Dear Moms,
Parenting in these times reminds me of how it feels when the whole house is sick with the flu. Coughing, sneezing, burning with fever and body aches. I know you can relate.
The kids are crying for you. Your partner — buried under the blankets, ears plugged with his own misery — can’t seem to hear them. Inside the fog that is your brain, you’re in two places simultaneously. There you are in the kids’ room, wiping their foreheads with cool cloths and hugging them for reassurance. And there you are in the kitchen, holding onto the counter for dear life as you concoct some herbal tea blend your grandmother (or a TikTok influencer) once made.
You open the cupboard and pull down old cans of chicken soup, chiding yourself for not being up to making a pot of fragrant, nourishing soup from scratch. You’re all out of chicken, carrots, celery and pasta because you haven’t been to the store in a week.
And you’re too sick to drag yourself there. Too sick to stand over anybody’s stove. And yet mothering never — ever — gets a sick day. Somehow, you must get everyone (yourself included) through to the other side. To noses that can smell again. Tongues that can taste again. And lips that widen in smiles again.
No wonder we call the force that governs our planet’s seasonal shifts Mother Nature. Only a “mother” can coax life forward out of bleakness and pain, whether winter or the flu, whispering messages of hope while tending to still-tender shoots.
Certainly, this kind of nurturing is not exclusive to women who have given birth. Anyone who has carried others through illness, uncertainty and fear is a nurturer. For every piece of devastating news I read, I turn around to stories where people of all genders and ages are acting as nurturers, neighbors and protectors working to get to the other side of at least some of what ails us.
In this issue, and in celebration of spring as a time of taking an honest look at what’s broken and working to make repairs, we include stories that help you understand immigration rights, rediscover the power of old-school play (hopscotch on the sidewalk, anyone?), seek healing in gardens and soil, encourage the kids to make a mess in camp this summer and look for the beauty growing all around us.
Beauty that is as determined as an immune system renewing itself.
Cassandra Lane is Editor-in-Chief of L.A. Parent.
