My life after the 15 minutes…

 I am always terrible at doing the math when it comes to weeks, months, and years. What I do know for sure is that my little brother Brian was born 26 years ago today. When I started thinking about how to frame this blog post, I tried to imagine back to when our parents told their three daughters that Mom was pregnant. I remember it being Christmas time and sort of cold — which I guess is possible for a mid-August birthday. I remember thinking that my mom was way too old to even get pregnant, and them telling us that this was a wonderful surprise. And though Jennifer remembers it very differently, I remember her taking charge (as she always did as the oldest sibling) and planning for what next year’s Christmas was going to be like when we had a baby sister to spoil. It never occurred to us that this would be a little demon spawn of a boy. But sure enough, on August 16, 1999, Brian joined our little family. One thing the three sisters noticed right away was that because we were s...

Thank you to those of you who pointed out that our story made it to “ Best of Reddit Updates ” again. I’m always curious about the why, when, and how our story is still engaging to people even a year later. This round felt pretty familiar — the same general comments as always: “This is so fake.” “No one can be that naïve.” “Well, no matter what, it wasn’t sexual assault.” “No one is dumb enough to go into a man’s hotel room alone.” I’ve heard it all before. I get it. I’ve addressed each one of those comments until I’m blue in the face — and fingertips. What was different this time was how many truly supportive messages I received. Not just in Reddit chat, but here on this blog, and even in my inbox from people who found my email ( danniynnad@gmail.com ). The creator of the r/BORU thread even sent me a very sweet private message — sharing that they’d had a similar Texas upbringing and could easily imagine my story happening to people they knew. My sisters have always been on the outsi...

So, no big real-life updates—stay-at-home momhood is still one of the most boring yet insanely fulfilling things I’ve ever done. I rushed back to work after both Abby and TJ were born because, while I loved being a mom, I didn’t think I’d be fulfilled without teaching. The circumstances were different back then—when Abby was born, we were living in Alabama and I was just subbing. There were a couple of other moms on base I trusted to watch her. By the time TJ was born, we had moved into our house in Texas, and I had my mom and older sister steps away—both thrilled to help with the kids while I took my first full-time teaching job. But here in Arizona, we’re pretty much on our own. Sure, we have Evie, but she’s student teaching and wrapping up some remote classes, and while her help is invaluable, I can’t pile any more responsibility on her just because I might get the itch to work again. Of course, Ashley loves having me home—24/7 access to your own on call feeding machine sounds gr...