The day of our rehearsal dinner, Elon Musk smoked marijuana during an interview for Joe Rogan’s live podcast. Tesla stock plummeted and two executives announced their departures. The twinkle lights around my in-law’s house reflected off the lake. Two dozen of our closest family and friends shared in Champagne and classic Cuban food. Obama urged …
My Life Will End and other lessons in parenting
I’ve been on quite the hiatus from This is Not Advice because it is crunch time for the preorder campaign of Not What I Had in Mind: A Motherhood Origin Story. Soon, you’ll be able to order my debut memoir, but I have a lot of work to do before that happens. So please excuse the interruption of …
On Distance, Subjectivity, and Mothering
“Mama está muy lejos,” my daughter says her mother is too far away. I haven’t heard this one as part of her bedtime avoidance routine. She repeats it over and over like maybe it will create an alternate reality in which I am not sitting in the rocking chair six feet away. We have been …
The Perks of Raising Bilingual Children
This post was originally published in my newsletter This is Not Advice. This is Not Advice (TINA) is weekly publication by me—Laura Freeland, blogger, soon-to-be-published-author, the world’s okayest mom, and avid plant eater—where I explore motherhood, the creative life, and other topics I know almost nothing about. If you love these emails please forward to …
Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s dermal fillers.
This is Not Advice (TINA) ↓ This is Not Advice (TINA) is a weekly publication by me—Laura Freeland, blogger, soon-to-be-published-author, the world’s okayest mom, and avid plant eater—where I explore motherhood, the creative life, and other topics I know almost nothing about. It comes out on Thursdays via email, and it eventually makes it’s way onto …
A Birthday Gift for the Abuelo Who has Everything
Today is my father’s birthday, and there’s nothing I could buy that would convey what a joy is it to celebrate his life. Instead of browsing Amazon and Uncommon Goods for hours, I made him my very first photo essay; it may be my very favorite gift I’ve ever given.
Believe in Miracles 2022
Hello and good morning to you, worthy friend. This is the first of a few very exciting updates coming your way this month. So let’s do this… In 2015–a whole decade late to the party—I started watching Grey’s Anatomy. It was the year Derek Shepherd died. He witnesses a car accident on a road in the middle …
Out for blood: a tale of human kindness
I thought my husband, Jerod, had left an overnight diaper under the play mat, or in the crevasses of the rocking chair, or under the mattress. I washed the sheets and checked the dresser drawers. I told the babysitter I would pay her $20 extra if she found the source of the smell. The smell …
Summer of Swim
It’s been a while. We’ve been underwater—literally. A week and a half ago, I noticed a strange smell coming from the nursery. I spent a week looking for a peed pullup set aside by a sleepy dad in the middle of the night. But when the floorboards started lifting and the baseboards popped off, it …
My Rejected Modern Love Essay: I didn’t want to love my daughters.
A year ago, I submitted the essay below to the New York Times’ Modern Love Column. Modern Love accepts less than one percent of the over 8,000 submissions they get each year. So here I am, on this beautiful Sunday morning, sharing my rejected essay. Because, why not? When my daughters were born, I didn’t want …