Janelle Hanchett

Occasionally I come across a blog post saying something like this “So all my friends are having babies and I just really don’t understand why they’ve all lost themselves. I mean does having a baby mean the end of life? Of adulthood? Why do they put their kids first all the time? Why can’t...

I could have waited and lied to you, faked it, written something interesting or more amusing like I had my act together and haven’t been struggling, but I have been struggling, and that’s why it’s been a week of no writing. No inspiration. What’s a girl to do? There’s a temptation to pretend, you...

  Sometimes camping trips are fun. Sometimes your eldest daughter vomits in the tent, at 4am, somehow managing to not only hit THREE sleeping bags, but also your purse, but not the outside of the purse, THE INSIDE. Right inside. I can’t make this shit up. At times like that, one must recognize the...

  There’s that line from When Harry Met Sally: “You look like a normal person, but actually, you are the angel of death.” We should rewrite that about Meg: “You look like the epitome of marital felicity, but actually, you are the destroyer of marriages.” Oh come the fuck on. I know Meg Ryan...

Everybody’s always trying to figure out how to do it right. What’s “best” for my children? What can I do to raise the healthiest, most well-adjusted kids possible? How can I do it “right?” Well I think we should reframe this whole discussion into a simple recognition that we’re doing it all wrong. Everything...

  Do you know why? Because motherhood can take it. Because there is nothing stronger. I can tear it up, brutalize it, make fun of it in every way possible, tease the darkest corners, shed light in most covered places…and yet she stands undiminished, untouched. She barely hears me. She raises a disinterested brow...

  You know, sometimes life is to be lived. Other times, it’s to be endured. I mean nobody ever wants to admit it, but there are times when the only thing you can do is grit your teeth and power forward knowing it will get easier soon and you can live again. I am...

So it happened the other day. My daughter, she’s eleven. She’ll be twelve in November. She grew up the other day. We were going to a town in the wine country, to hear a rock-n-roll band. We were going to have dinner first. It was a lovely evening. She put on a dress, gloves,...

I spend a good portion of my mothering life in a state of “What the fuck just happened?” The rest of the time I’m like “Wait. I’m supposed to care about that?” You know, I’m looking at magazines and headlines and websites and since they’re all saying the same thing it APPEARS that these...

I used to not cry about things like this. The big tragedies. The ones that kill and kill and kill. Columbine. 9-11. I don’t think I cried about those. Not even a single tear. Maybe I was just too self-centered. Maybe too young. Maybe I just didn’t get it, couldn’t feel it. Humanity. Maybe...