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This mom's journey through divorce and illness reminds us why single moms are heroes.

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Kraft Family Greatly

Being a single parent can be tough. It can be even tougher when you're coping with serious health issues.

Allison Brown and her husband have been separated for some time, but they co-parented their son, Jed, equally up until two years ago.

Simultaneously she has antiphospholipid syndrome, which makes her prone to blood clots, and as such, she's already had two pulmonary embolisms — one right after Jed was born.


It was also recently discovered that she has a genetic oddity on the BRACA2 gene and a family history of breast cancer, so she's made the decision to have a prophylactic double mastectomy in 2018.

Allison and Jed Brown. All photos via Allison Brown.

Jed wants to be with her in the hospital, and while she's always been open with him about her health issues, this feels like uncharted territory. He's been with her through illnesses before, but this surgery will change how she looks and no doubt have an emotional impact, so she's apprehensive about letting him see the aftermath.

"I'm not entirely sure what the 'right' thing to do is," Allison writes in an email, "but I go back to one of our family reminders: We can do what we can do. And sometimes we can do hard things."

As it turns out, Allison isn't alone in her concern. Many families struggle with knowing what the "right" thing to do is, but they still manage to #familygreatly.

Family Greatly

Myth: There’s one perfect way to family. Truth: There’s a billion ways to #FamilyGreatly.

Posted by Kraft Brand on Tuesday, December 12, 2017

The truth is, there isn't one "right way" to be a parent. And, through her relationship with her son, Allison's come to realize that.

She cherishes Jed, and together they've successfully navigated some difficult times. But mostly she tries to savor every moment with him that she can.

"He is kind, he is moral and thoughtful, he is just a lovely person a lot of the time," writes Allison. "He is working hard to be responsible and I really appreciate that. I think we are very close, in part because we are a household of two, in part because I'm pretty unflappable."

Jed on the soccer team.

Of course, as Jed grows up, she's realizing he doesn't need her as much. It's a hard reality, but she knows it's what needs to happen.

"I know I'm not all he could ever need nor should I be anymore," explains Allison. "Life is bigger, and his world is wider."

But even though Jed's a teenager now, they've maintained their tight bond thanks to a few unique traditions.

For example, every night at dinner, they hold hands and share a "moment of gratitude," which can be anything that happened in their day that they're grateful for. Since Allison can't be there all the time, it's a great way for them to reconnect.

She also makes sure to be there for all the big events, like Jed's soccer games and choir concerts.

She wishes she could be around more often to encourage him to stop staring at phone/computer/television screens all day, but that's likely a struggle that would exist whether she worked or not.

Jed and Allison Brown.

And really, at the end of the day, Allison believes she is enough for Jed because she's proud of the man he is becoming.

"The world is big, and there are a million ways to be successful and measure success," she writes.

Time with your kids goes by fast — Allison knows this better than most. So instead of worrying about the future, she hopes parents, like herself, can stay in the present with them as long as they can. After all, that's what truly matters with family.

Life may throw you curveballs along the way, but as long as you can come back and share a moment with your kids, you're nailing parenthood.

It doesn't matter if you're a family of two or 10, if you're celebrating around a big Christmas tree or eating leftover pizza while watching your favorite show — if you're spending time together, that's what makes a great family.

This holiday season, Allison and Jed will be taking their traditional trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago to see the lights festival. It's just something that makes the month of December a little more special for them.

Families are made by these traditions that make them unique, no matter how big or small they are. And that uniqueness outshines perfection every day of the week.

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

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Things of course get even more complicated when one parent becomes attached to a name that they’re partner finds completely off-putting. It almost always leads to a squabble, because the more one parent is against the name, the more the other parent will go to bat for it.

This seemed to be the case for one soon-to-be mom on the Reddit AITA forum recently. Apparently, she was second-guessing her vehement reaction to her husband’s, ahem, avant garde baby name for their daughter, which she called “the worst name ever.”

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Yale's pep band had to miss the NCAA tournament. University of Idaho said, 'We got you.'

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Courtesy of University of Idaho

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When Yale made it to the March Madness tournament, members of the school's pep band had already committed to other travel plans during spring break. They couldn't gather enough members to make the trek across the country to Spokane, Washington, so the Yale Bulldogs were left without their fight song unless other arrangements could be made.

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