Being a mom can be amazing, but it's also a very hard job.
Lucy Scott knows these challenges firsthand.
Scott with her daughter. All images used with permission from Lucy Scott.
Last year, the new mom found herself completely immersed in both learning and excitement during her first year as a mother to her daughter.
Scott, an artist by day, wanted to hold on to those memories and lessons from her first year of motherhood forever, so she started drawing.
"It felt cathartic to try and make mom friends laugh at what, at the time, were challenging moments," Scott told Upworthy. "What I didn’t realize then was that you forget so much of that first year. I’m really glad now that I have my doodles to look back at and remember."
Here are some of her most important learnings:
1. Pre-motherhood requires a lot of very important preparation.
2. ... and that preparation is sometimes expensive.
3. Babies will keep you guessing even before they're born.
4. You might never truly feel ready for a kid, and that's OK.
5. Scott remembers the day she realized that going out was no longer an on-the-whim decision.
6. Because, well, other people needed attending to.
7. Conversation topics took a minor turn for Scott and her partner too.
8. OK, maybe more of a major turn.
9. She also remembers that, for her, the concept of a difficult Monday took on a whole new meaning when she had a kid.
10. And quiet time? It becomes non-negotiable with kiddos.
11. Breastfeeding requires some very specific location selection skills as well.
12. Gifts from Grandma become a lot more amusing.
13. And impromptu gatherings with friends might require a bit more ... planning.
14. Dinner for two took on a different meaning for Scott with Lois around.
15. And date night usually turned into a sleepover.
16. Bedtime might also look a little bit different once you have kids.
17. But there are also some unforeseen social perks of motherhood...
18. Despite all of the different adventures moms go through, motherhood is a pretty awesome thing.
Motherhood can be a beautiful journey and a wild adventure all at the same time.
And it's important to remember this Mother's Day that the mom superheroes we love so much are humans too, just like us. Thanks, moms!
Vimbai Kapurura is the Executive Director of
Women Unlimited, a grassroots women’s rights organization working to promote the rights and leadership of women, girls, and marginalized groups in Eswatini and southern Africa. With support from the Rapid Response Window of the United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), she’s advocating to have more female voices in national peace building spaces to ensure women’s rights and demands are included.
“Women are peacebuilders. We are peacemakers. We have a critical role to play in crisis situations and we are very much better placed to play a peacebuilding role in any country.”
In the face of the growing political turmoil in Eswatini, where calls for the establishment of a national dialogue remain seemingly unanswered, Vimbai and her organization are stepping up, raising their voice and bringing forward innovative solutions to promote peace and stability across the country. WPHF is supporting them to amplify women’s voices and mainstream gender perspectives into relevant decision-making mechanisms.
“We are the cradle of life. We are changemakers, movers, shakers of any area of development. We want to be engaged and involved in any area of the value chain, the complete value chain. We want to be there.”
As part of its project with WPHF, Women Unlimited – with technical support from
Cordaid, one of the INGO partners of the RRW – has trained several local women-led civil society organizations in conflict resolution, conflict prevention and mediation processes, as well as carried out educational and awareness raising campaigns on the value of women’s participation in peace processes, targeting both women and men across the country.
“WPHF has really helped us a lot. Not only has the funding allowed us to engage more women in peacebuilding processes, but it’s also supported us to underscore the need for female leadership in these spaces, where we’re often left aside.”
In Eswatini, where women and girls face deep-rooted patriarchy from a very young age, undermining their confidence, autonomy and leadership, Vimbai has become an outspoken advocate for women’s equal representation in decision-making roles at all levels, from community-level and regional committees to national and global peace building spaces.
“If you gather many women toward on common goal, you are guaranteed that that goal is going to be achieved. Let us come together and be the change we want to see. No one will do it for us. But together, we can.”
A tireless leader and activist who’s influenced the lives of many women and girls in Eswatini, Vimbai is a firm believer in women’s capacity, tenacity, and adaptability to lead and drive transformative change in their communities. When she thinks about peace, she dreams about women coming together, taking up space, and walking side by side for a more peaceful and gender-equal world in which harmful stereotypes and cultural practices are left behind.
Follow, engage, and amplify the work of Vimbai's organization!
With age comes wisdom, or at least we hope it does. As we get older, we collect life lessons that we can pass along to younger generations, sometimes with lengthy stories, sometimes with quippy sayings.
Adages like "A penny saved is a penny earned," or "Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise," have been part of our collective treasure chest of life advice for generations, but the aphorisms that spring from the experience of our loved ones and mentors are often the most meaningful.
Someone shared that they'd read and appreciated this old man's advice: “My grandpa once told me 'if you get on the wrong train, get off at the nearest station, the longer it takes you to get off, the more expensive the return trip will be.' He wasn’t talking about trains.” The person asked for more tidbits of wisdom from old folks and people started sharing sayings they heard from their elders growing up.
Here are some of the best "old man advice" sayings and how they can be applied in a person's life.
"You might miss what’s ahead of you if you keep concentrating on what’s in the rear view mirror."
Another commenter put it another way: "Don't look behind you, you aren't going that way." This adage is about not dwelling on the past. Many of us have a tendency to spend more time mentally in the past, rehashing old memories or being nostalgic for what once was, than we do in the present or looking forward to the future. There's nothing wrong with a little reflection, but if most of our focus is in the past, we miss out on the present. Rear view mirrors are for quick glances, not where our focus should be.
"Do the right thing, even if nobody is watching."
This saying is about good character and true integrity. If you notice someone drop a $20 bill and no one is around to see but you, do you give it back to them or do you pick it up and keep it? If you realize that a store didn't charge you for an item, do you point it out and make it right or do you allow the mistake to remain? There are opportunities each day for us to choose between right and wrong, and those choices really speak to who we are if they are made without anyone else knowing.
"Be nice to everybody you meet on the way up the ladder. You'll see the same faces on the way down "
Don't get cocky and don't burn bridges you think you won't need to return to. There's value in being kind for its own sake, but there's also the reality that being kind also makes people like you. When people like you, they're more likely to lend you a helping hand, and you never know when you're going to be in a position to need one. It's also a good reminder that you're not inherently better than anyone else just because of where you are in life. We're all constantly in flux, so it's important to stay humble and kind.
In other words, "Make all your words sweet because tomorrow you may have to eat them."
"One of the most powerful negotiating tools is silence."
The power of silence in general is often underrated, but it can be an especially useful tool in a negotiation. Some people are so uncomfortable with silence that they will make concessions simply to avoid it. And sometimes the best response to an unreasonable demand is to just say nothing and stare, letting the other party come to the realization themselves. It takes calm confidence to simply be quiet and let the silence fill the room, which can feel surprisingly intimidating.
"Always listen to your gut, even if you can’t explain it."
Ah, the strange and mysterious sense of intuition that we can't really describe but know when we feel it. Whether it's getting a creepy vibe about a person or a little voice telling you to do or not do something, those "gut instincts" can serve us well. Of course, if we are prone to anxiety, our instincts can sometimes be confused with anxious thoughts, but "go with your gut" is solid advice anyway.
“It doesn’t matter what path you’re on if it’s the wrong mountain.”
Sometimes people trying to find their way end up hitting roadblock after roadblock, which may mean they just haven't found the right path yet or might mean they need an entire overhaul of their life. That might look like switching career paths entirely, rather than trying to find a job in your field that fits. It might mean changing majors in the middle of your studies when you find yourself not enjoying any of your classes. It might mean finding a new community or reevaluating your relationships.
"The harder I work, the luckier I get."
Several sayings line up with this one, like "Luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity," and "Luck favors the prepared mind." There's a lot to be said for fortune and hard work going hand in hand. If we expect good things to just land in our lap, we will likely be disappointed, but if we move in the direction of things we want to happen and do the work of preparing for good things to come our way, "luck" frequently seems to follow.
Finding a saying that resonates can be really helpful when we're facing a specific challenge in life, especially when we commit it to memory and repeat it often.
via Meg Sullivan (used with permission) and Canva/Photos
A volunteer hands out food in a food bank and Meg Sullivan shares her dad's kind gesture.
When we consider people who have had a positive impact on the world, we often think of those who have made grand gestures to improve the lives of others, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Greta Thunberg, or Mahatma Gandhi. Unfortunately, that type of effort is out of reach for the average person.
However, O Organics would like to remind everyone that they can positively impact the world through small, consistent acts of kindness that add up over time. Much like how a small creek can create a valley over the years, we can change lives through small, consistent acts of kindness.
O Organics is dedicated to the well-being of all by nourishing people everywhere with delicious organic foods grown by producers who meet USDA-certified organic farming standards.
Upworthy's Instagram page recently posted a touching example of everyday kindness. Meg Sullivan shared how her father, Tom, peeled oranges for her lunch just about every day from kindergarten through high school. But on the final day of her senior year of high school, he sent his 17-year-old daughter unpeeled oranges with a touching note about how she’d have to start peeling them for herself.
“It’s Time Baby Girl,” he wrote on a wikiHow printout on how to peel an orange with a drawing of himself crying. For the father, this daily ritual was about more than just making lunch; it was about showing that he cared by going the extra mile. “I could have put money on her lunch account,” Tom told Today.com. “But it’s one of those little things I thought was important, that she knows somebody’s taking the time to take care of her.”
The small, daily gesture taught Megan an essential lesson in kindness.
The post reminded people how their fathers’ small acts of kindness meant so much to them. “My dad peeled my oranges until I graduated high school, too. Now, I peel my daughter’s oranges and will for the next 7 plus years,” Katie wrote in the comments. “Love this. My dad peeled mine, too. When I moved out, he gave me an orange peeler gadget,” Mary added.
O Organics has a wide array of foods and flavors covering almost everything on your shopping list.via Albertson's
Did you know that every time you go to the supermarket, you can also change the world through small gestures? O Organics not only allows you to feed your family delicious and nutritious organic food, but each purchase also gives back to help people and communities facing food insecurity.
Through contributions from customers like you, O Organics donates up to 28 million meals annually. The company’s contribution is essential when, according to the USDA, 47.4 million Americans live in food-insecure households.
O Organics has a wide array of foods and flavors covering almost everything on your shopping list. “Over the years, we have made organic foods more accessible by expanding O Organics to every aisle across our stores, making it possible for health and budget-conscious families to incorporate organic food into every meal,” Jennifer Saenz, EVP and Chief Merchandising Officer at Albertsons, one of many stores where you can find O Organics products, said in a statement.
O Organics now offers over 1500 items, from dairy products such as eggs and milk to packaged meats and breakfast staples such as cereal bars, granola and oatmeal. You can also enjoy affordable organic produce with O Organics’ fresh salads and fruit.
Everybody wants to make the world a better place. With O Organics, you can feed your family healthy, organic food every time you go to the market while paying it forward by contributing to the company’s efforts to end food insecurity nationwide. That’s a small, daily gesture that can amount to incredible change.
The intimate moment has become a viral sensation online.
For people with alopecia, hair is a complicated business. Alopecia is an autoimmune condition that causes hair to fall out. Sometimes it's unnoticeable, but sometimes it falls out in patches, and when those patches connect, it can become quite noticeable. At that point, some people with alopecia choose to shave their heads and embrace baldness, wear wigs, or both.
A video that first went viral after being shared by Rex Chapman on Twitter shows a woman having her head shaved by a man with the caption, "His girlfriend was struggling with her hair loss from alopecia. Get out the tissues. Humanity."
After months growing my #hair for the first time in 10 years I had to ask my #boyfriend to #shave my #head again... first time was my granddad.
It's clear from the get go that the woman is feeling emotional, occasionally wiping her eyes as he repeatedly runs the razor over her head. And it's clear that he cares for her—you can see it in the way he tenderly holds her neck as he shaves.
Eva Barilaro, who posted the video to her TikTok account, wrote: “After months growing my hair for the first time in ten years, I had to ask my boyfriend to shave my head again.” But then, just as he's finishing the final touches, he turns the razor around, and oof. Seriously, you might want to grab a tissue.
Alopecia is a fairly common condition, with an estimated 100 people living with it across the world and around 7 million in the U.S. alone. And yet it remains a deeply stigmatizing thing for people affected it by it, who often have to describe their condition to strangers and navigating personal and professional challenges at work, in their dating lives, or just navigating through public spaces. Even worse, there's no cure for alopecia and the treatments can be maddening, sometimes resulting in complete improvements while others suffer near total hair loss permanently.
The video has been viewed by more than 10 million people across social media and drew heartfelt accolades from celebrities and normal people alike, including Ben Stiller:
Sweet, selfless solidarity. This is what real love looks like. People on Twitter chimed in with their own alopecia experiences and stories about going through chemo for cancer and losing their hair.
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Many can relate to the emotional experience of shaving their hair off and the realization that they could be beautiful bald. The woman in this video rocks the shaved head. The guy...well, a little hard to tell until he finishes the job, but his act of kindness and compassion is definitely beautiful.
Steve Carell announces free prom tickets for seniors affected by southern California wildfires.
Actor Steve Carell showed up in a big way for high school students affected by the recent wildfires in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles. The Office actor, 62, partnered with charity Alice's Kids (@alicewillhelp), to pay for all seniors to attend prom at six different high schools in Altadena, California.
According to Alice's Kids founder and executive director Ronald "Ron" Fitzsimmons, Carell will be sending about 800 seniors to prom for free. Fitzsimmons told USA Today that Alice's Kids will donate about $175,000 in total.
The uplifting news was shared via Alice's Kids Instagram page, with a personal message from Carell that was played at each high school via video projection in auditoriums. "A special message from our friend Steve Carell. Right now, this is being viewed by every senior at the six high schools in Altadena, CA!! @stevecarellofficial," the video's caption reads.
“Attention. Attention all seniors. This is Steve Carell with a very special announcement. I work with a wonderful charity based out of Virginia called Alice’s Kids. And Alice’s Kids wanted me to let you know that they will be paying for all of your prom tickets,” he said in the video. “And if you have already paid for your prom tickets, they will reimburse you for your prom tickets. It’s a pretty good deal. Have fun. Enjoy the prom, and remember, this is Steve Carell.”
Fans of The Office will notice that the video is a subtle nod to the hit NBC show, where Carell played boss Michael Scott. During a 2009 episode from the sitcom titled "Scott's Tots," he promises to pay the college tuition for a group of third graders if they graduate. But when the time comes to cough up the cash, he doesn't have it. Thankfully, Carell's donation to Altadena students had a different outcome.
The video got an overwhelming response from viewers, many who caught on to The Office reference. "'Hey Mr. Scott! Whatcha gon’ do? Whatcha gon’ do? Make our dreams come true!' This is beautiful," one wrote. Another commented, "Love this! Scott’s Tots for the win!" And another added, "Scott’s tots is coming true!!"
Another wrote, "thank you so much for blessing our students at Pasadena HS with an unforgettable night of memories ✨️🌹🙏🏼." And another shared, "What a thoughtful way to celebrate kids who’ve lost so much!"
One viewer was also personally impacted: "THANK YOU FOR THIS!! MY SISTER IS ABLE TO GO TO PROM!!🫶🫶🫶," they wrote. still another added, "Thank you @alicewillhelp and @stevecarellofficial on behalf of my Muir Senior 💙💛🐴🙏🏽. You all are awesome!!!!! 👏🏽"
Fitzsimmons told USA Today that Carell and his wife, Nancy, have been involved with the organization for over seven years. The idea to donate tickets to prom came after making numerous calls to schools affected by the wildfires.
"That's when I thought, 'Well, let's do something later on. Later on, all the charities will be gone. The kids who are seniors will be going off somewhere,'" Fitzsimmons told the publication. "So that's when I thought, 'What can we do to lift them a little bit in a few months from now?' That's when the idea of prom tickets came up."
About 12 million people in the United States live with significant visual impairment. About a million of those people live with blindness. Unfortunately, there is no known cure for blindness. Therapies exist to slow vision loss, and some vision loss can be improved with treatment, but complete vision loss has proved to be a very tough nut for scientists to crack, in part because there are so many different potential causes of blindness.
Medical researchers have and continue to look into lots of diverse options, including stem cell therapies, gene therapies, bionic eyes, and now...teeth. Yes, you read that right. Teeth.
A 33-year-old man recently became the first person in Canada to have their sight restored by a rare and outrageous-sounding procedure: Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis, or OOKP.
OOKP has been around since the 1960s and has been performed around the globe, but is still relatively rare overall. Invented by Professor Benedetto Strampelli, the procedure is better known by its easy-to-remember, and fairly gross, nickname: "Tooth-in-eye surgery." Why in God's name is it called that? Buckle up if you're squeamish. Here's how it works:
First, a tooth is removed from the patient. A small rectangular section of the tooth is shaved off and a hole is drilled in the middle of it. Imagine cutting a small circle out of the middle of a sheet of paper.
Then, a small plastic lens is inserted into the hole, almost like a window covering or a makeshift camera lens. The section of tooth acts like a frame to hold the new lens.
OK, now for the really wild part: The rectangular shaving of tooth, complete with plastic lens, is then embedded into the patient's cheek in order to grow new tissue and blood vessels. It will stay there for around two months while the new tissue develops.
The tooth is then removed from the cheek and surgically embedded into the patient's eyeball, effectively replacing the damaged cornea. The new eye is pink and bloodshot in appearance, and a little bulbous, with only a small block hole as an iris. But, miraculously, it works!
The patient's own teeth are used to prevent the body rejecting foreign tissue or materials. Tooth-in-eye surgery only works for vision loss caused by corneal damage, or damage to the surface of the eyes. It won't heal or replace the optic nerve or retina, so it's not a miracle cure for all forms of blindness. It also comes with some risks, but when it works, it works. One study showed that 94% of successful cases still had good eyesight almost 30 years later, with some formerly blind patients seeing well enough to drive cars.
The Canadian man became blind at the age of 13 after a terrible autoimmune reaction to ibuprofen. After dozens of surgeries and therapies, OOKP was his last-ditch effort to permanently restore his sight. Other treatments had helped but his sight would fade away over time. For now, his story is a massive success that doctors are hoping will inspire others to give the controversial procedure a try.
The video below shows the procedure and its aftermath:
We have to keep funding bizarre, off-the-beaten-path scientific research.
This sounds like one of those wacky things you'd see in the news and say, "Why are we spending millions of dollars trying to see if we can grow new eyeballs from teeth?!" But without critical and creative research like this, we'd be no further in treating conditions like blindness. A version of OOKP was performed successfully in the United States at The University of Miami in 2009.
Amazing medical breakthroughs can come from the strangest places. Fascinating discoveries have been made by making people drink their own blood and monitoring the effects, studying the chemical makeup of goose poop, and looking for answers in tree bark, snake venom, and rat poison.
Cheers to Professor Benedetto Strampelli, and his weird but effective stroke of inspiration.
In the 1990s, you could go to Disneyland or The Magic Kingdom on a whim, show up at the park, wait in line to get a ticket, grab a map, walk in, and have a good time. However, these days, things are a lot more complicated. In 2025, the price of the park changes with demand, and you have to make reservations for the day you hope to visit. Want to eat dinner at a sit-down restaurant? Better reserve your table a few days ahead of time. Want to get on the newest ride? Better hop in the virtual queue when the park opens at 9 am.
Further, the entire time you’re at the park, you’re staring at your phone, following instructions on where to go based on the app. And there aren’t any days when the park isn’t crowded—it’s always crowded. It’s a wonder people have any fun at the park when things are so complicated and expensive.
Why is it so hard to be a parent in 2025?
Sarah Biggers-Stewart, founder of CLOVE + HALLOW, a clean cosmetics line, believes the stress of going to Disney mirrors what everything is like for parents in 2025. “The hardest thing about parenting in 2025 is that the parenting part isn't really that hard. It's everything else,” she said in a post with over 70,000 views. “The amount of participation and engagement expected of parents in literally everything related to raising kids is insane.”
Like the parenting is ofc hard but it’s literally everything else that sucks 😂 #parenthood #momlife #raisinglittles #realtalk #girltalk #motherhood #disneyworld #parentlife
“And nothing perfectly illustrates this better than this Disney trip we're going on next week and the multi-month booking process I've had to go through in order to make sure that we can have a normal Disney trip. Sixty days ago, I had to pre-book at six am, restaurants, activities,” she continued. She adds that it makes her mad because "it doesn't have to be this way.”
Why are children's sports so intense these days?
Biggers-Stewart says the same thing is happening in children’s sports. “We're treating these seven-year-olds like they're all gonna go pro. They can't even go with their families for a week vacation during the summer break because if they miss a week, they're like shunned and benched,” she told her 602,000 followers. "The seven-year-olds are talking about their protein intake, and the parents are being lectured by the coaches about their protein intake. These kids are seven.”
Many moms in the comments could totally relate to Biggers-Stewart’s frustration.
"The 1st time we did Disney, I did nothing, and it was a nightmare. The 2nd time, I had spreadsheets & binder & it was F-ing magical for my family and satisfied me like I had planned a corporate summit," Booishlady wrote. "I was SWEATING BULLETS trying to get my kid into various summer camps the moment registration opened in JANUARY. And you're right, even basic activities have to be planned and purchased way in advance."
"We decided early on that we weren’t going to overbook our kids with a bunch of extracurriculars. We prioritize family time, which is great, and yet I still feel so much external pressure to do more," Katie wrote.
At the conclusion of her video, Biggers-Stewart boiled the problem down to what parenting is like in 2025: Intense. “Everything is the most intense version that requires the most effort and participation,” she said. “That is why parents in 2025 are burnt the f**k out.”
bart simpson episode 21 GIF
Eddie Murphy Shut Up GIF by Bounce
O Organics has a wide array of foods and flavors covering almost everything on your shopping list.via 
Buckle up; this is going to be wild. 
It's getting too intense.via