Tag: family

You Are More Than Just a Mom. You Shouldn't Feel Guilty Terin Marlae Benavente

Yes, You Are More Than Just a Mom. No, You Shouldn’t Feel Guilty

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By Terin Marlae Benavente | Featured Contributor

Not long ago, I had a critical yet honest conversation with my mother. During this conversation, she mentioned several times how now, at the age of 61, she feels she missed out on certain parts of her life. As the eldest daughter, I not only must listen with an open heart but truly understand her as a friend and confidant. While this may seem easy for some, it has been hard to step out of my comfort zone and respond from two very different perspectives. But this has been long overdue since her best friends in life (her sister and mother) passed away just eight years apart.

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Why Do We Judge What We Do Not Understand?

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By Terin Marlae Benavente | Featured Contributor

As most of you know, Christmas this year looked a little different for everyone. My husband and I decided to take our children to visit their grandparents who live nearly an hour away for a short visit. Prepped with double masks and hand sanitizer, away we went. Once we arrived, pleasantries were exchanged and gifts were unwrapped. Shortly after, my father decides to bring me his retirement/pension paperwork to help him fill it out. Of course, the HR employee inside of me jumped up and said “of course!” while the daughter inside of me thought “Uh oh, I have left my husband all alone with his outspoken, sharp-tongued mother-in-law.” Not in the best health herself, I decided to roll with it and move forward.

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Broken Womb, Shattered Soul: Living with Infertility (part 1)

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By Barbara Leonhard | Featured Contributor

As we grow and develop, we learn how to identify with many labels or roles, such as daughter/son, aunt/uncle, mother/father, and grandmother/grandfather, to name a few. It seems as though our stories are written before we are born to conform to these labels. In a way, these roles become rituals that comfort us as we agree to them and even expect our lives to go “as planned” based on our social codes and blueprints for survival.

I know I certainly expected my life to unfold much like my mother’s life did with marriage and family. She had seven children, and being the second oldest and oldest girl, I was able to help with all the babies she had. It never occurred to me that I would never be able to have my own children. Little did I know that my helping her at the ages of 9 and 10 with my youngest siblings would be my only times to experience at least part of what a mother does for her kids. I am not sure I appreciated this time because as much as I loved playing mommy, I also wanted to be with my friends.

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