Joanna Schroeder

I’m spelling them out here so that other parents can talk about them and other boys can see that there isn’t just one way to become a good man.

Much of my life has been ruled by fears I didn’t want to face. Now that I'm older and have been battling them, I feel an enormous weight lifted from my shoulders. I only wish I'd been able to shrug off these societal pressures years ago

As moms and dads, we probably don’t talk directly about rape to kids, at least not until they’re older. But we’re still sending messages about sex and consent all the time. Because of that, we need to make sure we’re not teaching them some very dangerous lessons, even if just by accident.

I'm going to keep an eye on my health—but keep the scale under the bathroom vanity.

Few things are cuter than the sight of your little boy holding hands with a little girl in his kindergarten classroom, or watching as your daughter puts her arm around a little boy from her tee-ball team. At that moment, parents often assume that what they’re witnessing is young love, even if their child has never had a crush and is just expressing affection. While it may be tempting to call your child’s friend a girlfriend or boyfriend, or to tease them about having a crush, here are seven important reasons to resist.

And then reality kicks in and you think, “What happened to us?” Where once there were fireworks are now phone calls about broken appliances and picking up diapers. But these changes aren’t necessarily bad. Sometimes things change dramatically and you realize how amazingly better your relationship is now, all these years later.

As I grew older, I came to rely upon dieting as a way to ease my anxiety and feel in control. I was no longer in a cycle of eating too little or body dysmorphia, but controlling my food intake made me feel less invisible in a sea of girls where I felt like I'd disappear. It was almost a form of self-medication, to know that I could go on a diet and lose a few pounds.

People try to keep it real by talking about the struggles of being a parent, and that’s great, but the truth is this: Parenting can be great fun.

If we as women get to define for ourselves what beauty looks like, then the power will no longer rest with those who pad their fortunes with our self-loathing.

There are about a zillion things I could say about what Patty Jenkins was able to accomplish with this movie, but for now I just want to touch on a few of the singular aspects of this film that were game-changers for all of Hollywood (and kids everywhere).