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I thought of all the magazine article I'd read on mothers who worked and constantly felt guilty about leaving their children with someone else. I had ...more

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There are all sorts of losses people suffer - from the small to the large. You can lose your keys, your glasses, your virginity. You can lose your hea...more

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The best parenting advice I ever got was from a labor nurse who told me the following:1. After your baby gets here, the dog will just be a dog.2. The ...more

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and he suddenly knew that if she killed herself, he would die. Maybe not immediately, maybe not with the same blinding rush of pain, but it would happ...more

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We pretend that we know our children, because it's easier than admitting the truth--from the minute that cord is cut, they are strangers. It's far eas...more

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Would you give up your vengeance against someone you hate if it meant saving someone you love? Would you want your dreams to come true if it meant gra...more

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I wondered how long it took for a baby to become yours, for familiarity to set in. Maybe as long as it took a new car to lose that scent, or a brand-n...more

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Was it the act of giving birth that made you a mother? Did you lose that label when you relinquished your child? If people were measured by their deed...more

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We're [parents]) always bluffing, pretending we know best, when most of the time we're just praying we won't screw up too badly.

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The scariest thing in the world is thinking someone you love is going to die.

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How could you go about choosing something that would hold the half of your heart you had to bury?

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Parenting is really just a matter of tracking, of hoping your kids do not get so far ahead you can no longer see their next moves.

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We are all, I suppose, beholden to our parents - the question is, how much?

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If you have a sister and she dies, do you stop saying you have one? Or are you always a sister, even when the other half of the equation is gone?

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But kids don't stay where they're supposed to. You turn around and find her not in the bedroom but hiding in a closet; you turn around and see she's n...more