Chapter Twenty-Nine: Breaking the Cycle of Mom Guilt
“Hey Mom, want to go mountain biking?”
I did not, in fact, want to go mountain biking. But as any parent of kids will tell you, we can’t take another sleepless night of worrying about this pandemic’s robbing us of positive memories as we race against the clock of their childhoods. Framed in this light, I had no other choice, really, but to agree to Tyler’s request.
Chapter Twenty-Six: The Lion’s Gate Portal
Dear Diary,
Oh what joy it is to awaken and learn that I became an aunt whilst I slept! Just like that, I have two perfect babies to love and care for, to hold and snuggle as much as I want, and the whole process could not have been easier for me!
Chapter Seventeen: Co-Parenting During Covid
Dear Diary,
My friend Chiara recently called me as she was driving to the Canadian border. “I don’t blame you for trying to get out, but I thought the border was closed,” I joked as I pictured her for a split second trying to make a break for it. Turns out she was headed to a border patrol office somewhere near Vancouver in order to exchange her 11 year-old daughter with her ex-husband, a Canadian national, for summer vacation per their standard custodial schedule. Normally, this is a much simpler matter of arranging a few flights and other travel arrangements. This year, after consulting with an attorney and exhausting every other possible option, this was literally the only way that they could legally effectuate the handoff.