When Mental Health Hits Home
PARENTreads Issue No. 2: Parenting essays on mental health and emotional well-being
Parenting often means carrying both our children’s struggles and our own. This edition of PARENTreads features essays on mental health and emotional well-being, for both kids and parents.
✨ Featured Writer
Sabrina Moyle writes The Golden Bowl, a space focused on personal growth, creativity, and helping parents raise creative, resilient, emotionally intelligent kids -- all with humor, heart, and illustrations from her children's books.
When Your Child Says 'I Hate You': How to Heal Parent-Child Conflict
Healing parent-child conflict is challenging, but rewarding. This essay offers a compassionate guide to navigating conflict, focusing on the often real reason behind their anger: it's not because they hate you, but because they love you so much.
» Read the full essay here
🔦 Spotlight Essays
"I should be fine by now" and other lies depression has told me. – by Chanel Riggle | Motherhood Minute
How do moms get help if they can't get out of the house? This essay offers a raw look at postpartum depression and discusses how we can start to lower barriers for mothers needing support. Info: Mental Health and Motherhood Summit (Oct 10-11)
» Read the full essay here
Raising Children When the World is On Fire – by Dylan Macinerney | The Fatherhood Framework
Kids have the whole world at their fingertips, including its darkest moments. This piece explores how parents can offer resiliency in a world that feels chaotic and uncertain.
» Read the full essay here
📌 Editor’s Picks
Why Transitions Trip Kids Up – by Dr. Jennifer Loughlin | Growing in Play
Transitions are tricky for growing brains that haven't yet developed the skills they need to do it successfully. This post aims to break it down and give you the support you need.
» Read here
I Found This Helpful When My Anxiety Was Driving My Parenting – by Lori K Walters | Peace in My Parenting
Here’s an in-the-moment practice from a master coach that can relieve the pressure and lift the fog so you can be steady, focused, and present with your child.
» Read here
How Children’s Brains Build Social & Emotional Foundations — and How You Can Help. Part 1: Temperament & Emotions – by Kunlun | Playful Brains
This essay shows how children’s temperament and brain wiring shape stress—and gives parents science-based tools to build resilience, calm, and confidence.
» Read here
How Our Children's Tantrums Are (Finally) Teaching Us About Our Own Emotions – by Jeff Hittner | Ambitious Dads
Our children’s tantrums reflect our own unregulated emotions back at us. As dads parent more than ever before, learning emotional regulation isn’t optional; it’s essential.
» Read here
Parentification or infantilisation? – by Guen Bradbury | Growing up WEIRD
Children learn resilience by dealing with challenges. Setting children up to encounter challenges provides opportunities to self-succeed, reducing their stress and anxiety.
» Read here
PARENTreads combines editor-selected essays with a few sponsored placements that support the digest.
Holding the Line—with Our Kids, Ourselves, and Everyone Else
Discipline and boundaries are among the most challenging parts of parenting—not because we don’t care, but because they ask us to hold both love and limits at the same time. And those limits don’t stop with our kids. They extend to our partners, families, schools, and even the expectations that tug at us daily. This edition of
Raising Kids in a Wired World
Screens are woven into nearly every part of family life—from phones and gaming to homework and social media. This edition of PARENTreads gathers essays on the push and pull of technology: how it shapes our kids, challenges us as parents, and creates new opportunities for connection (and disconnection).
Parenting Essays, Organized—skip the scroll
Welcome to the first issue of PARENTreads. I’ve been sitting on this idea for a while, and when I polled a few weeks ago, the response was (almost) unanimous: “yes—a digest of impactful parenting essays would make my life easier!” I’m genuinely impressed by the talent and wisdom collected here
I had the “I hate you” kids. Tough to hear until I learned I was the “safe” one for their anger and frustration. Things got better when they also learned skills to manage their anger. Learning together was key.
Thank you for having me be a part of this powerful collection.