Again, For The Very First Time

A new substack is reborn

Hello, welcome to Just Enjoy It While You Can (new, improved Substack edition). This is a newsletter about being a mother without entirely losing the person I was before I got here. I’m writing it because I wish I’d stumbled across something like it as I was weighing my own choices– an honest, unvarnished, thoughtful, non-judgemental, compassionate, regularly updated, and (hopefully) funny account of what motherhood is and what it does to a person.

If you’re a subscriber carried over from Bulletin: Hi! Thank you for sticking with me during the switch over. I’m delighted to be working with Substack and looking forward to trying out some of the bells and whistles this platform offers. In the meantime, what does this mean for you? 

If you are a subscriber, you will continue to get a once-weekly newsletter from me totally and completely free. You don’t need to do anything. The weekly newsletter will contain an essay on a topic near and dear to me– usually related to parenting and Mom Culture, but sometimes playing in the sandbox where parenting and politics overlap. You’ll also see cool original illustrations from artists I love, just like before.

As this gets going, I plan to branch out even more and get into interests I’m just now able to re-explore now that my baby is no longer a helpless screaming potato– things like book reviews, music, culture, travel, cooking (I promise none of my go-to recipes contain an entire block of feta or cream cheese), and other stuff. I have no plans to put any of my “old” content behind a paywall unless my agent yells at me (Kidding; she’s cool). I’d like for you to refer to it and share it if it helps you or if you think it will help or amuse somebody else. 

You’ll also notice that the option now exists to become a paid subscriber. If you decide to get on that train, you’ll get access to additional content once a week, probably involving me putting stuff out there using the aforementioned bells and whistles– video, audio, Q&A’s, etc. You might see some special guests make appearances in that space. I might even fuck around and share some fiction I’ve been working on. You’ll see options to become a “founding” member, give gift subscriptions, or subscribe as a group and get a discount. Whatever makes sense for you makes sense for me.

Regardless of how you’d like to engage with my content, I’m glad you’re here.

If you don’t know me already, I’m a writer and host/ executive producer of the Crooked Media podcast Hysteria. I’ve been a columnist, journalist, blogger, pundit, TV writer, and other things you can read about on this Substack’s About page, if you’re interested.

I was never not terrified of being a mother. I’m a year-plus in, and it still scares me. But once I made the decision, I haven’t looked back with regret.

Motherhood is the most wonderful awful thing I’ve ever done, the most natural thing in the world but also more confusing than the most math-tears-inducing class I’ve ever taken.

Becoming a mother was a great decision and a part of me is a little jealous of the people who have chosen not to do it.

Pregnancy is a beautiful ordeal. Birth is a horrifying miracle.

I feel great, I feel awful.

My child is a fun, cute, wonderful little sanity-gobbler.

I well up in tears thinking about how my little girl isn’t a baby anymore; I thank my lucky stars every day that she is no longer a baby.

Becoming a mother has opened a wardrobe-portal to an entire Narnia of new thoughts and experiences, it has also rearranged my brain so I don’t know where anything is anymore.

This shit is hard, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.  

Let’s talk about it. 

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