Allison Cooper

[CN: mention of suicide] It’s not all real. We don’t live curated lives that are built around purposeful omissions of reality...

Let’s face it — as much as the holidays are merry and bright, they can be stressful, too. We have so much planning to do (and even more if you have kids), traveling to arrange, cleaning — and on top of all that there is the financial stress.

Parenthood is so chaotic that we find ourselves spewing words sometimes that we probably never, ever pictured ourselves saying. Then parenthood happened.

Being millennials, we seem to have a creative spirit and entrepreneurial drive to do things on our own. Whether it’s the people you're working with or the big ideas that are brewing in the back of your mind, if you are feeling the “start your own business itch,” then it’s time to scratch it — even if you only work on the weekends until you get things up and running. Believe it or not, there are some easy ways to start your own business and get things moving in the right direction for yourself.

Family travel helped me see what I'd been missing out on.

This little, strong-willed, giggly baby girl is attached to me in every single way imaginable. It’s gotten so bad that any time I know I need to step out of the house, I feel myself worrying about it all day long up until the very moment I leave, because I know how bad her reaction is going to be.

Whenever you see a mom rocking her “mom-leggings,” and you judge or shame her, I beg you to take an effing step back, get off your high horse and take a second to understand that she’s just been through a lot and these leggings are giving her life.

... there is no joy in the season when mom is locking herself in the bathroom to pull her hair out — don’t let that be you!

I promise that 10 years from now, you won’t look back and find yourself saying “remember that amazing picture you posted of the Christmas cookies on Instagram? The one where the lighting was perfect and you had all the right red and green props in the background?” That won’t happen, ever.

Every single day of our lives, since the moment that we bring home our beautiful child from the hospital — well, actually, well before that — we are faced with a multitude of decisions that will impact their lives. Some decisions are more serious than others. Yet the constant need to rip parents apart for the decisions they make is so unnerving to me that I simply can’t take it anymore.