Recent Posts

MamaSpeak: Can You Be a Co-Parent if You’re not Co-Parenting?

By Talibah Mbonisi

I can’t count the number of times a frustrated parent has lamented to me, “You can’t be a co-parent, if the other parent won’t.”  Yeah.  I feel you.  And, really, I get it.  It’s a reasonable perspective. But, it’s only one perspective. There’s another that asserts that who you are and what you do doesn’t have to be contingent upon what anyone else is doing or being. Yeah, maybe... read more »

MamaSpeak: Co-Parenting is the New Black History Celebration

By Talibah Mbonisi

As the daughter of a Black Studies pioneer and a history major, myself, the study of Black history has always been an integral part of my life.  It was all around me, on the bookshelves of my parents’ home, in the framed art on their walls, in the lessons my father taught to college students.  It just was.  No special month required.  So, despite the identity crises resulting from being raised... read more »

MamaSpeak: Co-Parenting and Grief–On Losing Love and Finding Yourself

By Alexandra Vanegas

I recently heard a phenomenal sermon relating to grieving. The sermon focused on getting through and past the 3 stages of grieving. They are: Numbness Disorganization Reorganization The first step, numbness is a state of severe shock and denial of the death. Life and everything in it seems unreal, like you are living a dream. A really bad dream. You may distance yourself from people and life and... read more »

MamaSpeak: The Non-Custodial Other

By April Gabrielle

One of the most challenging situations confronting single parents is that of visitation and interacting with the courts.  In The Myth of the Broken Home – Guidebook for Single Parents, one of the most delicate chapters for me to speak on is “The Non-Custodial Other” as it stirs up many emotions for me. During this time, my daughter, Tamara, was about five years old, I was coming out of a domestic... read more »

MamaSpeak: When a No-Parent Co-Parent Finally Makes Contact–Part 2

By Leida Speller

SPOILER ALERT: This is the second in a 2-part series.  Click here to read Part 1… I drove to work Wednesday morning, the day I decided to make the call, struggling to imagine what the conversation would be like. Having no contact with my child for more than a decade is so incomprehensible and far removed from who I am as a person, that I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it. What could he... read more »

MamaSpeak: When a No-Parent Co-Parent Finally Makes Contact–Part 1

By Leida Speller

This is the first in a 2-part series.  Enjoy Part 1 and then check out Part 2 here. 2008 was a great year for me. My son and I were celebrating exciting milestones: his 18th birthday, high school graduation and entrance into college. By early August we’d already celebrated the birthday and graduation and were preparing for his move into his college dorm when I got the call. His father – who had... read more »