HeyJaredA Wonderful Mess
A space for navigating parenthood with humor, compassion, and common sense while also trying to read a good book (or two).
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- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 13
- Latest publication
- Sep 29, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 6, 2026
Latest issues
Read Middle-Grade for Mid-Life (opens the original)
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Many of us find ourselves in the middle. The middle-ish of life, that is. I am speaking of that vague expanse of time that we generally guess/ hope is the middle of a lifetime. The time famously known for crises, stress, aging bodies, child-rearing, career sustaining, and such. Quite honestly, mid-life doesn’t have a great cultural reputation, a spectrum represented as boring drudgery being in the service to others’ needs like children and employers, or on the other end, the image of men buying
Good Things about Kids and Reading (opens the original)
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Let’s all say, “Hello, Friday!” On Fridays at Parent Lit, we share in honor of our TGIF cultural heritage. Sometimes it’s a list, a recommendation to read or watch, humorous observations, actions to take, or who knows what else we might get ourselves into. It’s short, it’s sweet, and it’s FUN. If you aren’t interested in these types of posts, no worries! You can actually set your delivery preferences here. If you ever want to check out these weekly posts on the website, they can be f
I Finally Read Beach Read... (opens the original)
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Over the summer, I read Emily Henry’s Beach Read*…finally. I enjoyed it. This wasn’t my first Emily Henry book, but it felt like a critical text to read in her backlist. I had been thinking about picking it up for a while, so out of curiosity I looked up when it was published.Beach Read was published May 19, 2020. Thanks to the technology of the smartphone, a simple photo search reveals possibly why I didn’t read it when it was first published<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-im
Small Stuff Makes a Big Difference (opens the original)
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Let’s all say, “Hello, Friday!” I don’t know if this is true for all elder millennials, but TGIF TV vibes still run in my blood all these years later. Even though I no longer enter the weekend by sitting on the couch watching sitcoms, Fridays still somehow whisper the promises of relaxation, laughter, and entertainment. So on Fridays at Parent Lit, we share in honor of our TGIF cultural heritage. Sometimes it’s a list, a recommendation, humorous observations, actions to take, or who knows what e
Where to Begin? (opens the original)
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Welcome to Parent Lit. This is the first official essay in the next chapter of this newsletter.If you are utterly confused about what the heck is going on, you can check out more information here and here.How do we get to everything?In the spring of 2025, I surveyed parent-readers about their reading lives. Eighty-nine lovely paren
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