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How Sheryl Sandberg's take on single moms shifted after her husband died.

A Facebook post from Sheryl Sandberg has gone viral.

Last spring, Sheryl Sandberg's life changed in the blink of an eye.

Her husband, Dave Goldberg, died unexpectedly while the pair were on vacation. The tragedy placed Sandberg, the COO of Facebook and a mother of two, in a role she'd never been in before: single parent.

Sandberg and Goldberg in summer 2014. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images.


"For me, this is still a new and unfamiliar world," she wrote in a Facebook post in honor of Mother's Day on May 6, 2016. "Before, I did not quite get it. I did not really get how hard it is to succeed at work when you are overwhelmed at home. I did not understand how often I would look at my son’s or daughter’s crying face and not know how to stop the tears."

Goldberg’s death didn't just change Sandberg personally — it forced her to reflect on the messages she's promoted as a successful author and businesswoman.

And some of those messages, she noted, should have been crafted differently.

"Some people felt that I did not spend enough time writing about the difficulties women face when they have an unsupportive partner or no partner at all," Sandberg wrote of her best-selling book, "Lean In." 

"They were right."

"Lean In," a best-seller that coaches women (and men) on how to counter gender bias at work, was no stranger to criticism. Many felt Sandberg downplayed the effects of systemic sexism in the work place, as well as overlooked the unique challenges faced by disadvantaged women and women of color

Judging from her post, however, it seems being a single parent is giving Sandberg some new perspective:

"I will never experience and understand all of the challenges most single moms face, but I understand a lot more than I did a year ago."

Sandberg explained many single moms face uphill battles every single day, and our policies do little to help them make ends meet.

Noting she's "extremely fortunate" to have the financial means to support her family, Sandberg said she's in the minority — "the odds are stacked against" most moms doing it alone. And even though the number of single-parent households has been on the rise, our workplace policies don't reflect this modern reality.

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images.

The U.S. remains the only advanced economy in the world that doesn't require employers to guarantee paid maternity leave, as Sandberg pointed out. Far too many single moms also work in jobs that don't provide paid time off if they or their children are sick.

How are working single moms — a group that is already disproportionately poor — supposed to get ahead when they're living in these circumstances?

The best way we can celebrate Mother's Day? "Vow to do more to support" the moms who need us most, Sandberg wrote.

"Single moms have been leaning in for a long time — out of necessity and a desire to provide the best possible opportunities for their children," she said in her post.

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images.

"Being a mother is the most important — and most humbling — job I’ve ever had. As we rightly celebrate motherhood, we should give special thanks to the women who are raising children on their own. And let’s vow to do more to support them, every day."

A Korean mother and her son

A recently posted story on Reddit shows a mother confidently standing up for her family after being bullied by a teacher for her culture. Reddit user Flowergardens0 posted the story to the AITA forum, where people ask whether they are wrong in a specific situation.

Over 5,600 people commented on the story, and an overwhelming majority thought the mother was right. Here’s what went down:

“I (34F) have a (5M) son who attends preschool. A few hours after I picked him up from school today, I got a phone call from his teacher,” Flowergardens0 wrote. “She made absolutely no effort to sound kind when she, in an extremely rude and annoyed tone, told me to stop packing my son such ‘disgusting and inappropriate’ lunches."

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It's incredible what a double-sided magnet can do.


A new trend in treasure hunting called magnet fishing has blown up over the past two years, evidenced by an explosion of YouTube channels covering the hobby. Magnet fishing is a pretty simple activity. Hobbyists attach high-powered magnets to strong ropes, drop them into waterways and see what they attract.

The hobby has caught the attention of law enforcement and government agencies because urban waterways are a popular place for criminals to drop weapons and stolen items after committing a crime. In 2019, a magnet fisherman in Michigan pulled up an antique World War I mortar grenade and the bomb squad had to be called out to investigate.


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Family

Dad gives his young daughter a 'spa day' while mom and sister are out and people are gushing

"This healed a part of me. Thank you for doing this with your daughter."

Mason Smith pampered his baby girl during her "spa day."

Raising kids is no small feat. Just the basic logistics of caring for a human being from their helpless newborn stage to the full-fledged adult stage is a lot, much less doing the countless other things that will actually help that human thrive.

Parents who go above and beyond to create a nurturing environment and build strong core memories with their kids are inspiring examples for us all, and one dad's spa day with his daughter has people positively gushing.

Mason Smith (@thedadsocial) shared a video of a special spa day he gave his young daughter when her mom and older sister were having their own pampered outing. "Mom and sister went to the salon so I couldn't have her feeling left out," he wrote.

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Ring doorbell video captures what it's like to be the default parent.

Kids, man. I'm not sure of the scientific way audacity is distributed, but kids have a lot of it and somehow make it cute. That audacity overload is especially interesting when you're the default parent—you know, the parent kids go to for literally everything as if there's not another fully capable adult in the house. Chances are if your children haven't sought you out while you were taking a shower so you could open up a pack of fruit snacks, then you're not the default parental unit.

One parent captured exactly what it's like to be the default parent and shared it to TikTok, where the video has over 4 million views. Toniann Marchese went on a quick grocery run and *gasp* did not inform her children. Don't you fret, they're modern kids who know how to use modern means to get much-needed answers when mom is nowhere to be found. They went outside and rang the doorbell.

Back when we were children, this would've done nothing but make the dogs bark, but for Marchese's kids, who are 3 and 6 years old, it's as good as a phone call.

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Pop Culture

'American Idol' contestant has perfect response to Katy Perry's 'mom-shaming' joke

The 25-year-old used the moment to stand up for moms everywhere.

@sarabethliebe/TikTok

"Keep loving your babies."

You might recall us singing the praises of Sara Beth, the exuberant young mom with major vocal chops dubbed the “Accidental American Idol.”

During Sara Beth’s initial audition for the show, judge Katy Perry made a joke that rubbed many viewers the wrong way.

Before Sara Beth even began to sing, the 25-year-old revealed that she had three children, which prompted Katy Perry to dramatically stand up from her seat and feign shock. When Sara Beth, all smiles, said, “If Katy lays on the table, I think I’m going to pass out,” Perry retorted, “Honey, you’ve been laying on the table too much.”

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YouTube creator Steve Mould shows us what echo looks like through an acoustic camera.

It’s bizarre to think about seeing sound, but nowadays we can do just that. If you haven’t seen an acoustic camera before, that’s because they’re mainly used for industrial purposes, but they’ve been available commercially from gfai tech since 2001.

YouTuber Steve Mould, who has a science channel with over 2.1 million subscribers, took the complicated concept of the acoustic camera and made it easy to understand in his latest video, “Acoustic cameras can SEE sound.”

In the video, Mould explains how an acoustic camera is much like your smartphone's video recorder. But it also creates visual representations of sound emanating from where it’s generated within the video.

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