Dear son or daughter:
I take care of your mom. She lives at the end of the hall and has flowers on her door and peppermints in a dish by her chair. She is here in the nursing home because her health is failing.
It has been failing for a long time now, but I understand how hard it was to accept that her falls at home were not just because she was “getting clumsy,” as she said. Her increasing confusion over conversations you had with her was not just because she simply “forgot” or “wasn’t paying attention.”
I recognize your feelings of guilt that she is here after telling her years ago you’d never “put her in a home.” And the mixed emotions you have toward your siblings, who aren’t convinced she needs to be “institutionalized” but also don’t live nearby and haven’t experienced the...
Lifestyle
Dear President Obama, Majority Leader Reid, Senator McConnell, Speaker Boehner, and Leader Pelosi:
I write to you as a mother, advocate, and President of National PTA, the nation's oldest and largest volunteer child advocacy organization comprising more than five million members across all fifty states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, US Virgin Islands, and Department of Defense schools in Europe.
On behalf of millions of parents, teachers, administrators, and community members who fight for all children every day, we urge you to join us in prioritizing education by coming together to reauthorize and fix No Child Left Behind (NCLB). We've waited long enough. The election is now behind us, and as we look toward 2013 and the dawn of a new Congress, PTA calls on you for...
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To whom it may concern:
First of all, please let me say that I experienced excellent customer service at the Paramus, NJ location. The facility was clean, employees friendly and patient, and I have nothing negative to say about my specific experience.
I’m writing to voice a complaint about the policies a Chuck E. Cheese. I find it humiliating, distrustful and sad that in order to take my children in we must be stamped and tagged upon entrance and verified upon exit. It suggests that kidnappings and abductions are a regular occurrence.
Add to that, the first three rules and regulations, posted in large print at the entrance, refer directly to gang and gun violence, plus next to that sign is a picture of a handgun with text explaining that weapons are prohibited…
Either...
2,547
Dear Jeremy,
As you know, for decades there was widespread child sexual abuse taking place in the London Borough of Islington. The extent of the abuse was only uncovered through the tenacity and bravery of whistle-blowers, journalists and survivors which led to a number of independent inquiries and the damning Ian White report in 1995.
As with the rest of the country, the reality is that child abuse was rampant, ignored, covered up and the extent of it is only just beginning to come to light. The attitude was that of the Head of MI5, who was revealed yesterday to have written about a paedophile MP to the then Cabinet Secretary Sir Robert Armstrong in 1986: ‘At the present stage…the risks of political embarrassment to the government is rather greater than the security danger’
At...
2,705
Dear OB/GYN,
I’m the father of a two year old boy named Noah who was born with Down syndrome, and whom we love very much. I understand that in the course of your day to day work you often have the difficult responsibility of telling parents news they never thought they would receive; that there’s a good possibility that the little boy or girl in their mothers womb is going to be born with Down syndrome.
Why I’m Writing You This Letter
My hope in writing you this letter is to tell you some of the things I wish I would have known the day we found out our son was born with Down syndrome. Our son did not have a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, and our amazing pediatrician did a great job of calming our fears, honoring the life of our boy, and letting us know we were in this...
2,200
Dear Photographers,
I thought long and hard about writing this post. While I really don’t want the people involved getting their narcissistic attention feed which is exactly what they want, I feel compelled to say something since my daughter was brought up in what I hope was a drunken Facebook rant – I hope… because if the person who wrote it wasn’t drunk, that’s a scary look into her true being… but then again, some say that alcohol brings out a person’s true colors so who knows…. all I know is the one time I really got drunk in my life, I laid down on the floor, humiliated and humbled, and prayed that God would keep me alive because I thought I was dying. ;)
Perspective – Seeing Clearly
It’s been no secret that my family has had this string of strange happenings of recent –...
6,980
Dear Dad,
There are so many things I'd like to tell you face to face. I either lack the words or fail to find the time or place. But in this special letter, Dad, you'll find, at least in part, the feelings that the passing years have left in my heart. The memories of childhood days and all that you have done to make our home a happy place and growing up such fun.
I can still recall the walks we took, the games we played; those confidential chats we had while resting in the shade. This letter comes to thank you Dad, for needed words of praise; the counsel and the guidance, too, that shaped my growing-up days. No words of mine can tell you, Dad, the things I really feel; but you must know my love for you is lasting, warm, and real.
You made my world a better place and, through the...
2,327
Dear Ministers:
We are writing to urge you to embark on a policy review of the important issue of ownership of early learning and child care services. We believe that there is overwhelming evidence that public and non-profit delivery is the best way to ensure that Canada’s newest social program will meet the high expectations we all share for Canada’s children and families.
As you know, our community was most enthusiastic about the 2004 federal election commitment to create a national early learning and child care program based on the QUAD principles, and we have continued to be optimistic that we are at the beginning of the universal, high quality, inclusive system of child care for which we have advocated for almost three decades.
At the same time, we have consistently urged...
2,487
Dear Premier Wynne:
I am writing to seek urgent clarification of troubling comments made by the Minister of Education regarding your commitment to affordable child care.
Young families across Ontario are struggling to find quality child care that they can afford. Before the last election, you acknowledged the need to improve child care in Ontario – and you promised that families could expect better from your government.
Most significantly, on November 18, 2014, members of the Liberal Caucus unanimously endorsed NDP Leader Andrea Horwath’s motion to “partner with the Federal Government to ensure that every parent in Ontario has access to childcare at a cost of no more than $15 a day per child.” Your MPPs made it clear that your government would work collaboratively to deliver on...
2,894
To our first foster child,
I'm supposed to be writing a letter to your new caregiver but instead I find myself writing to you. After all, these past two months we've gotten to know each other pretty well.
When you first came to us you were broken. Physically and mentally. You didn't really know which way was up and you definitely did not know who to trust. You were confused. You were scared. You cried.
A lot.
We became a team you and I. And I soon learned that all you needed was a little comfort. A safe zone. Something to make your feel at ease. So when we couldn't hold you and calm you, he did.
"Beary Gibb".
Your Foster dad and brother came up with that.
Those silly boys.
Beary is a stuffed bear bigger than you. And you love him. You snuggle with him at night. He...
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