Top 10 Posts of 2017: the Best of Kansas City Moms Blog

“We don’t always have to explicitly tell our children that they are stupid or messed up or worthless or bad. We send that message through thoughtless words. Through indirect messages.”

Summer in Kansas City is HOT! Check out this list of our favorite splash pads to cool off all summer long.

“I get it. You are waiting for the call. Hoping it won’t come, but steadying yourself if it does. The call from the school. The one that says he did it again. ‘Can we meet with you?’ Again. You hear yourself saying words wrapped in ‘so-sorry’s when all you really want to do is stick your fingers in your ears and la-la-la it out.”

“The garage door opened and I turned around to say hello to my husband and was met not with the sweet relief of a finished work week on his face, but with something else. A look that in our 13 years together, through losses of parents and grandparents, jobs and friends, I had never seen.” 

Winter and summer and on the days in between, there are just times that the weather gets in the way of sending your kids outside to play. Here’s a list of places in KC to get all those wiggles out, sorted by type and location.

“When Alex steps up to bat, do you hold your breath? Does your heart swell for your big kid the way mine does for my littles? Do your mom-hands shake just enough for only you to notice? And when Alex struggles, does it sting?” 

“Once you hit what I thought was old enough, I pushed aside your instant tears because I thought you should have grown out of that. I assumed that at some point you wouldn’t be so sensitive anymore. I had no idea that deep down, you were struggling and me shrugging it off wasn’t helping.” 

“I could’ve chosen to groan my way through meeting my husband’s mistress for the first time. Instead, I looked her in the eye and stepped forward, extending my hand to shake hers. And I felt the strength in my grip.”

“Thank you for treating us with humanity. Thank you for leaving terms like ‘fetus’ and ‘miscarriage’ to the doctors. Thank you for instead talking about my babies, calling them our son and daughter by their names.” 

“It’s not wrong for me to tell you that having my son was the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Sure, it sounds hokey and cliché, but it’s the truth. He’s almost three years old, and I cringe thinking about what life would be like if I had made a very different decision in the summer of 2014. But I also cringe when I think about what I’m going to admit right now.”