constant fountain whooooooshing in the background. No, this…

Parenting

6 min read

Teresa Lagerman

·Apr 1

My Kid Is One in a Million. Literally

When your child doesn’t fit in a neat box, parenting can feel like an extreme sport — and school is often the ultimate challenge — That morning, I was one of the parents unable to hold back tears as our kindergarteners closed out the school year with a performance of “Count On Me,” a song by Bruno Mars. This being 2016, their big smiles were in full display, all baby teeth and pride in their…

Parenting

6 min read

Alex Dobrenko

·Mar 28

What No One Tells You About Becoming a Dad

A few analogies to explain the first nine months of parenthood — I’m sitting in the backyard with four other people. Two of them are my friends, Chase and Michael. The other two are infants. Don’t worry, the babies aren’t randos — we know these lil idiots. Chase has a one-year-old and I have a nine-month-old. They are our children, and we…

Fatherhood

8 min read

What No One Tells You About Becoming a Dad

Jacqueline Dooley

·Mar 29

The Profound Permanence of Parental Grief

After five years, I’m still trying to find my way to something like acceptance — On day five of Covid, I woke up to the sinking realization that I couldn’t smell anything. It was as if someone had flipped a switch. All the smells had simply vanished from the world. Slightly desperate, I put candles and spices and bars of soap right up against my…

Parenting

7 min read

The Profound Permanence of Parental Grief

Andrew Knott

·Mar 22

Sometimes a Walk in the Woods Is All You Need

Even if it isn’t an epic hike — When I was in my twenties and extremely bored, I came across a book by humorist Bill Bryson called A Walk in the Woods. As I remember it, the author and a very sad and angry friend, neither of whom were equipped for long-distance hiking, decided to thru-hike the Appalachian…

Parenting

3 min read

Sometimes a Walk in the Woods Is All You Need

Roblin Meeks

·Mar 3

How to Be From Somewhere

It’s not what you think — Only one of the two small elevators at the Ace Hotel in downtown L.A. works, but the young person with floral forearm tattoos working the front desk assures me that everything’s fine. The Ace (calling itself “ADTLA”) is designed to communicate a casual, rock vibe — autographed electric guitars for…

New York

6 min read

Laura Friedman Williams

·Mar 13

A Midlife Reckoning With Childhood Trauma

When unprocessed grief rears its head — I am two months shy of my fifth birthday when my father dies. He has been ill throughout my childhood, his kidneys failing after a childhood illness ravaged them. He has been on dialysis as he’s awaited a new kidney, but he dies before one becomes available. He is 36. …

Family

6 min read

A Midlife Reckoning With Childhood Trauma

Jacqueline Dooley

·Feb 24

The Hardest 30 Days: Countdown to The 5-Year Anniversary of My Daughter’s Death

I’m live blogging my most difficult days of the year — Day 30: These bleak February days with their unsettled weather patterns make me so impatient for spring. I watch the feeders from my office window, counting the cardinals in the naked branches of the nectarine tree. As the day of your death draws closer, I make an endless, futile wish…

Parenting

11 min read

The Hardest 30 Days: Countdown to The 5-Year Anniversary of My Daughter’s Death

Tiina Treasure, LCSW

·Mar 2

The Adjusted Age of Parenthood in a Pandemic

On loving your child and losing yourself — In March 2020, my son was born three weeks early in a Brooklyn hospital just as news reporters started to flood New Rochelle and the CDC debated the merits of masking. We didn’t know it at the time, but those extra three weeks meant that we could enjoy his birth…

Parenting

5 min read

The Adjusted Age of Parenthood in a Pandemic

Carvell Wallace

·Mar 1

We Waded Into the Dark Waters

There is a memory that has been haunting me for several days — The four of us waded into dark waters in the night. The moon was out, but not enough to make the darkness of water any less frightening. It was early summer on the East coast, late June on Cape Cod, at an inlet on the Buzzard’s Bay side. Mild days…

Memories

6 min read

in Human Parts

I Raised My Child in a Shopping Mall

My Kid Is One in a Million. Literally

What No One Tells You About Becoming a Dad

The Profound Permanence of Parental Grief

Sometimes a Walk in the Woods Is All You Need

How to Be From Somewhere

A Midlife Reckoning With Childhood Trauma

The Hardest 30 Days: Countdown to The 5-Year Anniversary of My Daughter’s Death

The Adjusted Age of Parenthood in a Pandemic

We Waded Into the Dark Waters

Editors

Human Parts

Harris Sockel

Amy Shearn

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