Kristi Pahr

My version of self-care is a little less “best life” and a little more “no life”, but it works for me.

Soundgarden was part of something bigger, something that changed everything.

“Is she Black or white?” I asked another mom who was describing a little girl in her son’s class that she thought my family might know.

I have a confession to make. Target, meh. I’m just not that into it.

These women are from all over the world. They are from different socioeconomic brackets. Their assaults took place during different times over the last 35 years. The victims are completely different, but the stories are all so similar. Victims of assault, rape, harassment, coming forward, being brave and telling the truth, and being stigmatized, ostracized, blamed, ignored, ridiculed. People they love, people they trust, people whose job it is to protect them, blaming them for their assault. It’s common. Almost expected. That women are assaulted, harassed by men, is a given in our culture. That women are blamed is standard procedure. Is it really any wonder that the majority of sexual assaults go unreported? Is it really shocking that a woman would want to save herself additional trauma?

I think we can all agree that there is some messed up stuff happening right now.

My parenting mantra is: "Do your best and hope he doesn't turn into a sociopath." And I guess that's really all we can do, because if we're honest with ourselves, I think none of us really know what we're doing.