First-Person Stories & Parent-Led Solutions

Latchkey Urchins & Friends is a podcast by me* and my co-host Anne Sherry, a therapist. We explore different topics within The Nurturance Void, the space left when we experienced childhood emotional neglect. Childhood emotional neglect happens between parents and their kids, within families, across generations, in communities, in nations, and in policies and programs. We seek to heal through humor and holding space. Each week a guest shares their childhood emotional neglect stories,...

By Zoraida Ramirez, Rise Magazine, December 08, 2021 A Hard Decision I left my son with a family friend in 2007 when I was 20 years old and he was one and a half. I had run away from foster care and had nowhere to live and no money for food. I was also dealing with depression and trauma—and an abusive partner. I didn’t have support from my family and felt uncared for and alone. The family friend lived in a cozy, nice home. She suggested that I leave my son with her and write a statement...

Join Julie Beem & Ginger Healy of ATN's Podcast - Regulated and Relational - where their guest for Episode 16 is Cissy White. Cissy is a self-proclaimed Joy Stalker and Truth Teller, and boy, is she ever! Her passion is to make trauma informed changes for survivors of trauma who are parenting with ACEs. With Julie and Ginger, Cissy discusses her path to healing. She says, “Trauma informed change must be led by survivors” and ATN could not agree more! In 2013, Cissy began her blog, Heal...

A sweet, beautiful little girl sees her reflection as she gets her hair done by her loving mom. And then she utters three little words that would break any mother’s heart: “I’m so ugly!” Her mom gasps, instincts kicking in. “Don’t say that!” But by then the daughter has already broken into tears. It’s hard to watch this innocent child’s self-esteem so devastated. Luckily, mom knew exactly what to say to help her daughter remember her worth. It's easy to see why this touching video has now...

By Rebecca Gale, Working Mother, March 23, 2021 Charnae Easton was forced to breast-pump in front of a window. So she sued—and won. Here, she shares her story for the first time. Charnae Easton knew she wanted to breastfeed her daughter. Even when she was pregnant, she told her supervisors at the Richmond, California post office where she worked as a mail carrier that she would need a place to pump milk when she returned from leave. She’d even planned to work up until she gave birth,...

By Claudia M. Gold, MD, November 30, 2021 In the months that followed the brief moment of hope in the spring of 2021-before the surge of the delta variant of COVID-19-in my behavioral pediatrics practice pervasive anxiety of in-person visits felt even more acute in contrast to that small, glorious taste of freedom. As I see children under four with their family for hourlong sessions, the benefits of the mask-free Zoom space soon brought me back to the virtual world. But in the interim I...

My son is old enough to remember me being a single mother and the two of us living in an apartment with cockroaches, wearing someone else's hand me down clothes, and standing in the long foodbank lines hoping nobody would recognize us. Granted this was a short time in our life, still a memory we both can recall. Even when we were living in poverty, my son and I together found joy in giving back often. It was a way for us to thank the community for taking care of us during our time of need,...

I am going to give you a little context before I share the College Essay that prove PCEs DO mitigate ACEs. I was young when I had my first born and his life started off rocky. His father asked me to abort him when I was 8 months pregnant right after he was discharged from the military for being an alcoholic. We tried to make it work and the alcohol won. My infant son and I moved away across the country to start anew, never looking back. I struggled for a long time trying to get on my feet. I...

By Esau McCaulley , The New York Times, November 24, 2021 Every year on Thanksgiving, my children experience something I rarely did when I was growing up. They see their father, mother and siblings all gathered around a family meal with plenty of food to spare. It is so utterly normal to them that they do not even note it. Thanksgiving is just another day of warmth and security. I have many happy memories of the meals prepared by my single mother and my extended family during the holidays. I...

By Wajahat Ali , The New York Times, November 13, 2021 My 5-year-old daughter, Nusayba, twirled around in her princess dress, fixing her silver tiara and checking out her newly applied eye shadow and red lipstick in the bathroom mirror. Then she examined her beautiful, brown skin. “I don’t like my skin color,” she declared. “I wish my skin was lighter. It’s prettier.” Her comment, several months ago, was a gut punch. Up to that point, my wife and I were confident that we had protected our...

By Jesse Bedayn, Cal Matters, November 2, 2021 A s president of a San Mateo County school board, Maybelle Manio had the privilege of delivering some lighthearted remarks at her son Jake Cruz’s 8th grade graduation. “Today is a celebration. Today is an accomplishment,” she said during the ceremony earlier this year. “Today is a good day to ask for some money.” The crowd laughed. When Manio returned home, she found a white piece of paper labeled “Eviction Notice” tacked to her door. She had 15...

By Paurvi Bhatt, STAT, October 19, 2021 A s a working daughter, I recently embarked on a new and uncertain phase of my career: taking paid leave for my seriously ill mother. Without children of my own, I never needed to consider paid leave. This new role in caregiving is making me square cultural norms and values engrained in me as a second-generation South Asian immigrant and as a female only child with my senior leadership role in corporate America. While I’ve juggled responsibilities for...