Holly Hays

My husband and I can’t help but laugh over all the things we never thought we’d say as parents that pop out of our mouths (“What did I just tell you?” “Listen to your mother.”) We love our kids to bits, but man, is being a parent tough sometimes! In the new book All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood, award-winning journalist Jennifer Senior digs deep into this push-pull conundrum, looking at how parenting has changed over the last half century. She talked with me about some of the fascinating things she learned.  

In All Joy and No Fun, you explore how, as parents today, we feel that the overall job of parenting is incredibly satisfying and fulfilling—all joy—but the day-to-day stuff completely wears us out—no fun. But you also discovered that that’s in great part because modern parents demand so much of themselves, right?

We do demand so much of ourselves! And a lot of it is about the context we’re living in. There are different external pressures we’re responding

If you’re anything like me, the holidays are a time when your boundaries lessen or—complete honesty—totally disappear. (My favorite day-after-Thanksgiving breakfast? Pumpkin pie, thank you very much.) Luckily, Mama & Baby Love’s Stephanie Brandt Cornais, mama to 4-year-old Penelope, was up for sharing a few tips on how to have a healthier, saner season.

What are some of your Thanksgiving traditions?

Last Thanksgiving was my first grain free Thanksgiving. I was worried that my family might feel deprived, but it ended up going really well. So I’m excited to do that again this year. I’m trying to think back to the first time I did a roast turkey…. It was six or seven years ago, and I remember being terrified. It seemed so out of my league. But once I realized how easy roasting a chicken is, I just pretended the turkey was a bigger, fatter chicken. And I’m happy to say I can do a pretty damn good turkey these days. Also, my aim with Thanksgiving is good enough; I’m not going for Martha

Creator of the hugely popular Girl’s Gone Child blog, mom of four (son Archer, 7, daughter Fable, 3, and twin girls Boheme and Reverie, 1), published author—yup, Rebecca Woolf pretty much epitomizes inspiring. And after having breakfast with her one recent morning in L.A., I’m adding “thoughtful,” “wise,” and “hilarious” to the list.   What inspired Girl’s Gone Child (GGC)? I was 23 when Archer was born. I didn’t have any friends who had kids, no mom groups. I had no way to process the parenting experience other than writing about it. And people slowly started reading. I honestly feel like I really got lucky. There were, like, 10 bloggers that I knew of writing about this stuff at the time (2005), and we were all doing it because we loved it and had something to say or ask. And then over time we recognized that we could have ads and a book deal and all these other things, which was amazing because at the time I was working four jobs. Finally earning money from GGC must have felt

Christy Turlington Burns is a pretty incredible example of just how much one mom can do: International supermodel, check. Designer, check. Mother of two, check. And in 2010, Christy founded the organization Every Mother Counts (EMC), which helps fund programs that allow mothers around the world to get prenatal care and medical support to safely give birth. This month, Every Mother Counts and Ergobaby are launching the Ergobaby Guest Designer Series. A portion of the Series’ proceeds will benefit EMC; Christy is the first guest designer. Here, she shares a little more about motherhood, managing it all, and what makes her so passionate about this project.   The Ergobaby Designer Series will be benefitting the organization you founded, Every Mother Counts. Do you think western women are aware of how dire the statistics are on maternal mortality? I know that not enough people are aware that hundreds of thousands of women are still dying each year despite the fact that most of these deaths

Here are what long flights and car rides used to mean: Quiet time. Daydreaming time. I’d make sure I had a good playlist on my iPod, a water bottle, gum. And then I had a baby. Here are what long flights and car rides mean now: A vaudeville show. Step right up, babies and gents, we’ve got jugglers and funny face-makers, song singers and snack givers, a strong man who can hold a baby in one arm and walk up and down the aisle not one, not two, but 15 times for your amusement. A fortune-teller who knows exactly what happens at the end of Where’s Spot? For a 2-year-old and her parents, it’s laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and “Are we there yet?” takes on a whole new urgency. Sadie’s first road trip happened when she was two weeks old (a four-hour drive for a family beach vacation). She first went on a plane at 6 weeks. And both times, I steeled my nerves for whatever was to come. Have baby, will travel, onward and upward. Or something. Except… there was remarkably little to steel myself