How One Incredible Mom Helped Her Son With Autism Find His Voice

This isn’t just a story of one mom who has a son with autism. This one is more personal for me. It’s about my good friend and former CNN colleague, Parisa Khosravi, and her son Payam. I’ll never forget sitting across from Parisa at Houston’s. This is probably 11 years ago. Her young son wasn’t hitting the usual developmental milestones. After extensive testing, they had a diagnosis. This beautiful boy with the longest eyelashes ever was on the autism spectrum.

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Why I’ve Never Needed Another Birthday Present Since I Was Seven Years Old

Welcome to my birthday week. Which I share, not to encourage you to send a gift. Rather the exact opposite. Don’t bother. There’s no need, As I long ago received my best gift ever. All others have always paled in comparison. This one showed up 2 1/2 weeks before my seventh birthday. A gift I knew was on the way. My parents gave my brother and me a heads up months before. Brother followed this breaking news by hauling me

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The Moment I Realized I Failed Parenting. How About You?

My daughter will tell you I’m crazy. She doesn’t understand. At all. Somewhere between two days before Christmas and New Year’s Eve I simply had a revelation. That I messed up. Not my mother-in-law’s chocolate pie. Not my first novel. Though, I certainly did a fine job of making a disaster of both of those. I’m talking big. As in parenthood. Yeah, I messed up parenthood. The awareness has been creeping in our home with each arriving college acceptance letter.

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Taking The Temperature In My Marriage

It’s not that I’m blaming anyone. After all, the terms were right there in bold print in the Mommy contract. Maybe you signed the same one, Dear Reader? The one where you swear you don’t believe in germs. Not when it comes to taking care of your ailing family. You convince yourself you’re invincible, Have a special super hero protection shield, And do what you have to do in order to take care of everyone else. That’s how I ended

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The First Holidays Without My Mom

In case you were wondering, Yes, that was me. The lady pushing her buggy down the aisle of the grocery store right before Thanksgiving. Tears streaming down her face. That was me. Tears were not the plan. Yukon Golds for mashed potatoes, Elbow macaroni for mac n’cheese. A few other things I had forgotten. That was the plan. I should remember my tears always have their own plan. Make no allowances for public appearances. And so, they picked the day

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One TV Mom Figures Out How To Have It All

    My friend, Lori, is nuts.     Some would say.     Who walks away from a job she worked more than 20 years to get?     A job she loves.     A job with perks.     Who does that?     A certain kind of woman.     Also known as,     A mom.     “My kids are now 9 and 5, precious ages I don’t want to miss,” she shared this week on Facebook.     Trading in 9-5 for her kids

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Could Thanksgiving This Year Be Any More Awkward?

This would appear to be some incredibly poor planning. Thanksgiving. There is no holiday I love more. The spirit of gratitude. The food. You, too, Dear Reader? You are days away from going to great effort to gather around an abundant table of food with your family. You might even spend a lot of money and time to get there. A lovely thought. And, Terrible timing. This year, at least. Who was the genius that scheduled Thanksgiving for the same

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Finding Happiness In A Can Of Soup

I am not alone in this. I realized the other day. Thoughts of what it means to be alone. What it means to be happy. A seemingly spontaneous conversation with one of my teens brought this back. The memory splashing so fresh as we stood in the kitchen. The same kitchen I stood in when I was always the one to call. Single. No kids. I could always pick up the phone. My friend was calling about her dad. This

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How A Fish Explained The Hardest Part About Parenting To Me

I’m in debt to a fish. The fish, who in 10 seconds, explained my parenting conundrum to me. Keep your expert books, parenting websites. I have clarity now. Thanks to the fish. You see, Dear Reader, my daughter is a senior in high school. We are in the season of looking at colleges. So much has changed since I went 10,000 years ago. These days, the kids put everything they want in a school and a software program spits out

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‘From Behind’ Photos Tell The Best Stories

My finger needs to calm down. Fight the itch. The one that is so quick to delete. The one that is instant judge and jury over a photo not being worthy. I’m reminded of this lesson as I go through old family photos. Which to keep. Which to toss. Does your delete finger itchy, as well, Dear Reader? The one that is about to delete that imperfect photo. You know you’re inclined to do it. Make more space on your

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