my story

Limping along

by Katrina on January 9, 2012

I can’t believe how crazy this time of year is, every year. Intense work deadlines right before the holidays, during which I caught some new strain of Monster Cold that hung in there for over a month. It was so bad that at one point I lost my voice completely—I could not get any sound […]

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Phew.

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by Katrina on January 3, 2011

Do you hear that sound? Like the wind through the trees? It’s the sound of a million parents, all across America, sighing with relief. Our children are going back to school today! All in all, we had a great two weeks off. Luckily, neither Brian nor I had to work. We went to the zoo, […]

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Warning bells are ringing

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by Katrina on September 21, 2010

I recently got an email from a blog reader who said she had been obsessively reading and re-reading my first post, and all the comments that followed it. I wanted to include an excerpt of her email here, but wasn’t able to get in touch with her to get permission. (If you’re out there, my […]

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Cry, baby

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by Katrina on September 7, 2010

My first semester in grad school for journalism, more than a decade ago, was a shock. Boom! Right from the beginning we had daily story deadlines. Each of us desperately wanted to prove ourselves to be the next Edward R. Murrow. None of us knew what we were doing. We were awestruck by our professors, […]

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This sucks (Part I.)

by Katrina on June 21, 2010

This is the first of a series of posts about working moms and breastfeeding. I went back to work when my son was four months old and still living exclusively on a diet of breast milk. So approximately every three hours I dropped what I was doing and ducked into Conference Room B. All four […]

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A mother of a day

by Katrina on May 11, 2010

I had a truly crappy Mother’s Day this year. I think Anna Jarvis would understand. Inspired by her own mother’s life, she started a campaign in 1907 to recognize mothers for their contribution to society. She was successful in making Mother’s Day a national holiday, but then spent the rest of her life fighting its […]

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Thank you

by Katrina on April 20, 2010

Exactly one year ago today, I went home sick from work and I never went back….Every mother I know has the same fear. Every one of us is haunted, at one time or another, by the burden we carry and believe we carry alone. If we had to stop, it seems like the world would stop…

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If you give a mouse a Prozac…

by Katrina on April 8, 2010

It is crazy to put women in impossible situations where they actually go crazy, and then act like there’s something wrong with them for going crazy.

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What would you call it?

by Katrina on March 29, 2010

I did not feel suicidal or psychotic. I did not get strung out on heroin, walk around downtown Berkeley yelling at garbage cans, or act outwardly crazy in any way. I simply stopped, the way a watch stops when the battery dies.

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Mommy doesn’t have a “job”

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by Katrina on March 17, 2010

When it was time for me to leave, Ruby ran up to her teacher and said, “Mrs. Thomas, can my mom stay until snack?”

“Sure…but I don’t know if she has time. She might have to get to work.” Very diplomatic, that Mrs. Thomas.

“Oh, she doesn’t have to go to work,” Ruby beamed mischievously. “My mommy doesn’t have a job!”

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