Sarah Wheeler

3 days ago | momspreading.substack.com | Sarah Wheeler

It’s Autism Acceptance Month, and last Thursday I met with five other parents and a teacher in our school library to do our annual Autism Read-In. As usual, the effort was completely last-minute and a bit miraculous, but also as usual, people showed the eff up.

1 week ago | momspreading.substack.com | Sarah Wheeler

This Sunday, The New York Times Magazine published a long article by journalist Paul Tough (I remember as a baby teacher reading Whatever it Takes on a plane and being ALL IN) about what is behind the surge of ADHD cases in the U.S., whether stimulants actually work, and whether we really know what we think we do about ADHD. By the time my alarm went off at 9 west coast time (and after about 30 minutes of customary snoozing), my inbox was filled with links to this story.

1 week ago | thecut.com | Sarah Wheeler

After I gave birth to my first child almost ten years ago, I was a mess. I had a very specific image of the kind of mother I would be — somehow both obsessively devoted to my child and effortlessly easygoing. I was neither, and the resulting dissonance between the plans I’d made for my parenting persona and the reality of life with a newborn was almost unbearable.

3 weeks ago | momspreading.substack.com | Sarah Wheeler |Viet Thanh Nguyen |Courtney Martin |Katherine Goldstein

The other night it was 70 degrees in Oakland, so my seven-year-old daughter and I filled a bag with cold desserts and took her bike to the local basketball courts to sit and lick and watch another mom run drills with her son (“I love the mom-coaching that’s going on!” my daughter remarked. This child tho).

1 month ago | romper.com | Sarah Wheeler

A few months ago, I was enjoying an adult beverage with my new-ish friend Julia when she mentioned that every Monday she goes grocery shopping at the Berkeley Bowl, a beloved East Bay institution that is half produce. My son likes to brag that just the apple section of Berkeley Bowl is the size of a regular store. I told Julia that, while the apples were unparalleled, I could not get halfway through the massive aisles without a sensory meltdown. It is large, it is bright.