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24 Things I Learned About Motherhood in 2024

A speed course in parenting over the past twelve months.

Zulie Rane
The Parenting Portal
4 min readDec 14, 2024

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a woman smiles at the camera with a baby sleeping on her chest.
Me and my new baby on the sofa
  1. Pregnancy, even when it’s easy, is hard.
  2. I don’t like to drink wine or eat sushi until I’m told I can’t.
  3. There’s no good way to measure risky actions in pregnancy. I should avoid sushi (listeria risk) but am not told to avoid bagged salad or pre-sliced fruit (much higher listeria risk). I should avoid medications like Zofran for my morning sickness because of risks to the fetus, but only unless it’s “really bad.” In which case I can take it. Fetus be damned, I guess? Who decides what’s “really bad?” Am I a bad mom if I can’t suffer through a few vomiting episodes for the sake of my unborn child? That’s what the internet seems to think when I google it.
  4. There’s a lot of suffering I will do for the sake of my unborn child.
  5. The erosion of the powers of our federal guard dogs means there are more food recalls than ever and not that many foods that are totally safe to eat. Our food facilities are hotbeds of filthy food practices. No, you don’t want to read about the huge Boar’s Head recall and the corruption, coverups, and deaths. (But you also don’t want to eat Boar’s Head food for a long, long time.) Upton Sinclair who?
  6. The world is full of…

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The Parenting Portal
The Parenting Portal

Published in The Parenting Portal

The home of parenting articles written by parents and about parents.

Zulie Rane
Zulie Rane

Written by Zulie Rane

Writer and cat mom. Opinions are my own. This is my just-for-fun profile! My official Medium profile is @Zulie_at_Medium.

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