There’s a new TikTok trend making headlines, and it’s all about moms smoking weed to survive taking care of their children.
They call themselves “garden moms.” Parents are calling pot a coping mechanism, describing their drug habits with zero shame. As the barriers to accessing marijuana crumble nationwide, with multiple states legalizing the drug both for medical and recreational use, users are bringing their daily use into the mainstream.
The Atlantic’s Sarah Levy recently <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/06/gardening-moms-weed-parenting/687518/">reported</a> that she found about 76,000 videos under the #gardenmom hashtag. She interviewed an influencer named Taylor Mitchem, who has 120,000 followers and started smoking pot daily when her son was two and a half. Her reasoning was simple: &#8220;If you can have something that can take the edge off a little bit, why not?&#8221;
There have been enough articles about the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-high-cost-of-getting-high-how-legal-weed-is-destroying-a-generation">pitfalls of legalized marijuana</a>, and it’s not worth rehashing that argument here. But one of the most interesting aspects of the phenomenon isn’t specific to weed. It’s the larger issue of why these moms feel the need to escape their children in the first place.
In this case, the stigma isn&#8217;t just around the substance. It’s more about admitting out loud that you find your own children exhausting enough to need daily relief from them, whether that comes in the form of wine, weed, or whatever the next thing is. A cute hashtag can’t hide that basic truth.
Before the garden moms — also referred to as “cannamoms” — there were the wine moms who bragged that “Mommy’s sippy cup” was a stemless tumbler filled with chardonnay. Decades ago, there was Valium (“mother’s little helper”), and even before that it was the tranquilizer Miltown, which Levy noted was often prescribed to housewives in the 1950s for anxiety.
For years, women have been coming up with ways to manipulate their minds to cope with the stress of motherhood. Weed is the latest vehicle. It’s not likely to be the last.
And the weed mom trend isn’t new, either. Motherly <a href="https://www.mother.ly/health-wellness/self-care/cannabis-use-in-motherhood-rise-of-cannamoms/">ran</a> &#8220;High on Motherhood: The Rise of Cannamoms&#8221; back in 2024, quoting a mom named Susie who said weed gave her &#8220;the sweetest, most engaged moments&#8221; with her daughter while high. Writer Jamilah Lemieux <a href="https://www.romper.com/life/moms-who-smoke-weed">told</a> Romper the same year she thinks cannabis is headed toward the same social status as alcohol: &#8220;widely available, legal, and socially acceptable.&#8221; ABC News was <a href="https://abcnews.com/GMA/Family/weed-moms-wine-moms/story?id=66184880">asking</a> &#8220;Are weed moms the new wine moms?&#8221; back in 2019. Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, a pediatrician at Columbia, told the network she&#8217;s watched it happen in her own practice: more parents turning to cannabis products to &#8220;take the edge off&#8221; of ordinary life.
Advocates often frame smoking weed as an enhancement to parenting rather than an outright escape. &#8220;I got high so I could be more patient&#8221; sounds a lot better than &#8220;I got high because I wanted to feel good,&#8221; even when the outcome is identical. And the outcome matters. Levy cites Kirby Deater-Deckard, a psychology professor at UMass Amherst, on how being chemically mellow slows your reaction time in an actual emergency. A relaxed parent isn&#8217;t necessarily a present one, and one who is overly calm could be dangerous if she needs to act quickly.
I&#8217;ve watched this shift happen in my own circle. Lately, weed is more prevalent, and, what’s worse, it’s a little too convenient. Ten years ago, getting high took effort: find a dealer, roll a joint, smell like a skunk, hide the paraphernalia from a toddler who notices everything. Also, it was mostly illegal back then. That kept a lot of would-be users from even trying. 
Then came the THC gummies. They have no smoke, no smell, no complicated rituals. Because of the convenience, they’re showing up in places where White Claws used to dominate. 
But there are still problems. This form makes it easier to lose track of how much you&#8217;ve had, and edibles are notoriously easy to over-consume. Romper reported that accidental child exposure to THC edibles has spiked over 1,300% in five years, which makes sense considering that they’re packaged like fruit snacks. The format that made cannabis more parent-friendly also made it harder to notice when &#8220;taking the edge off&#8221; has turned into being zoned out for several hours.
What almost none of this pro-weed content mentions is what happens when &#8220;a little bit&#8221; becomes a habit that&#8217;s not easy to quit. Slate writer Sammi LaBue <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2026/06/weed-health-cannabis-disorder-scromiting.html">described</a> developing cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome after prolonged marijuana smoking. This involved a condition of violent vomiting tied to long-term regular use, nicknamed &#8220;scromiting&#8221; for the screaming that often accompanies it. 
Alice Moon, a cannabis industry veteran, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/03/13/alice-moon-chs/">developed CHS</a> herself after years of regular use. It took two years and several doctors before anyone diagnosed her because the condition wasn&#8217;t well understood yet. 
You won&#8217;t find any of that in the #gardenmom clips. What you&#8217;ll find is a promise: a calmer, gentler version of parenting, one that doesn&#8217;t yell over spilled milk. The harder part to justify is feeling the need to check out in the first place. 
Cannamoms did not discover a solution to stress-free parenting. They’re just repackaging the same escape mechanisms that, over time, were exposed for being cop-outs. Wine, weed, Valium: It’s all part of the same playbook that treats children like they need to be endured rather than enjoyed. 
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

GettyImages-1457878238

How ‘Mommy Juice’ Got A Whole New Meaning

Children

Drugs

Marijuana

Motherhood

Upstream

Second Lady Usha Vance delivered a rare rebuke to The New York Times over an article essentially claiming that women within President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration were using maternity fashion to weaponize pregnancy.
Vance, who is pregnant with her fourth child with husband and Vice President JD Vance, mocked the outlet&#8217;s attempt to make her wardrobe political and made it clear that her maternity fashion choices were typically born of just three things: necessity, comfort, and economy.
&#8220;Now that we know the political significance of my $8.75 coral maternity dress from Old Navy, can’t wait to hear what the New York Times has to say about my elastic-waistband pants and compression socks!&#8221; Vance posted via X. &#8220;In the meantime, enjoy my pregnancy fashion (or lack thereof) and a good story with your kids on &#8216;Storytime with the Second Lady.'&#8221;
Along with her caption, Vance shared a video — also featuring the vice president — of herself wearing the dress in question as he read aloud from A. A. Milne&#8217;s classic, &#8220;Winnie the Pooh.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
And here’s the receipt! <a href="https://t.co/tgICmpbapQ">pic.twitter.com/tgICmpbapQ</a>
— Second Lady Usha Vance (@SLOTUS) <a href="https://x.com/SLOTUS/status/2069857037303816372?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 24, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
For good measure, Vance followed up with a screenshot of her receipt showing that she had, in fact, purchased the dress from Old Navy. It also showed that the coral-colored &#8220;Asymmetrical Shoulder Maxi Dress,&#8221; originally $49.99, had been marked down to $12.99 and she had saved an additional $3.74— making her final total $8.75.
And while that choice may have been one of convenience and economy, Vance said in March that being pregnant as the Second Lady of the United States meant that she necessarily had to change her style, mainly because her position dictated a number of events that she would have to attend — and many of those would not be held in places where leggings and sweatpants were considered appropriate.
&#8220;I have to dress up a lot more. I enjoyed my last pregnancy — there were a lot of sweatpants. I was working from home and sometimes put a blazer on over what was under,&#8221; she told NBC at the time.
The article to which Vance was responding was published on Wednesday and was titled, &#8220;The Politics and Power of the Pregnancy Image.&#8221; If that did not paint a clear enough picture of the tone, the sub-headline removed all doubt: &#8220;Usha Vance, along with Katie Miller and Karoline Leavitt, shows how much is said by an expectant silhouette, without anyone saying a word.&#8221;
The article proceeded to accuse women within the Trump administration of flaunting their pregnancies to make a political point: this is what women are supposed to do — and how they are supposed to look.
<blockquote>
Together, the women have created a notably consistent, and somewhat paradigm-shifting, picture of the White House’s family and fertility platform.
If the bare-chested, muscled mixed martial arts fighters of the U.F.C. match that President Trump hosted on Flag Day were the poster guys for MAGA’s image of masculinity, then the pregnant women of Trump world are one half of their feminine counterparts. Along with the sheath-clad, lip-filled, pageant-haired Mar-a-Lago set, they offer an image of idealized womanhood that gives literal shape to the pronatalist movement.
</blockquote>
Jill Filipovic, the host of the “<a class="css-yywogo" title="" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-week-in-women/id1632915204" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Week in Women</a>” podcast, suggested that even though it&#8217;s highly unlikely that the pregnancies were coordinated, the presentation appeared to be: &#8220;It almost feels like a memo went out. They have quite intentionally opted to present themselves as, ‘I am really pregnant, and this is what women were chosen to do,’ and they are happy to say that both with their looks and their mouths.”
Vance, quite clearly, said otherwise.
Miller, whose fourth child with longtime Trump adviser Stephen Miller was born just days before Father&#8217;s Day, <a href="https://x.com/KatieMiller/status/2069874153717395901">weighed in</a> as well — and said that maternity fashion had been made more difficult as American birth rates had fallen.
&#8220;Over the last few years, many clothing brands have largely stopped producing maternity clothes that most women actually want to wear. @SLOTUS has done a phenomenal job curating affordable, fashionable options that make pregnancy fashion accessible. The root cause is sadly straightforward: with fewer women having babies, it’s likely become unprofitable for brands to invest in dedicated maternity lines,&#8221; she said.

Second Lady Fires Back After NYT Says Trump Admin’s Women Are Weaponizing Maternity Fashion

Usha Vance Takes Rare Swipe At Media Over Maternity Fashion

Karoline Leavitt

Media

New York Times

Pregnancy

Usha Vance

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
I grew up a &#8220;child on the margins,&#8221; a child of addicts and therefore a child of chaos. I had what I considered to be a normal life: school, dance, parents arguing, checking pulses, and praying the lights turned on. My parents loved me greatly, but their love was limited to what they knew. My parents’ addiction existed long before I did; it was no surprise that it stayed as I grew up. I learned to be the responsible one of the family.
When I was 14, we lost my dad to his addiction, and the last thread of our chaotic lives began to unravel. My mom and I became unprovided for and unprotected. We were helpless and homeless for three months. We begged, borrowed, and stole to get by. We wore every valuable possession we had left and stayed on guard. While we were homeless, my mom found friends more dangerous than the last few, and while she was in jail again, they turned on me and assaulted me. My dad’s death brought new extremes to my life that had only existed in nightmares.
When my mom was released from jail, we had a “new start.” I registered at a different school. But the cycle continued, and my mom went to jail again. This time it was different. The teachers, police officers, and caseworkers actually noticed me. They noticed not only that I was alone, but they also noticed me: my personality, preferences, and emotions. They wanted to know more and help me. As I began to trust them, I shared my trauma and memories with them and then with Harmony House Children’s Advocacy Center. This led to being placed in foster care.
In April 2020, I was placed with my foster family. With a simple hour-long drive and a duffel bag in the doorway, I was introduced to lively, fun, healthy, and joyful chaos, the type of chaos caused by happy children rather than unhappy adults. The family had two loving parents, five biological children, and one other foster child. They all stood and stared as they watched “the new kid,” eyes full of curiosity and compassion.
After much food, play, “trauma dumping,” and hibernation, just 12 days later, at age 15, I found out I was pregnant.
At this new place, I was separated from everything and everyone I knew, good and bad. I wondered how attached to this new life I could become. Even with every uncertainty, I became a mom in an instant. I thought, “It can’t be harder than raising my own mother.”
Though I was fearful, I knew that as a mother to my own child, I was responsible for him. Fearing the family’s reaction and judgment, I trembled and waited. I feared being kicked out and abandoned again. My foster mother noticed my anxiety. Instead of judging, putting me down, or kicking me out, she gently explained, “We will keep and love you and your baby if you’d like to stay. We are glad to raise you and your baby.”
Thankful to have such reassurance, I set off with her for my first ultrasound on May 1. That afternoon, my excitement disappeared when we went to my old house to get a few of my things for the baby and found my mother, who had overdosed.
In one year of my life, I became fatherless, homeless, assaulted, a foster child, a mom, and an orphan. Somehow, I dared to hope just one more time that this would be my last “new start.” I&#8217;ve learned you can be bitter or get better. I chose to settle into my new life and learn.
As I watched my foster family interact, I realized they did not live their everyday lives in fear, guilt, and shame. I wanted that life of love for my child and wondered how I could make it my son’s reality too. Later, God showed me the best way to have that life for him was to learn how to live it myself. I learned that my second mom and dad had their own problems and their own pasts, but they chose to live life together and to show love every day. I learned to hope, and my son became my inspiration. Hope became the reason I could choose life for not only my son, but for myself too.
Every mom has a story before motherhood with mixed feelings surrounding it. What matters is what we choose to do despite our baggage. My life today is beyond what I ever hoped for in my wonders or my worries. Daily, it is full of joyful chaos and full of love, structure, and consistency. Part of my daily life is YoungLives, a teen mom support group. We still meet several times a month, where I am reminded I am far from alone. I’ve been with YoungLives for five years now, and as I have grown into adulthood and welcomed a couple more children, I have become an example of what a little hope and resources can do.
Today, I am a friend and aid to other teenage mothers. As we sit around the supper table or play games, I get to listen to their joys and troubles, whether mundane or extreme. And because of the life I have lived, I can even relate to them. As they share, they may not realize that until I say something to the effect of, “I remember those times.” Many girls have responded with anger or disgust, but once I explain a bit about my story, they quickly realize that I was and still am one of them, just further down the line.
It is one of my greatest joys that when people look at me today, they do not see the pain and hurt of my past. Instead, they can see the love of a mother and friend. Today it is my choice and honor to get to share what a little hope can do.
***
 Angel Rassi is a Christian wife and stay-at-home mother of two children — with another on the way. She works with teen mothers and their families through Ohio Valley YoungLives.

Close-up of pregnant woman with hands her belly holding daisy

I Lost Everything. Then One Unexpected Pregnancy Changed My Future.

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
When I walked out of the IVF clinic for the last time, I didn&#8217;t have anywhere to go.
I had done everything a patient is supposed to do. For over a decade, I had lived what most people would call a low-tox life. I avoided polyester, BPA, and the endocrine disruptors hiding in everyday products. I paid attention to what I put in and on my body because I believe that our health is shaped by the small daily choices most people never think about. So when my husband and I struggled to conceive, I assumed I would walk into a fertility clinic, get answers, and find a path forward.
I tracked my cycles. I sat through the hormone panels, the hysterosalpingogram, the saline infusion sonogram, the genetic testing, the semen analysis, the ultrasounds. Every test came back normal. And at the end of it, a doctor I had met for less than 30 minutes told me my diagnosis was &#8220;unexplained infertility&#8221; and that the next step was IVF due to my age: 31.
That was it. There was no other path offered. No further investigation. No specialist to consult. No suggestion that maybe, just maybe, &#8220;unexplained&#8221; didn&#8217;t mean there was nothing wrong, but that no one had looked hard enough to find it.
When you are told IVF is your only path to motherhood, you do not weigh it as one option among many. You weigh it against childlessness. That is not informed consent. That is a cornered decision. Women across this country are walking into IVF cycles not because they have chosen it freely from a range of options, but because they have been handed an illusion that this is the only door left.
The grief of that is hard to describe. You inject yourself with hormones you do not fully understand, you mortgage your savings, you absorb the physical toll, and underneath it all is a quiet voice asking whether anyone has actually tried to understand your body. For many women, the answer is no.
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" style="max-width: 605px; min-width: 325px;" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@healthillie/video/7629129637968268574" data-video-id="7629129637968268574">
<section><a title="@healthillie" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@healthillie?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@healthillie</a> Wild ride <a title="ivf" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/ivf?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#ivf</a> <a title="infertility" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/infertility?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#infertility</a> <a title="♬ original sound - Live Healthillie" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7629129675540925215?refer=embed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">♬ original sound &#8211; Live Healthillie</a></section>
</blockquote>
<script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>
Restorative reproductive medicine fell into my lap. I did not find it because I was a smarter patient or a better advocate. I found it because I got lucky, and that should not be how women find answers about their own bodies.
Think about what is being asked of women in my position. We are expected, with no medical training, to somehow know that our doctors haven&#8217;t looked thoroughly enough. We are expected to advocate for tests we have never heard of, request referrals to specialists no one has mentioned, and second-guess the experts we are paying to guide us. How is a patient supposed to know what &#8220;extensive enough&#8221; looks like? That burden should not be ours to carry. But it is.
When I finally sat down with an RRM doctor, the consult lasted over an hour. He went through my history, my cycles, my labs, my surgeries, and patterns in my family. By the end of that conversation, he was recommending a diagnostic laparoscopy.
I was scared. I was also genuinely confused. I had no symptoms. No debilitating periods. No pelvic pain. No outward signs that something was wrong. Every standard screen I had been given had come back unremarkable, and now a doctor I had just met was telling me he believed there was something to find and that the only way to know for sure was surgery.
I said yes. And what they found inside of me was something very different than what I had been told. One of my fallopian tubes was, in fact, blocked — not open, as my IVF clinic&#8217;s hysterosalpingogram had indicated. I had stage 1 endometriosis, an inflammation of the uterine lining. I had a cyst blocking my cervix. And I had fibroids covering my uterus.
This was the body my IVF clinic was prepared to transfer embryos into.
I believe healthy embryos, the product of an extraordinarily expensive and physically grueling process, would have died inside of me, not because the technology failed, but because of medical neglect. No one looked closely enough to find what was actually wrong with me first.
Here is what I want every woman reading this to understand. The standard pathway in mainstream fertility care often looks like this: You get a basic workup, and if nothing obvious turns up, you are routed toward IVF. There is very little in between. And the women who do get a diagnosis — PMOS, endometriosis — are largely funneled toward the same destination. Sometimes a few rounds of intrauterine insemination are offered first, often because insurance requires it before covering IVF, not because IUI is the most appropriate next step. The diagnosis changes. The recommendation rarely does.
PMOS patients face significantly elevated risk during ovarian stimulation. A 2021 study <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2020.615957/full">published</a> in &#8220;Frontiers in Endocrinology&#8221; followed nearly 2,700 women with PMOS undergoing IVF and found that roughly 25% developed ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (a complication that ranges from uncomfortable to genuinely dangerous, sometimes requiring hospitalization). The rate in the general IVF population is around 5%. Yet PMOS patients are rarely referred to specialists who treat the underlying drivers of their condition first, steps that could change what treatment they need at all, or make IVF safer if they do choose it.
Endometriosis is associated with lower IVF success rates, and the most effective treatment for the disease itself is excision surgery performed by a skilled endometriosis surgeon. Yet rather than being referred for treatment of the underlying disease, women are often told to suppress it hormonally in preparation for transfer. Suppression is not treatment. It manages the disease for the cycle; it does not address it.
These are not fringe conditions. They affect millions of women, and the standard pathway treats them as obstacles to bypass on the way to IVF, rather than as conditions deserving dedicated care.
I am telling my story because women deserve to know there are real, evidence-based diagnostic and treatment steps between an infertility diagnosis and an IVF cycle. We deserve more than 30-minute consultations for lifelong decisions. We deserve doctors who investigate before they intervene. We deserve to know that &#8220;unexplained&#8221; sometimes just means &#8220;not yet examined.&#8221;
Most of all, we deserve choice, not the illusion of it. We cannot explore our options if we are never given any.
I had to find that out the hard way. I am writing this so the next woman doesn&#8217;t have to.
***
<div>Iliriana Balaj is the founder of Live Healthillie, the author of &#8220;Yummy Colors,&#8221; and an integrative nutrition coach. She has dedicated her life to founding a low-tox marketplace sourcing the cleanest brands and advocating for people creating a healthier life for themselves by education and informed consent.</div>

LEN05472

I Thought IVF Was My Only Path To Motherhood. Then Everything Changed.

Fertility

Health

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
Parents, what if there was an easy way to make your kids smarter and happier and it would cost you nothing?
Here is the secret: Stop giving your kids handheld devices. Screens are making our kids <a href="https://www.nprillinois.org/2024-01-08/are-phones-making-kids-dumber-new-data-suggests-the-answer-is-yes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dumber</a>, less emotionally regulated, and unhappy.
This might sound like just another mommy war issue, but the harm of child screen use isn&#8217;t a matter of opinion; it&#8217;s supported by a growing body of scientific research.
Dr. Mark Williams, a professor of cognitive neuroscience and co-author of the book &#8220;Screen Smart Children,&#8221; warned on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBedpPCv5c4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">60 Minutes Australia</a> that too much screen time is damaging kids&#8217; brains. Williams referenced brain scans from two- to five-year-olds that showed a significant deterioration occurs in a child&#8217;s brain after spending up to three hours a day on devices.
“The more time a two- to five-year-old is on a device, the more abnormal those white matter tracts are developing in their brains, which is really concerning for later on in life,” Williams said.
I became a mom in 2013 when the so-called <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/parents-of-the-touch-screen-generation-dont-free-your-ipad-yet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">iPad kid</a> was just emerging. While pregnant, I remember seeing more and more young children staring at screens at restaurants, stores, and public events. It struck me that instead of learning to look up and be curious about the world around them, children were looking down at their screens — not even interacting with their own families. I didn’t want that for my baby.
It&#8217;s estimated that today <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/02/26/nx-s1-5308593/children-screens-ai-common-sense-media" target="_blank" rel="noopener">40% of toddlers</a> have their own device by age two, more than half of kindergarteners have their own device, and <a href="https://www.edweek.org/technology/heres-how-many-elementary-students-have-their-own-cellphones-and-tablets/2025/02" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one in four kids</a> has a smartphone by age eight. Technology is reshaping American childhood and our future.
<div id="attachment_1090125" style="width: 873px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1090125" class="wp-image-1090125 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/IMG_4277-863x576.jpg" alt="" width="863" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/IMG_4277-863x576.jpg 863w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/IMG_4277-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/IMG_4277-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/IMG_4277-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/IMG_4277-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/IMG_4277-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/IMG_4277-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" />Photo by Megan Brock</div>
My husband and I grew up in the &#8217;80s and &#8217;90s with plenty of TV, movies, and Super Mario, but without the strain of personal devices. When I was pregnant, we decided we weren’t going to raise iPad kids. We wanted to give them as close to a &#8217;90s analog childhood as possible. For us, this meant no access to cell phones, iPads, immersive video games, or social media. TV and movies were still on the table.
This was a countercultural decision, and some were skeptical it could be accomplished. But we did it. My son is turning 13 this year, and he’s never had his own device. I’m convinced that giving him an analog-ish childhood is one of the best parenting decisions my husband and I have made.
This choice wasn&#8217;t hard to implement, but it did take determination, particularly when our kids were five and under. There were many times I was tempted to use devices to soothe a child’s distress or just get a few moments of peace and quiet.
But deep down, I instinctively knew that handing my kids devices for comfort or ease was taking away opportunities for their growth and development. Science backs this up. A 2025 systematic <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/bul-bul0000468.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">review</a> found that the more a child used screens, the more likely he was to have socio-emotional problems. And the more such problems he had, the more likely he was to soothe himself with screens. It&#8217;s a lose-lose cycle for kids.
Emotional regulation is something we all have to learn, and we learn it through experience and socialization. As a society, we’ve forgotten that it’s good for kids to be bored at a restaurant. It’s good for a toddler to smile at strangers in the grocery store. It’s even good for preschoolers to see something they want at Target and throw a tantrum because they can&#8217;t have it; they are learning the limits of their will amid the safety of their parents&#8217; love.
Over the years, my husband and I have made some adaptations to our family screen policy. When traveling on a long flight, all screen time bets are off for the sake of our sanity and respect for fellow passengers. We&#8217;ve used video calls to maintain relationships with distant family. We also let our son start playing on a Nintendo Switch at nine and a half — earlier than I would have liked — with parameters: limits on the types of games he can access (no role-playing games), set times when he can play, and no internet gaming with strangers.
We&#8217;ve also let our kids watch TV and movies with moderation. In alignment with our &#8217;90s childhoods, this happened on a social, stationary TV in the living room rather than an isolating handheld device.
Our kids have made it to double digits without the heavy burden of devices, and I see how it’s benefited them. They play outside every day, are very social, and enjoy reading.
<div id="attachment_1090131" style="width: 873px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1090131" class="wp-image-1090131 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/DSC_0333-863x576.jpg" alt="" width="863" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/DSC_0333-863x576.jpg 863w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/DSC_0333-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/DSC_0333-768x513.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/DSC_0333-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/DSC_0333-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/DSC_0333-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/DSC_0333-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" />Photo by Megan Brock</div>
Increased screen time often goes hand-in-hand with a loss of imaginative and independent play. Today’s parents have embraced a culture of “<a href="https://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-research/safety-police-free-speech-being-stifled-college-campuses" target="_blank" rel="noopener">safetyism</a>” that Jonathan Haidt, author of &#8220;The Anxious Generation,&#8221; describes as an extreme elimination of risk in a child’s life that cultivates fragility and ultimately prevents kids from reaching their full potential.
Haidt and Lenore Skenazy, founder of the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Free-Range-Kids-Parents-Teachers-Grow/dp/1119782147" target="_blank" rel="noopener">free range kids</a> movement, are part of <a href="https://letgrow.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Let Grow</a>, an organization focused on helping parents build resilience and confidence in their children by giving them developmentally appropriate independence.
This is a part of the screen time conversation that often gets lost. It&#8217;s not just about what kids are doing; it&#8217;s about what they’re not doing because they are addicted to screens. They aren’t playing in the woods and riding bikes down the street. They aren’t climbing trees and making new friends. As modern parents, we have to be intentional about making sure our kids are getting outside, playing hard, and scraping their knees from time to time — without us hovering over them.
For young parents who want to give their kids an analog-ish childhood, don’t listen to anyone telling you it’s impossible in 2026. You can do it. And it&#8217;s a decision you won’t regret.
Cultivating curiosity and a love of nature in your kids is one of life&#8217;s great joys. When our kids were little, my husband and I constantly took them to parks, to playgrounds, and on hikes. We let them play in mud and taught them how to skim rocks on a creek. We stayed up late in the summer, having water fights and catching fireflies. Teaching them to look up and see the beauty in the world costs very little money and left us with priceless memories.
We are only beginning to realize the negative consequences of the digital-based childhood revolution. &#8220;The Anxious Generation&#8221; provides a deep dive into how preteens and teenagers are being severely harmed by smartphones and social media. Despite extremely worrisome data, approximately 90% of 13-year-olds have a cell phone, according to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/teens-and-internet-device-access-fact-sheet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pew Research</a>.
Every day, we are making choices with our time and attention. As an adult with a fully developed brain, I often struggle to unplug from my devices. It takes discipline and intentionality to uphold good technology boundaries.
I know my kids will one day have to learn to be disciplined with technology, but I want to give their brains a chance to develop before assaulting them with the constant pull of a screen.
The technology genie is here to stay, and it&#8217;s not going back into the bottle. But as parents, we don’t have to put the genie in the hands of our children. We can say no. We can choose a different path for our families.
Let&#8217;s direct our children’s minds, curiosity, and attention toward our big, beautiful world that’s full of mystery. Let’s help them look up and out — toward friends, nature, and creativity instead of down at a lifeless screen. Their brains will thank us later.

A beautiful little girl having fun at the seaside

The ‘90s Childhood Comeback

Parenting

Technology

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
When well-meaning people tell expectant moms that “motherhood changes you,” they may be more right than they know. A new study by brain scientists in the Netherlands suggests that a mother’s brain undergoes distinct changes after having a second child that seem to help her adapt to caring for her growing family.
A decade ago, a related study found that women’s brains lose gray matter after having a first child, and the changes last for years — something researcher Elseline Hoekzema referred to as “<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/22/health/pregnancy-brain-changes/index.html">synaptic pruning</a>.” Second-time mothers’ brains appear to be “more strongly altered in networks involved in reacting to sensory cues and in controlling your attention,” researcher Milou Straathof <a href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-pregnancy-uniquely-female-brain.html">said</a> of the recent study.
The new study, detailed in an <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-69370-8">article</a> published in February, found that the changes were distinct enough that “women could significantly be classified as having undergone a first or a second pregnancy based solely on their brain changes between sessions.” X user Anish Moonka <a href="https://x.com/anishmoonka/status/2049010221847310400">shared</a> a synopsis of the study ahead of Mother’s Day, causing many moms to comment that they were thankful to know their so-called mom brain moments, though frustrating, had an underlying purpose.
“It&#8217;s incredibly important to study how pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting affect the brains of women (and men, too). The majority of adults become parents at some point in their lifespan, but there are still major gaps in our understanding of how the transition to parenthood affects our neurobiology, cognition, health, and brain aging,” psychologist and professor Darby Saxbe, author of the forthcoming book &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dad-Brain-Science-Fatherhood-Shapes/dp/1250387523">Dad Brain: The New Science of Fatherhood and How It Shapes Men&#8217;s Lives</a>,&#8221; told The Daily Wire in a statement. Saxbe is listed as a peer reviewer of the 2026 article.
The 2026 study involved 110 women who underwent MRI brain scans to examine data points such as gray matter volume, resting-state brain activity, and white matter tract organization. The women were divided into three groups: women pregnant with their first child, women pregnant with their second child, and a control group of women who were not pregnant.
Psychologist and licensed behavior analyst Lauren Mahoney, who teaches at the City University of New York, told The Daily Wire that the research tracks with her personal experience as a mother.
“After my first child, the shift felt internal. My attention narrowed in a way that almost felt protective,” Mahoney said. “I remember thinking how strange it was that I could pick up on the smallest cues but at the same time forget something as simple as why I walked into a room.”
“After my second child, the shift was entirely different,” she continued. “I had a very clear moment where I thought, ‘My brain doesn’t get to stay in one place anymore.’”
The concept of matrescence, the process of becoming a mother, is important for women to be aware of, experts told The Daily Wire. Many people describe it as the process of transforming from maiden to mother. 
“Another important piece of the research is that the most significant changes in first-time mothers occur in the default mode network, which is heavily involved in self-referential thinking and understanding other people’s thoughts and emotions,” Mahoney said. “That helps explain why first-time mothers often describe such a profound identity shift. They are not just caring for a child. Their brain is actively reorganizing how they understand themselves in relation to another human being. By the second pregnancy, that system has already adapted. So instead of restructuring identity again, the brain appears to refine and build capacity for managing complexity. That is where the shift toward attention and action systems becomes so important.”
The findings of the study weren’t a total surprise for researchers who have conducted similar studies with animals and had similar findings, said neuroscientist <a href="https://www.jodipawluski.com/">Jodi Pawluski</a>, author of the book &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mommy-Brain-Discover-amazing-maternal/dp/1772584878">Mommy Brain</a>.&#8221; Pawluski said the new study may point out the obvious (or at least what is obvious to experts) — that a second-time mom experiences changes in neural networks related to attention, sensory, and motor pathways — but it’s still very important research to build on.
“The majority of the research we have on the maternal brain has focused on how becoming a mother for the first time is related to changes in the brain,” Pawluski told The Daily Wire in a statement. “However, the majority of mothers have more than one child, so understanding how the second (or third, or fourth) time impacts a mother&#8217;s brain is incredibly important to ensure we are doing all that we can to support mothers and families.”
The authors of the new study were also interested in how these brain changes correlate with mother-baby bonding and peripartum mood. The article states that for both groups of pregnant women, less pronounced brain changes were linked to depression.
Many people underestimate the amazing nature of the mother-baby connection, Dr. Kristin M. Collier, associate professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, told The Daily Wire, <a href="https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/a-relational-theology-of-biology/">citing research</a> that shows that a mother’s voice can affect her child’s brain structure, can influence her baby’s heart rate, and is likely a key factor in her child’s development of language.
The new study could contain meaningful information for moms going about their everyday lives, Mahoney said. Most importantly, she wants moms to give themselves grace when they feel like they no longer function the way they did before having children.
“The difficulty focusing, the constant mental switching, [and] the feeling of being cognitively stretched are often interpreted as personal shortcomings, when in reality they reflect a brain that has adapted to manage complexity and unpredictability,” she said. “When women understand this, there is often an immediate shift from self-criticism to self-compassion. They begin to work with their brain instead of against it. That might look like structuring tasks differently, allowing for more flexible attention, or recognizing that efficiency now looks like responsiveness rather than sustained focus.”
Either way, moms can be grateful for scientific proof that their &#8220;mom brain&#8221; is actually their superpower.
***
Evie Solheim is a freelance journalist, book reviewer, and author of the newsletter <a href="https://eviefordham.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Girl’s Guide</a>. Find her on X <a href="https://x.com/EvieSolheim" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@eviesolheim</a>.

GettyImages-2273484959

We Already Knew Moms Had Superpowers — Now There’s Scientific Proof

Mothers

Mothers Day

Science

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
In a scene from “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” villainous fashion editor Miranda Priestly (played by Meryl Streep) laments missing out on much of her twin daughters’ lives. Climbing the fashion industry ladder comes at a cost, but to her, it was worth it because, as she puts it, “I love working. I really do … I just love it.&#8221; 
In an <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/celebrity/meryl-streep-says-working-moms-aren-t-selfish-we-re-human-beings/ar-AA2288V4#image=1">interview</a>, Streep revealed that the last line was an ad-lib, a nod to the generation of women who chased work instead of being dedicated to motherhood. Streep called the feeling of loving work analogous to sneaking a cigarette because women’s pursuit of work was labeled “selfish.”
A generation of modern feminists is aghast at younger women’s embrace of traditional roles, traditional families, and traditional values. Streep is coy in this interview, but Sheryl Sandberg, former Facebook chief operating officer, is more explicit with her disdain toward the traditional wife movement. The woman who spent over a decade telling women to “lean in” to work outside of the home <a href="https://people.com/sheryl-sandberg-the-tradwife-trend-is-not-a-fresh-idea-11922052">blasted</a> the trad wife movement as “very detrimental to women” and founded on “sexist” notions of women&#8217;s roles. In a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DV1J49KkYKT/">social media post</a>, she chided us to “leave the 1950s where they belong: in the past.”
The alarmism over how trad wives might derail women’s economic progress is overblown. Women continue to opt to work for different reasons, some for fulfillment and others out of necessity. The labor force participation rates among those of prime working age (25 to 54) have <a href="https://www.frbsf.org/research-and-insights/publications/economic-letter/2025/02/whats-driving-labor-force-participation-among-women/#:~:text=Labor%20force%20participation%20among%20people,beyond%20the%20current%20economic%20expansion">surged</a> since the pandemic, with women driving more of the increase than men.
The number of moms with underage children in the workforce has been rising over the past two decades. The labor force participation rate for mothers with children under age 18 was <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.nr0.htm#:~:text=In%202025%2C%2068.0%20percent%20of,than%20those%20with%20younger%20children.">73.9%</a> in 2025, little changed from 2024, but up from <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/famee_04212020.pdf">72.3%</a> in 2019, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/famee_04262012.htm#:~:text=Mothers%20The%20labor%20force%20participation,living%20apart%20from%20their%20spouse.">70.9%</a> in 2010, and <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/history/famee_04192001.txt">72.3%</a> in 2000.
Not surprisingly, unwed mothers are consistently more likely to participate in the labor force than married mothers (78% and 72%, respectively, in 2025). Mothers of older kids are more likely to participate in the labor force than mothers with young children (78% and 68%, respectively). Those shares have all risen since 2000, indicating that female workers are still “leaning in” to work outside of the home. 
Coming out of the pandemic, <a href="https://time.com/7306896/women-leaving-workforce/">anecdotally</a>, some high-earning women decided they didn’t want to miss the moments in their children’s lives that girl bosses like Sandberg gave up. Their spouses could sustain the household financially. 
As prices surged in 2022 and onward, other women may have given up the lifestyle that two paychecks afforded them by quitting to save on childcare costs while gaining time with their little ones. <a href="https://www2.census.gov/library/working-papers/2025/adrm/ces/CES-WP-25-/">Surveys consistently indicate</a> that high childcare costs push some mothers out of the workforce or force them to reduce hours because the math no longer works. <a href="https://www.independentwomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Reclaiming-Affordability-Report.pdf">Deregulation and tax reforms</a> are needed to expand childcare options for parents. 
For some women, motherhood is their aspiration. Some “trad wife” influencers certainly go overboard and create unrealistic expectations for what you have to do to be a “good” mom or wife. But at its core, the “trad wife” movement is simply the modern version of “homemaking,” a term all but erased from modern vernacular by feminists. Many women find dignity, beauty, and value in fully dedicating their time to their spouses and children. That should not be denigrated.  
Here’s what Sandberg gets right. It should be a woman’s choice to decide how much to prioritize family life over work. The good news is that women don’t just have a binary choice of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-girl-boss-dream-promised-women-everything-why-so-many-now-want-out">girl boss or trad wife</a>. Millions of women are engaged in a third way that grants them the flexibility to be a present mother while earning a respectable living or supplementing the household budget. 
From full self-employment to gig work, about half of the over <a href="https://info.mbopartners.com/rs/mbo/images/MBO_2023_State_of_Independence_Research_Report.pdf">70 million</a> Americans who freelanced last year were women. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2022/03/08/indeed-study-shows-women-took-gig-work-preferring-flexibility-over-stability-during-the-pandemic/">Nine out of 10</a> women who left a traditional job to become an independent contractor did so for flexibility. This arrangement provides them the freedom to work while nestling a newborn at home or attending an afternoon soccer game. Employment without the motherhood guilt.
As women and couples raise children farther away from longstanding caregiving support networks, such as grandparents, aunts, and cousins, self-employment through freelancing and gig work is all the more important. Not every mother can afford an army of nannies.
This third way has champions in Washington. The Trump administration, which has several working mothers in high-ranking positions, recognizes that independent work is important to women. In a win for women, the Department of Labor recently proposed a <a href="https://www.independentwomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/IW-Public-Comment-Regarding-Independent-Contractor-Rule-2026.pdf">sound and welcome</a> worker classification standard that protects independent contracting. This rule is a 180-degree change from President Joe Biden’s anti-flexible work regulatory approach. However, unless Congress codifies this effort through pro-worker legislation such as the <a href="https://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/senators-scott-cassidy-paul-release-legislative-package-empowering-independent-workers-to-access-portable-benefits/">Modern Worker Empowerment Act</a>, another freelancer-unfriendly administration could overturn it, as happened before. 
This Mother’s Day, American women don’t need scoldings or slights, but respect for the choices we make. Thankfully, we live in a nation that generates pathways for women to craft fulfilling lives without the mommy guilt.
***
Patrice Onwuka is the vice president for economic policy and director of the Center for Economic Opportunity at Independent Women. She also cohosts WMAL’s O’Connor &amp; Company.

g_20cs_the_devil_wears_prada_2_9_7b7ed0fa

Meryl Streep Just Said The Quiet Part Out Loud About Career Women And Motherhood

employment

Movies

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
The buzzy new Apple TV series “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” didn&#8217;t seem poised to be appreciated by conservatives. The show’s premise of a single mom making money on OnlyFans felt icky, leading me to tune in out of morbid curiosity more than expecting any kind of solid entertainment. The near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score from critics did nothing to alter my preconceived notions; if anything, it made me even more skeptical. We all know how mainstream media critics think.
So imagine my surprise when I found myself not only rooting for Margo (played brilliantly by Oscar and Emmy nominee Elle Fanning), but also agreeing with her on major social issues such as abortion and the transformative power of motherhood. I kept thinking, “Wait, this is Apple TV?”
The series follows a first-year college student who becomes pregnant after having an affair with her married professor. I knew based on the show’s synopsis that she would not choose abortion, but what I could not anticipate was how little she even considered it.
The cheating professor immediately offers to “support” Margo after she informs him about the pregnancy, hurrying to suggest that she go to Planned Parenthood, not “some cheap clinic.” Margo looks on in confusion, then accuses him: “Sounds like you’ve made my decision.” 
The awkward professor quickly backtracks with platitudes about it being her body and her choice while still making it clear what his preference is. 
“Terminating a life, that’s something to think about,” Margo tells the professor. 
In the same episode, Margo gets an ultrasound and hears her baby’s heartbeat as tears run down her face. She gazes in wonder at the printed ultrasound photo.
Margo’s mother, Shyanne (Michelle Pfeiffer), is similarly unhappy about Margo’s decision to have the baby, despite also being a single mother after having a one-night stand. “You kept me,” Margo points out, to which her mom really has no good response.
When Shyanne asks if Margo loves the professor, she says she doesn’t. But she also decides, “For whatever reason, I want this baby. I want it more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”
Predictably, Margo gets pushback from her roommates, with the most vocal among them haughtily complaining that Margo was “supposedly a feminist” and asking “what message is she sending?” by keeping the baby. That same roommate turns out to be a villain later on when she abruptly moves out, leaving Margo with a heavier burden of rent. 
Margo debates internally but decides pretty quickly that she’s going through with the pregnancy despite having zero support from her mother, her friends, or the child’s father. And yet, she is undoubtedly the protagonist of this story and arguably the most sane among them.
Only three episodes out of eight have been released so far, and the series has only begun dabbling in the OnlyFans territory, which is broached after Margo loses her job due to not having reliable childcare. There’s still a chance this show could go off the rails and become a subtle advertisement for online prostitution in the face of financial hardship. 
But even if it does, “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” has done something that few modern shows have attempted in a long time. Instead of glorifying abortion and careerism, it’s showing a young woman who chose motherhood even when her entire support network told her it would ruin her life.
The series depicts the messy, uncomfortable side of single parenthood; Margo’s son Bodhi is colicky and constantly crying, he won’t latch, and she’s forced to drop out of school after he’s born. For some reason, she’s dropping $200-plus on diapers every week. 
But despite all this, the young mother still looks at her son lovingly and calls him “beautiful.” Throughout the first three episodes, she never once questions if she made the right choice when she decided not to end his life in the womb.
It’s refreshing to see this perspective coming out of Hollywood. Maybe the world really is healing after all.

Margos_Got_Money_Troubles_Photo_010201

Series Goes Off Script When A Professor Suggests Abortion

Abortion

Culture

For generations, the conversation about motherhood has been framed as a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-girl-boss-dream-promised-women-everything-why-so-many-now-want-out">binary choice</a>: boss babe or homemaker? Corner office or weekly playgroup? But in more recent years, those two worlds have collided, with a quiet third option emerging as a viable alternative. Enter the full-time working mom who is also a full-time caregiver for her kids. It’s not a fringe phenomenon: One 2025 <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/03/21/remote-work-parents-kids-childcare/82228037007/">survey</a> estimated that 2.3 million workers either keep their children home with them while working remotely or bring their children to the office.
Women are more likely than men to seek out these arrangements — and not just because of childcare. The flexibility that comes with remote work is increasingly seen as non-negotiable by mothers of young children. Data from the Brookings Institution <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/seven-economic-facts-about-prime-age-labor-force-participation/">found</a> that remote work is most common among parents with children under five, with mothers of young children logging the highest rates of fully remote work across all demographic groups.
When I put out a call on social media asking for mothers who were working from home without external childcare to share their stories, the response was overwhelming. No two situations were exactly alike. Some working moms had occasional help — from family, part-time nannies, or a spouse working different shifts. Others swapped childcare with other working moms. There were also plenty doing it completely alone: single mothers or married women whose husbands worked long hours outside the home.
Everyone was cobbling together a slightly different version of this seemingly impossible arrangement. What most had in common was a deep sense of gratitude, a heaping side of guilt, and the constant urge to prove themselves.
The nap time hustle is real
Molly, an SEO manager and mother to an eight-month-old and a six-year-old, does the majority of her work around her kids’ schedules. She describes her days as wholly dependent on them.
“The nap time hustle is a real thing. Sometimes I feel like I can get more done in that two-hour nap than I can in a four-hour time span when my son is awake,” she told The Daily Wire in an interview.
Molly checks email during school pickups. She gets back on her computer after the kids are in bed, often until 10 p.m., and is the first to admit that work-life separation isn’t her strong suit.
“I’m pretty awful about separating work and personal life right now, but I know that life won’t always be like this,” she said.
Kate, a content marketing writer for a fintech company with a 10-month-old, left a job she loved because its strict in-office culture left her no flexibility. Her new role pays more and allows her to work from wherever she wants.
“When I’m on a video call, I’m usually muted while [my son] throws blocks around the room at my feet,” she admitted. “I haven’t sat at my desk in months; my laptop is often precariously balanced on a surface high enough to keep him away from the keyboard.”
Nap time, when it happens, is sacred. Evenings and weekends are spent catching up. She wakes at 2 a.m. sometimes — not just because of the baby, but because her brain won’t stop working.
These mothers are staking a claim to something that doesn’t have a clean label yet: making money and achieving professional success, but also being there when the kids get home from school. Breastfeeding between meetings. Reading picture books on their lunch breaks. Being present, even imperfectly, for all of it. They’re doing it by necessity, by choice, or — more often than not — some complicated combination of the two.
There is a stigma associated with working from home with kids, though. One popular Instagram influencer with nearly 200,000 followers — who regularly shares her real name, profession, and work-from-home-with-kids content online — declined to be interviewed for this piece.
“It makes no sense with me sharing online, but something for an article feels too official,” she wrote in response to an interview request.
She wasn’t alone in her hesitation. Even on the social media thread where I solicited respondents, there was pushback from strangers. “[Women] shouldn’t be doing this,” one commenter wrote. “Let’s not normalize this.” 
The judgment comes from both sides: traditional working moms can be skeptical that someone is really pulling her weight while wrangling a toddler, and full-time stay-at-home moms sometimes assume the kids are running feral. Neither is exactly right.
Guilt that never clocks out
Unlike the influencer, dozens of full-time work-from-home moms were eager to share their strategies, triumphs, and challenges. One mom was candid with some of her tips for success.
“Full disclosure: I use a mouse jiggler to keep my Teams status green and computer from locking between the hours of 8:30 and 5,” she told The Daily Wire. But that admission doesn’t mean she’s a slacker.
In the same breath, this mom mentioned how important it is to her not to back off responsibilities or display anxiety about her workload. As part of a small team of parents with older children who largely trust her to hit her deadlines, she says the pressure to perform at pre-baby levels is constant. Still, she recognizes her most important role. 
“You are replaceable in your workplace, but the time with your children while they are young is finite and precious,” she said.
If there was one word that surfaced again and again in these conversations, it was guilt. If the moms focus on work, they feel like they’re neglecting their kids. If they step away to push their kids on the swings, they feel like they’re shortchanging their employers — even when their in-office colleagues spent the same 20 minutes making a Starbucks run.
Jenna, who works in tech sales and has a three-year-old and a four-month-old, described it by saying, “It’s so hard trying to repeatedly explain to [my daughter] that I have to work and can’t focus on her as much as I want to. And then it’s simultaneously hard to really focus on work when she’s constantly asking me to play. I feel guilty either way.”
Her employer knows her kids are at home with her and is understanding. But the voice in her head is the loudest critic. “I know that I’m way harder on myself about it than any of them are on me,” she added.
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<div id="attachment_1067407" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1067407" class="size-medium wp-image-1067407" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-523428608-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-523428608-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-523428608-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-523428608-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-523428608.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Getty Images</div>
Jessica, a director of marketing at a digital marketing agency with a two-and-a-half-year-old son, has the receipts to prove it can work.
“I have seen comments on social media from people who say that it’s not possible to work from home with kids without being a terrible employee — and I fully disagree,” she said. “I have a great working relationship with my boss, I never miss deadlines, and have received promotions and raises during my time working from home with my son.”
Not everyone is working from a home office. Laurel takes a different approach entirely: She brings her nearly two-year-old twins to the office where she works for a small vitamin and supplement company.
When she found out she was having twins, her company didn’t even have a maternity policy. Faced with the high cost of living in her state, she went to her boss — who has older children he used to bring to the office himself — and they agreed to try the arrangement on a trial basis.
That was almost two years ago. Now there’s a dedicated room in the office with two pack-and-plays, a changing table, and a sound machine. When the twins nap, the office runs normally. When they’re awake, they play in their mother’s office or attend meetings with her. She advocated for more companies thinking outside the box like this.
“I feel like everybody is just used to the status quo, and it’s just not something that we do. But I really wish that we would, because so many moms are going through this,” Laurel said of her arrangement. 
She’s floated the idea of the company hiring a part-time in-office babysitter, or creating a dedicated childcare space as an employee benefit — a model she believes is more feasible than most corporate cultures are willing to consider.
What do these mothers want employers to understand? Molly’s answer cuts to the heart of a disconnect that runs through nearly every story.
“I love seeing the term ‘flexible hours’ on job listings, but I’m not sure that most companies actually use that term correctly,&#8221; she said. &#8220;If you can find a working parent that is willing to work mornings, evenings, or weekends to make sure their job gets done and gets done well, I think you’ve found a really great employee.&#8221;
Challenging the status quo
For some of these women, the arrangement wasn’t a lifestyle choice; it was a means of survival. Micaela became a virtual assistant after leaving an abusive marriage and being financially cut off, building a career from scratch while raising a two-year-old alone.
“I feel a lot of pressure throughout the day to figure out how I’m going to fit all my hours in,&#8221; Micaela said. &#8220;Whenever my son is asleep or otherwise occupied, I feel torn between the pressure to get my hours in, take care of my home, or take care of my own self-care.”
She’s also become an advocate for how employers think about mothers more broadly.
“I think most employers undervalue mothers,” she told The Daily Wire. “Most moms are some of the hardest-working employees, and when employers are flexible and understanding in regard to children, it opens up the hiring pool and reduces work-life balance-related stress.”
Sarah, a Stitch Fix stylist and Amazon content creator in Minnesota with three children ages five, three, and almost two, has two part-time jobs totaling 40 hours a week and homeschools all three of her kids. 
“Some days, things go sideways and you’re going to feel like a failure. Some days, you’ll feel like you’ve totally got it all figured out,” she said. “The biggest benefit is that I get a front row seat to my kids growing up. Nobody knows them better than I do. There are only so many years of your kids being little — be there.”
The working from home with kids life has become a reality for millions of moms. Their children are learning independence, adaptability, and the value of hard work modeled by example. Their employers are getting employees who, by necessity, are more efficient, more motivated, and more determined to protect the life they’ve built.
Laurel put it best in the advice she’d give any mother thinking about trying this: “Try not to compare your old self to your current self because it’s easy to get in your head about productivity and all that. Just try to be grateful for the experience. In the end, you will look back and realize that it was such a blessing to have that opportunity.”
Not everyone will get that opportunity. But for the women who do, they’re not necessarily failing at both. They’re going down the long road to inventing something new.

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The Working Mom Shift That’s Challenging The Status Quo

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This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
My cell phone rang the other day, and it was my 18-year-old calling while she was out running errands. My first thought, as it almost always is, was that she was in a car crash or was stranded on the side of the road after running out of gas. It turned out she was calling in response to a text I had just sent her saying, “Your baby sister used the potty for the first time!” What ensued was our eldest asking to put the 2-year-old on the phone so she could congratulate her. I heard our toddler shriek, then jump up and down with immense pride as she recounted her achievement, followed by my eldest&#8217;s congratulatory squeals.
If you had told me 10 years ago that, at 45, I would have both an adult child and a baby barely out of diapers, I would have laughed at you. I had fully imbibed the convincing cultural lie that the female body stops working after 35, that it is no longer meant for childbirth, maternity, or postpartum struggles. I also believed the lie that having a child in “old age” will derail your retirement dreams and you will most certainly leave that sweet baby robbed of normal childhood relationships with her siblings.
Those narratives are pernicious; they are loud, and women all over our country have adopted them. I’m here to offer something different.
But first, allow me to admit that not all of the struggles outlined by media, medical professionals, and anti-natal influencers are without a grain of truth. My husband and I are fully aware that we will be by far the oldest parents at our baby’s high school graduation (63 and 60, respectively). We also won’t be sending off our three older girls and traveling the world as empty-nesters in the next five years, and, yes, my body was far more tired when I was pregnant at 42 than it was when we had our first in 2008. All these things are true.
What is also true is that our three eldest were old enough to remember, in clear detail, their sister&#8217;s birth, and it absolutely changed their lives in the best possible way. They helped me during pregnancy, learned carefully about the great responsibility of carrying a child, fell in love with another human in a way I didn’t think possible from the moment they set eyes on her, and have each played a unique and beautiful role in raising her.
They adore her; she is “their” baby. Not just their sister, but something wholly special in a way that isn’t replicated when your children are all born two years apart. Sure, she’s a toddler and can be messy, naughty, and at times challenging. She is also the child who helped each of my girls to become more human, more adult, more sacrificial, and more alive. She has changed the way we live, the way we look at the world, and the way we consider our plans. She glued us all together in a way I didn’t think was possible and that I am unable to explain.
And, as for me, I don’t think I’ve ever loved something more than I love our family right this moment. These past few years have been the fastest and most joyful that I’ve ever had. Nothing has filled me with more happiness than watching all three sisters push and shove their way into Meg’s room when she wakes from a nap, literally cheering when they see her. This still happens every day — almost three years later.
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<div id="attachment_1065313" style="width: 251px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1065313" class=" wp-image-1065313" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/IMG_1800-201x300.jpeg" alt="" width="241" height="359" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/IMG_1800-201x300.jpeg 201w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/IMG_1800-387x576.jpeg 387w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/IMG_1800-768x1144.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/IMG_1800-1031x1536.jpeg 1031w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/IMG_1800.jpeg 1284w" sizes=" (max-width: 241px) 100vw, 241px" />Credit: Rachel Reeves</div>
It has been so game-changing to have this fourth baby as an “older” mother. I’m not at all worried about the things that concerned me when I was a new mother to our firstborn. I don’t care if someone thinks I shouldn’t let her have a pacifier or that I shouldn’t feed her Kirkland brand formula. I’m not particularly worried about milestones or if she’ll be an early reader. 
Yes, having children when you are young is ideal — it’s how God made our bodies after all — but something truly exceptional happens when you&#8217;re a “geriatric mom”:  an acute understanding that those worries that come with youth only serve to eat up the precious moments you have while your babies are still young. I know how fast it all flies by. Hindsight, in this case, is helpful.
Our lives changed the moment we found out we were pregnant with Margaret. We gladly suffered through the side-eyes and predictable, “Are you going to be ok?” comments. We knew it was coming. Our culture has told women they are barren once they near their mid-30s, so we didn’t expect anything less.
For some, those double pink lines post-40 may have been a devastating revelation, but I hope that perhaps you can begin to think of it differently, to see the multiplicity of benefits of having a child when you are wiser, more self-assured, and more grounded. If that’s where you find yourself, I want to give you hope. Likewise, if you are still yearning for a child and have been told you are past your prime, perhaps you are, but that doesn’t mean the story is absolutely over. 
We can start telling women that the Lord might have something more beautiful than we can craft for ourselves. Sometimes the most wonderful gifts come when we stop repeating a script about motherhood that isn&#8217;t truthful in the first place.
***
Rachel Reeves is a wife and homeschool mother of four daughters. She works in political commentary at Here Are The Headlines, both on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/herearetheheadlines/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.herearetheheadlines.com/">Substack</a>.

Rachel Reeves

I Had A Baby Young And Again In My 40s. The Difference Isn’t What You Think.

An Ohio company was ordered to pay $22.5 million to a woman whose baby died after her company denied her request to work from home during a high-risk pregnancy.
Per <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ohio-firm-must-pay-225-million-mom-whose-baby-died-was-denied-work-hom-rcna264321?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma&amp;taid=69bc55cb9ac2060001303ea5&amp;utm_campaign=trueanthem&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter">NBC News</a>, Chelsea Walsh requested to work from home beginning on February 15, 2021, for her job with Total Quality Logistics, but was denied. Walsh had just undergone an operation on her cervix when she made the request and was recommended to be put on bed rest due to the high risk nature of her pregnancy.
A <a href="https://www.woltermanlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-03-18-Larkin-v.-Total-Quality-Logistics-press-release-1-2.pdf">press release</a> from Walsh’s attorney said her doctors “instructed her to limit activity, remain on modified bed rest, and work from home.”
“TQL presented Walsh with an impossible choice — work at the office and put additional strain on her child, or take an unpaid leave of absence and lose the income and health insurance she needed,” the lawsuit said.
Her husband Joel Walsh then had a conversation with the company’s human resources manager, who is friends with an executive at TQL, the lawsuit says. The unnamed executive allegedly said, “Thank you … you just saved us a lawsuit.”
This led to Walsh’s request being granted on February 24, which is the same day she went into premature labor and gave birth to a daughter, named Magnolia. The baby was born at 20 weeks and four days.
&#8220;Magnolia had a heartbeat, was breathing, and exhibited fetal movement,&#8221; the lawsuit says, per NBC. &#8220;Magnolia was placed on Walsh’s chest so that Walsh could hold her. Magnolia died in Walsh’s arms approximately one hour and thirty minutes later.&#8221;
The jury ruled in Walsh’s favor and ordered the company to pay $22.5 million in damages for what they determined to be a wrongful death.
“This is a heartbreaking outcome for a young family,” one of Walsh&#8217;s lawyers said in a statement. “The evidence showed that Chelsea Walsh was following her doctors’ instructions for a high-risk pregnancy and simply asked to work from home.&#8221;
&#8220;The jury found that TQL’s denial of that reasonable request led to the death of her daughter,” he said.
Julia Daugherty, a rep for TQL, said the company disagreed with the verdict, arguing that “the way the facts were characterized at trial&#8221; were not accurate. “We are evaluating legal options and remain committed to supporting the health and well-being of our employees,” the rep said.

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Firm Must Pay $22.5M To Woman Whose Baby Died After Work-From-Home Request Denial

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Comedian Chelsea Handler is once again proving that she doesn’t understand human development after she released another sad video praising her child-free lifestyle. 
The 51-year-old star bragged about not having to go to places like Build-a-Bear because she doesn’t have children, but commenters rightly pointed out that at her age, it’s more likely that any children Handler had would be well past that stage of life.
“I just woke up and it’s one o’clock in the afternoon,” Handler says in the video she shared to Instagram. 
The “Chelsea Lately” host is seen wearing pajamas and a sleep mask. “I get to sleep to however late I feel like it because I don’t have any f***ing children,” she went on. “And because I don’t have kids, that means I don’t have to go anywhere today. I don’t have to go to Disneyland, Legoland, Color Me Mine, Build-a-Bear, Yogurtland, the zoo. I don’t have to go to any of those places, not once, not ever.”
“Kids… they’re not that great,” Handler concluded.
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The skit received mixed reactions, especially from followers who don’t understand why Handler is so focused on children&#8217;s formative years. 
“Ma&#8217;am, your kids would be off at college ignoring your phone calls,” one reply <a href="https://x.com/madelineefry/status/2033316372151681500">said</a>.
“Now that my kid is a teenager and prefers the company of his peers, I look back on the days when I ‘had to’ go to those places as some of the most meaningful and sweetest times of my life. You will never know the greatest and purest love until you’ve loved your child,” another reply <a href="https://x.com/Kanchitakarola/status/2033254412635033603">said</a>. 
“People who are untroubled about a life choice don&#8217;t have to post about how untroubled they are about it. They just move on,” a third commenter <a href="https://x.com/QuestionPDX/status/2033392956552736814">pointed out</a>. “She&#8217;s spinning her wheels and making a rut for herself.”
This isn’t the first time Handler has tried to glorify her child-free life. The celeb made headlines in 2023 with her viral “Day In The Life Of A Childless Woman” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/extremely-sad-chelsea-handlers-day-in-the-life-of-a-childless-woman-spoof-goes-viral">spoof video</a>.
“I wake up at 6 AM. I remember that I have no kids to take to school, so I take an edible, masturbate, and go back to sleep,” the video begins.
Each segment of the video got more outlandish, with the comedian saying she gets up at 12:30 PM to “get ready for a busy day of doing whatever the f*** I feel like.” 
“I put on my most impractical and stylish shoes since I won’t be chasing a child around the grocery store,” Handler continued, adding how she enjoys a peaceful time during air travel because she has “no screaming kids.”
Handler’s pretend day ends with her texting a random man, “Wanna f*ck tonight?” 
Reactions at the time were the same, with commenters pointing out that the bit was sad and predictable, plus didn’t reflect the reality of women in their late 40s with older children anyway.

Chelsea Handler

Chelsea Handler’s Child-Free Bit Is Back, And It’s Even Sadder This Time Around

Chelsea Handler Is Back To Glorifying Her Child-Free Life, But It Still Makes No Sense

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