If you’re searching for a reason to smile today, look no further because we couldn’t help but gush over a sweet, feel-good moment provided by a group of Canadian teens and our new favorite Grandma.
Mahri Smith, 18, has taken the year off to model and wanted to blow off some steam with her girlfriends. Recently, they went out to a local casino “where there’s the club and dinner area” for a night out. While primping in the bathroom, they encountered an adorable elderly lady. Smith tells Babble, “A lady came in and was so chatty with me and kind … she had said she missed going out with girlfriends and dressing up.”
The teens certainly couldn’t let this woman feel left out! So, Smith encourage the woman to join them for some bathroom selfies. “I just said ‘we are your girlfriends like look at you, you look gorgeous!'” The final result is amazing, of course. After snapping some fun photos, the girls continued their night out while the woman went back to her husband (surely with a fun tale to tell!).
Image source: Mahri Smith
The teen’s favorite part about the whole moment? “Just seeing her face light up when we were talking with her.”
Smith says that she took to Twitter to share the special moment “because it made me smile.” After sharing the encounter on Twitter yesterday, the post has gone viral with over 57K retweets and 192K likes.
Image source: Mahri Smith
“There’s so much bad and negative things going on in the world and I know it brightened my day and seeing how many lives it’s touched makes me feel so blessed that I had the chance to do so,” says Smith.
We agree, this moment has us smiling from ear-to-ear.
“What It Was Like To Become A Dad After I Was Told I’d Never Have Kids“originally appeared on Quora and The Fatherly Forum, and was reprinted with permission.
Image source: Thinkstock
When I was a teen, I knew I wanted children, although I also thought I never wanted to get married. At that time, and really, for all my life, I’ve been afraid of other people’s children. I have all these ideas about how to relate to children that I don’t see many other people doing. I believe in telling children about the things they are interested in. I believe there are no topics that children should be kept from. No taboo topics. If a child is interested in something, they deserve to have me tell them as much that I know as they are interested in.
I always imagined having children that were related to me. I felt that I had a right to bring up my children the way I wanted to, but for other children, I felt I had no right, and I didn’t want to piss off their parents, even if their __parents had given the child to me to adopt. I felt I could relate to children who were related to me. When they did weird stuff, I would recognize it, because I had been like that, too. This has turned out to be true, for the most part. The only confusing stuff is where they take after their mother. I don’t know what she was like as a child, so I can’t automatically understand my kids when they are like her. That’s more mysterious.
I wanted children because, on some level, I loved myself and I wanted to create new beings who were partly like me. I wanted children because I thought I could do a better job than my parents, and a better job than most parents. I wanted children because I have all these theories and ideas about parenting, and I knew I’d only get to try them out on my own children. I wanted children because creating new life is the ultimate creative act. I wanted children because I don’t want to die and I know I have to die. If I have children, then something of me will be left alive after I die.
See how much I wanted children? Perhaps you can imagine how I felt when I found out my body wasn’t plumbed correctly, and I had no way to deliver sperm to an egg.
All my life, I’d assume I could make children, and when I found out I couldn’t, I felt like an alien. I felt inhuman. I could not reproduce. It was an incredible shock. I felt guilty. I didn’t feel like a man. I suggested to my wife that she leave me for a man who could give her children. In a way, I thought having children was the meaning of my life, and now that meaning had been destroyed by some gene that got passed down for generations — a gene, that had I gotten another like it from the other parent, would have given me a full case of cystic fibrosis, and I would have drowned in my own lungs before I reached the age of 40. Perhaps it was best that I could not pass this gene on.
But …
Technology.
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After 6 years of operations and attempts at creating children in a petri dish, my wife got pregnant with a child that was my genetic daughter. A few years later, we thawed out another embryo and had a son.
I love my children because I wanted them so badly. I am so lucky that I lived in a time when medical advances happened so that I could have genetic children, and I didn’t have to adopt. I don’t know if I would have adopted. It was very hard to imagine being able to identify with a child that wasn’t related to me. I felt I could understand my own kids. I couldn’t imagine understanding anyone I wasn’t related to. Had the technological advances happened even a few years later, my wife would have been too old to have children, and I would have been out of luck.
I love my children because I can relate to them. I love them because I parented them. I suffered through the uninteresting time when they couldn’t talk, and I had to change a lot of icky diapers and figure out how to console someone who couldn’t tell me what was wrong. But I knew there would come a time when they would become fascinating people, and I would get my reward. I looked forward to their teenage years. I didn’t believe those years would be trouble for me. I believed those would be a most interesting time, and they would challenge me and change before my very eyes in ways I could not imagine.
It is true. They are people I could never have imagined. They have made me proud in ways I would never have guessed in a thousand years. They are amazing people and I love talking to them and doing stuff with them. I love trying to figure out what is going on with them.
My daughter is 20, now, and she was home from college for a few weeks, and she brought over lots of friends, and we had the most amazing conversations. Finally, she told me what was happening when she was a teen. She told me about boyfriends and crushes I never knew she had. Even my wife didn’t know.
She told me about the time when she was 6, and her nose was running. We were at the park, and I didn’t have any tissues. All I had was a very well-used handkerchief in my pocket. I didn’t really want to use it, and she just told me she thought it was the grossest thing, ever. Who knew? I found the cleanest spot I could for her to blow her nose. Maybe another father would have let her blow her nose on his shirt, but she probably got her ideas about being grossed out about snot from me in the first place. In any case, it was nice to finally find out that we were on the same page on that one. And I would have forgotten that incident, had it not stuck in her memory so persistently.
My son is just about 17. He’s a wonderful piano player, but he hates playing recitals, and I totally get it, because I hated it, too. I don’t make him do it, and we’ve found a teacher who will work with him, anyway, and he loves the piano. He doesn’t love reading music, and for years, I was annoyed about having to help him with that, but now I enjoy the time I spend with him as he is learning new pieces.
His memory is amazing. He works through a piece once, and then a second time, and already he has memorized it. My memory is so horrible that I failed a drama literature class in college because I couldn’t memorize my lines for the required one credit acting “lab.” My memory is so bad that I switched from classical music to improvisation because I could never memorize any pieces, and also because in improvisation, you can’t make mistakes, and no one can judge you to have failed for one little mistake.
Like I say, I get why my son doesn’t want to do recitals, because I know what the pressure is like to not make mistakes, and I know that I only felt relief after a recital, and never any accomplishment. I didn’t want to make him do that just because others thought it was good for him. I knew otherwise because he probably felt very similarly to the way I felt.
I don’t care if no one ever hears him play. That’s not what the lessons are for. The music is for him. For his brain. So he can have something to go to when he needs to calm down. So it can help him organize his brain to help with his memory and help with math and science skills. It’s not so he can show off. It’s just for him to use as he wants.
My daughter also took piano from a young age, but she didn’t stick with it. That was ok, too, because I just wanted them to have a start on an instrument that would teach them about music, but that they could switch to their most favored instrument when they discovered it. Hers turned out to be voice, but she also decided to stop taking lessons when she got to high school. I was disappointed, but also proud because she was strong enough to follow her own path even knowing I would be disappointed. I’m way more proud of that than I am disappointed she didn’t keep on taking lessons. She still likes music, and still sits down at the piano and plays duets with my son, sometimes.
I don’t know why other fathers love their children, but I love mine because I have lived with them for all their lives, and I love who they are and who they have been, and I will love who they become. I love them because I can be free to be myself with them, and that is a gift that no one else has ever been able to give me. Only my kids. I can be the corny dad. The ad dad. The crazy dad. Whatever dad with them. Embarrassing dad. Musical dad. Theoretical dad. Even dad who knows a thing or 2. With everyone else, I have to watch myself in ways that make me tense and sad. But not with them. With my kids, I feel free, and how could I not love people who help me be myself?
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When Jenny Roberts became pregnant with her daughter Olivia over nine years ago, she kept her commercial real estate license active because she wanted to maintain a foot in the door at work. Ultimately, though, after Olivia was born, Roberts realized the high cost of childcare where she lives in western Colorado far exceeded what she was making at work.
“I was probably ready to go back to work when Olivia was quite young,” Roberts said. “But the economics didn’t make sense.”
Roberts’ had another daughter, Ivy, just over a year ago, and she’s now starting to think again about dipping her toe into paid work. The problem, though, is despite an MBA and years of experience, she can’t figure how to make up for such a big gap on her resume.
Fortunately, it seems as if PepsiCo, the parent company of Pepsi, is one step ahead of Roberts and so many others like her, who stepped out of successful careers to focus on caring for children and other family members. The corporation recently announced a groundbreaking new program called “Ready to Return,” kicking off at its New York Headquarters in April 2017.
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It’s a 10-week-long paid internship program, specifically designed for professionals looking to re-enter the workforce after taking two years or longer off work. Its aim is to ease parents and caregivers back into working again by offering them mentorship, coaching support, networking opportunities, and training sessions to refresh skills. They’ll also get the chance to learn more about career opportunities within PepsiCo.
According to the PepsiCo website:
“[The program] is important because our teams reflect the diversity of our consumers and our communities — inclusion is a way of life at PepsiCo. We see great value in the experiences and perspectives of professionals who have taken time away to care for another.”
Irv Cohen, managing partner of the New York-based executive recruiting firm IRC Partners, also sees tremendous value in programs like Ready to Return:
“It’s not a simple transition [to go back to work after a long hiatus],” he tells Babble. “For the person trying to ease back into it, the culture shock can be considerable. That doesn’t mean it can’t be done, but the mindset shift from ruling the roost to being ruled is not insignificant. You have to want to be adaptable.”
Depending on their expertise, skills and career aspirations, Ready to Return participants will work on either a research and development or marketing project. After completing the program, they’ll also be considered for open roles within the company. The primary goal is for people like Roberts to increase their technical knowledge and fill in any holes their absence from the business world has generated. The aim is for participants to revive their confidence in their creative instincts and analytical skills while “embracing technology with an innovation mindset.”
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Going back to work after an extended absence can be daunting emotionally, especially knowing just how much the business world has changed and how fast it continues to evolve. Certainly being a stay-at-home mom is its own kind of reward, but for those who are either longing to get back to work, in need of some extra income, or are looking for new and exciting opportunities, Ready to Return is as exciting a prospect as a kid at Christmas.
“To be empowered again would be such a gift,” Roberts said. “I want to start doing something again in a professional setting where I’m stimulating my brain in an intellectual and creative way.”
The bonus, too, would be doing it within a company that sees its employees as more than just the work they churn out, and within a wider perspective of doing the right thing.
And that’s exactly what PepsiCo seems to be doing. According to its website, the corporation is deeply committed to an approach that “empowers us to embrace a deeper sense of meaning in our daily work by improving products we sell, protecting our planet, and empowering people around the globe.”
These are the kinds of phrases that come out of my mouth every single day, most often directed at my 4-year-old. But what goes through my head as I say each of them is something like this:
“As if my preschooler knows what an email is … ok, he probably does.”
“We certainly couldn’t walk outside and see what the temperature feels like.”
“I suppose we could go to the library and make this an adventure … or I could just find the answer right now.”
I work from home and much of my work is Internet-based. I’m clearly not opposed to technology and all that it makes possible. But it also attaches me to my devices almost all day long. In order to get everything done, I’m constantly working in snippets here and there throughout the day, which usually means jabbing my thumbs incessantly on a tiny screen, day in and day out.
When I listen to the constant technology-based narrative I’m directing at my preschooler, I can’t help but feel I’m sending the wrong message and doing him a disservice.
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Since my smartphone is rarely farther than my back pocket, I turn to it for everything: playing music, seeing what friends are doing, looking up activities and recipes, and sometimes just checking it because I haven’t in the last five minutes. None of these are necessarily detrimental things (aside from the absent-minded checking). And some are even good — listening to music puts me in a better mood and heaven knows I’d never be able to come up with a craft or activity without the aid of Pinterest. But nonetheless, when I listen to the constant technology-based narrative I’m directing at my preschooler, I can’t help but feel I’m sending the wrong message and doing him a disservice.
My gut reaction is to cast all technology aside. Dock my phone upstairs. Turn the computer off. Hide the TV remote. But then I’d lose my job, my husband couldn’t reach me, and I’d be clueless about the world. A technology strike, or even a vacation, isn’t the solution. But seeing how much my kids are soaking it all in, I needed to make some sort of a change.
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I’ve always been a pen and paper girl — my calendar and to-do lists aren’t real unless they’re on paper. So for the past few months, I’ve turned back to my roots. I downsized my massive planner so I could carry it with me (and actually use it). I color-coded it by life tasks: work lists, grocery lists, daily tasks, weekly menus, and appointments I’d otherwise forget. Every time I look at it is one less time I’m pulling out my phone for a reminder (which we all know leads down the rabbit hole of Facebook and Instagram).
A paper planner is great, but it wasn’t enough. So we started turning back to “analog.” I replaced every task that required me to pull out a glowing screen with something that made me more “present.” I’ve now become attached to my old-school analog watch. Again, every time I didn’t pull out my phone to check the time was another win.
We put an actual thermometer outside the kitchen window, so instead of pulling out our phones or turning on the Weather Channel, we simply read the temperature or stepped out the front door. It’s a bonus that it’s a learning experience for my oldest, practicing reading numbers and taking measurements. Win-win!
Notebooks lay scattered around my house, so every time I get a minute to work, I write myself a draft. Whether it’s an email or an article, it goes on paper first. Typing it into my computer later, when my kids aren’t watching, takes a heck of a lot less time than trying to start from scratch after they go to bed.
I’m not eliminating technology from our lives, just removing some of the unnecessary uses. We still stream music for dance parties and find educational-ish movies on Netflix. I think it’s important that my kids do know how to use it, because that’s how the world works. But every time I don’t check my phone for something silly is one more moment they’re getting all of me.
Like most things parenting, this intentional reduction in technology led us towards something unintentional: more constructive, fun time together. Writing in my paper calendar or journal lets me sprawl out next to my son on the floor as he colors. Not to mention using pens, pencils, and markers is therapeutic for both of us, as we color side-by-side. Plus, I’m setting a much better example of what work looks like, as opposed to just “playing” on my phone again. Looking at my analog watch has helped him learn visibly how time moves or how far away something is. Going to the library to learn about volcanoes or dinosaurs instead of just glancing at my phone creates an adventure that my son remembers, instead of just another fact flashing by him.
Above all, I’ve found myself less scatterbrained — I’m not constantly doing a million things at once. I’ve been able to pay more attention to my kids and really make those minutes count, instead of trying to juggle it all. And trust me, there’s enough juggling in parenting, I don’t need to create any more unneeded tasks for myself.
Oh, Barbie. It always seems to be two steps forward, one step back with you.
Don’t get me wrong; I still applaud all your recent victories. That new line of yours, showing you in a variety of body types and skin tones. That was great. And all the new careers you’ve been taking on — from veterinary medicine to game development to politics? Love it.
And now, you’re taking on the STEM world as “Engineering Barbie.” How awesome!
When I first heard the news, I was ready to love that move, too. But then I took a look at you, and something stood out to me: Your “machinery.” I expected you to be working on computers or robots or space ships. But instead, you seem to be restricted to household appliances only — like washing machines and superficial objects like jewelry holders. And I’ll be honest, the world is disappointed.
Listen, girlfriend. You are a powerful, timeless force in our girls’ lives. You were a mainstay throughout most of my childhood. There was no greater moment for me than the opening of the Barbie Dream Store that Christmas morning back in 1988. You’ve got a lot of responsibility on your shoulders, and you’ve faced your fair share of criticism over the years. You seem committed in recent years to fighting negative gender stereotypes, and we appreciate that.
But you need to do better.
Image Source: Thames & Kosmos
Developing STEM-related Barbies is a fantastic idea, as we need to push our girls to challenge themselves and believe they can succeed in largely male-dominated fields like math and science. So the decision last year for Mattel to team up with STEM toy maker Thames & Kosmos to make you was a smart one. And having you come with a “STEM Kit” for little girls to put together all of your machines was great.
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The intent was good, but the delivery wasn’t.
You see, Engineering Barbie could have made anything. Any myriad of machinery and/or inventions would be acceptable — but you chose a washing machine. A WASHING MACHINE. Combined with the clothes and jewelry rack, we are all left shaking our heads. (The greenhouse is pretty cool, though — I’ll give you that one.)
And the thing is, we all know you can do better. We’ve seen it. Politician Barbie rocks. As does Pilot Barbie, Firefighter Barbie, and World Culture Barbies. Also, there’s nothing wrong in general with Barbie having a washing machine and racks to hang her clothes and jewelry. My daughter had a play washing machine and loved it. But don’t pair her up with domestic appliances that women and girls have been pigeon-holed and limited to for decades and call her “Engineering Barbie.” The stakes are too high for our girls on this issue, as only 13% of the engineering workforce is female.
The other criticism is that not only are Engineering Barbie’s machines stereotypical and superficial, but they are also all pink. Again, nothing against pink. I love pink, as does my daughter. But we also love blue, yellow, and green. And while it make sense that Barbie and her equipment are flashy and pretty to attract the attention and love of little girls everywhere, the problem is that over the past few decades, options for girls in the toy department have become increasingly limited. Take a walk down the “girl” aisle and count how many primary colors you see.
I’ll wait.
… See? That didn’t take long, because every single thing you’ll see is pink and glittery.
We thank you for your many career-oriented versions, and we sure hope you continue to foster the ideas of opportunity, intelligence, and courage for our girls — particularly in science and math fields. But maybe instead, Engineering Barbie can get busy building a robot that does the laundry for her. And maybe, just maybe, it can be blue with pink buttons this time.
“Little Girl Befriends Baby Cow That Lost Its Mom“originally appeared on ABC News, and was reprinted with permission.
When a precious calf ended up in this family after losing her mom, little Kinley Gray took her in with open arms.
“They are just so cute. My heart cannot even contain all of that love,” Lacey Gray, Kinley’s mom, told ABC News of the unusual yet heartstoppingly adorable bond the two now share.
Image source: Lacey Gray/Delta Rose Photography
Lacey is a professional photographer from Michigan City, Mississippi. She had reached out to her husband’s uncle, who owns cows, to see if she could borrow a calf for a photo shoot she was hoping to do. Little did she know that would soon lead to her owning one.
“I shot him a text and said, ‘Hey, this is what I’d like to do. Can I borrow one of your calves?’” she recalled of their initial conversation. “He laughed so hard. He said, ‘That is not how that works. You cannot just borrow a calf without the mom going crazy.’”
Image source: Lacey Gray/Delta Rose Photography
She hadn’t thought about that aspect but understood and moved on.
“But the next morning I got a phone call from him, and he was so serious,” Lacey recalled. “The tone in his voice was clearly that something bad had happened. He said, ‘Do you really want a calf?’ He told me, ‘The mama fell, and she’s not going to get up from it. She will die from this. I’m calling you to see if you want this baby, but you have to bottle-feed it several times a day.’”
Image source: Lacey Gray/Delta Rose Photography
Without hesitation, Lacey agreed, not having a clue about what she was getting herself into with raising a cow, let alone a 3-day-old calf that had just lost her mom.
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“We brought her inside the first night. She slept in the laundry room,” said Lacey. “But Kinley ran in there and was kissing all over her. She brought her books. She read her books, and when it was time to walk her, Kinley wanted to do it all by herself. She would walk her all over the yard.”
Image source: Lacey Gray/Delta Rose Photography
Now, barely two weeks later, the precious pair are absolutely inseparable.
“Kinley cries when she has to leave. She always wants to be with her,” said Lacey. “She kisses her ears. She likes to kiss both of her ears instead of just one. She’ll lift Molly’s face up to kiss her on the nose. Kinley will sit down with her and not let our dogs come near her. She wants her all to herself. She wants to feed her all by herself. It’s really sweet.”
Image source: Lacey Gray/Delta Rose Photography
The happy new family did get to have that photo shoot after all, despite circumstances changing a bit.
“I was almost in tears,” Lacey said of shooting the two of them together. “She just has a connection with her. She just knows that’s her family. This is just so crazy and so sweet. I just hope that I can watch them grow all through Kinley’s childhood.”
Ellie Boshers has loved Alice in Wonderland her whole life. So it was no surprise when she chose the Disney classic as the theme for her 10th birthday party.
While Ellie was excited about planning her Alice in Wonderland birthday — jumping at the opportunity to invite friends and help with the decorations — something big was missing. And it all came to a head in the car one afternoon while Ellie was having a “girls day” with her mom. Normally, her grandmother would be with them. As Ellie told her mom how sad she was that she wasn’t, tears streamed down Ellie’s face.
Image Source: Kimber Leigh Boshers
Ellie’s grandmother Rita (aka “Granny”) has been in and out of the hospital for several months. She is now undergoing rehab and recovery at a nursing home after facing several complications from spinal surgery. Because of this, she was not going to be able to attend Ellie’s birthday party.
Granny has had a big impact on Ellie’s life since the day she was born. She often cares for her during the day, takes her to church, and spends countless hours cooking and sewing with her. Naturally, they are quite close.
Though Granny isn’t far away while in the nursing home, this was the first year that she wasn’t able to participate in their usual winter traditions of making Christmas candy and going shopping.
Image source: Kimber Leigh Boshers
Ellie’s mother, Kimber Leigh, has noticed the toll Granny’s every day absence has taken on her daughter. She explained to Babble that, “Not having that time with Granny has broken [Ellie’s] heart. It is not uncommon for her to just tear up or have a full-on good cry out of the blue just because Granny is on her mind and she’s worried about her or she misses her.”
And it’s been hard on Ellie to watch her grandmother struggle in her health and new restrictions. She prays that her grandmother will heal quickly and visits her as often as she can. “I just try to make her feel the happiest that I can and I try my best to make her feel happy,” Ellie said.
As her birthday approached, Ellie couldn’t bear to think of having her party without Granny, so she decided that it was all or nothing. “I decided I either didn’t want to have a party at all or have her there with me,” says Ellie.
Together, Ellie and her mom came up with an exciting plan to move Ellie’s Alice in Wonderland birthday to the nursing home so Granny could be there to celebrate. The facility gave the green light and Ellie couldn’t wait. “I wanted to keep it a secret because I thought it would be an amazing surprise and I thought it would feel really special to her if she was like, ‘Wow I can’t believe she did that!’” Ellie explains.
Image source: Kimber Leigh Boshers
“On party day,” recalls Kimber Leigh, “After we had decorated their activity room, Ellie, a few of her guests, and I walked down to Granny’s room to invite her to join us. She cried.”
Image source: Kimber Leigh Boshers
According to Granny, they were tears of joy:
“All of the girls came into my room and yelled ‘Surprise! we’re here for the birthday party!'” Rita told Babble. “And they loaded me up and we went to the party where everything was already set up, it was wonderful. I thought it was the sweetest thing that has ever happened. Just won my heart to no end. She is just so sweet and so thoughtful and it was just delightful.”
Image source: Kimber Leigh Boshers
That day, Granny got to watch Ellie play games, have fun with her friends, and blow out her candles. It did wonders for her spirit during a long and painful recovery after surgery. “It just makes all the difference in the world, when my grandchildren are here, the sun comes out, that’s all I can say I don’t care how bad I’m feeling, they walk through the door and the sun is shining.”
Image source: Kimber Leigh Boshers
The party was the talk of the facility that day from residents and staff as they admired the costumes, decorations, and most of all, the lively sounds that could only come from a child’s birthday party. Granny is grateful the facility was so supportive of the surprise, saying, “They have just blessed my heart so much, the people here have just bent over backwards to make people feel at home as much as they can, bringing in the touches of home as much as possible.”
Image source: Kimber Leigh Boshers
Getting to celebrate her granddaughter’s birthday was a real joy that made a world of difference. Granny will always remember this wonderful surprise and believes the time she spends with her grandkids brings her healing. “I really do not hurt as bad when the kids are here,” she says. “It’s like you’ve had some kind of treatment. They’re just better than any pain medicine you can get.”
And if you doubted that the Boshers’ love for Alice in Wonderland runs deep,Kimber Leigh shared a photo with Babble of her, Rita, and Granny on Halloween 2012 — all dressed as characters from the story.
Image source: Kimber Leigh Boshers
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