Essays, Essays Archive, From the Editors

Thank You // Favorite posts of 2015

We’ve made it to the very end of the year!

I’ll be taking the next two weeks off and will be back on January 5 with all new content from a host of amazing and dynamic women. In the meantime, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on the past 6 months.

The idea for Raising Mothers, long before the name was born, was swimming around in my head and heart since 2014. Before all of this I used to blog at some now defunct blogs. My previous blog followed my journey through pregnancy and having my son. I stopped writing on that site around the time he turned 1 because I didn’t want to have a mommy blog. I wanted to find a website that might more accurately reflect my personal experience: I’m in an interracial marriage and living halfway around the world in a culture and language foreign to my own. We live almost isolated from family and before charting motherhood, I was busy just finding my own place in this new life.

In the new year, I will focus more on finding families like my own as that has been an overarching theme I want to give prominence to. I will also begin writing. I didn’t want this to become a space that you only heard my voice since I don’t want to run a blog. I’ve been fortunate to have so many amazing contributors that are eager to share their stories and an equally amazing audience that have taken these voices in, related and offered loving words.

Mailing List // Contributors

If you haven’t already signed up for my mailing list, please do so here. I’ll be trying something new in the new year and in order to get those special bits, you’ll need to sign up.

If you would like to be a contributor to my site, I am creating a new mailing list specifically for that. It will go out once a month, so no worries of your mailbox being flooded. Sign up here!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart

Hitting publish that first week was no easy feat for me. I am so incredibly thankful and in awe at how many people come here each day. I generally have only 5 hours a week to dedicate to the admin and writing interviews, etc. I use the time my son is in preschool. I promised myself at the start of this year to invest in more self care, and while I haven’t actually done it in a physical sense, I know I’m doing it mentally and emotionally through this site. Next year, operation get fit.

I usually agonize over having things perfect from top to bottom. A lot of times, that results in things missing their mark or me losing my interest or something else detrimental to success. I’m an expert at getting in my own way, but thank heavens this one wouldn’t allow it. That’s how I know this is part of my way to give back. I pride myself on being a helper. What I’ve found with motherhood is how much healing needs to go around. With the help of all these brilliant writers and interviewees, I know I am helping in some way. Thank you for joining me. Tell a friend and stick around.

Here’s your favorite posts of 2015!

In these 28 posts, I’ve been able to cover adoption, multiracial family structures, solo parenting, co-parenting, parenting after divorce, parenting through mental health issues, being a daughter and grandmother at the same time, premature birth, and more.

Essay

Lost
DSC_0843

Bed Rest
bed rest - Li Greene

But this is meAlisha Sommer This Is Me

This is Co-Parentingcoparenting01

The thin line between love and hateThin Line - Esther P
Slapped
slapped

crowning : epistolaryEpistolary : Crowning

Interview

Adrienne Oliver
PEARL_26
Monica ParranHealing after a Premature Birth - Monica Parran for Raising Mothers
Rachelle Chapman
Rachelle Chapman for Raising Mothers

There you have it. Some of your favorite posts of 2015. Thank you again for making the past six months incredible.

See you in January!

Filed under: Essays, Essays Archive, From the Editors

by

Sherisa de Groot (she/her) is a writer, community builder, and founder of Raising Mothers, literary membership community Literary Liberation, and pens A Home Within Myself. Her work has been featured in a variety of publications, including Kindred by Parents, Refinery 29, Mutha Magazine, and Oldster Magazine and she was a contributor to the book ‘100 Diverse Voices on Parenthood’ by A Kid’s Company About. With a focus on intersectionality and social justice, de Groot’s writing explores the nuances of motherhood and the experiences of BIPOC mothers and marginalized genders. Through her work, she aims to amplify the voices of those who have been historically silenced and create a more equitable world for all. Raising Mothers was the 2021 Romper People’s Choice Iris Award Winner. Originally from Brooklyn New York, she is a first-generation American turned immigrant living in Amsterdam, NL with her husband, two children, and cat.

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