Maureen Zhao
Giving Birth without My Husband: A COVID Story
COVID-19 prevented my husband from being at the birth of our baby. Just three days before our youngest daughter was born he was diagnosed with an asymptomatic case of the virus that was silently...
A Christmas Letter to My Daughter
To my youngest, during her first Christmas Season,
Every year, in December, families around the world join in some of the most incredible displays of holidays and traditions, with our family celebrating Christmas. This year...
School This Fall: We Can Make This Good
Yesterday I masked up and went into a store. And right there by the entrance stood a display that gets me excited each summer - bright, colorful teacher supplies. I'd normally load up my...
The One Gift an Imperfect Mother Can Always Give
Being a mom has been a huge part of my identity the last nine years. Yet, there’s another part of my identity that I will always and forever cling tightly to. It’s the identity...
A Message From the Teacher on the Other Side of the Screen
To All the Distance Learning Parents at Home,
You’ve been asked to do it all. Your job. Your children. Your partner. Your family. Your dishes. Your dog. Your health. Your community’s health. And now your...
Adventures in Toddler Sleep Training
While many quick to think parents tackle the feat of sleep training their baby when they're a few months old, we had the awesome idea of waiting until our baby was a full-blown toddler....
Mom Birthdays
With our 7th birthday here at Twin Cities Mom Collective on the horizon, we decided to take a moment this week to turn our hearts and minds towards all things celebration! We are rerunning...
Saving Sunday Nights
Sundays can be hard.
I think I’ve always had an unattainable ideal of what it should be... full of afternoon naps and a whole lot of doing nothing. I do, after all, subscribe to the...
But I Want to Keep Them Safe
The other night our oldest fell off his bike. It wasn’t the usual fall that just requires giant knee bandages and some Neosporin. It was the kind of fall that had me rushing to...
Thank Goodness September is Gone
I hate September.
I hate August as well, but I hate September the most.
It's September that gives us anxiety and throws off our groove and causes us to feel weird. It's September that takes my...
Our Baby Got Kicked Out of Daycare
There are a few stories I really don’t like to retell. One of them is that time I got Norovirus one hour into a 13 hour flight from China. The other is the time...
The Reason I Over-Scheduled Our Family’s Summer
For me, childhood summers were carefree.
They were run wild in the neighborhood, stay out till the dinner-bell rang kind of carefree.
They were filled with all the neighbor kids playing kick-the-can in our backyard and...
Honoring the Refugee Moms in Our Community
Every evening I hop in bed, pull out my phone and scroll through the news. My mama heart is tugged in all sorts of directions. Sometimes the troubles of the world can be utterly...
The “Only-Runs-On-The-Playground” Lady
There are only two times you will find me running- if I am being chased, or if I am chasing someone. Both usually occur on a playground with my children and both usually occur...