Supportive communities

After decades of parental advice books, better parenting blogs, and helpful tips on how to balance work and life coming from all sorts of experts, I'm pleased to report that I feel like I'm seeing a ton more supportive publications encouraging us to realize that we are real and do not have to try to be supermom (or superdad) all the time.

Here's a small collection of the posts and books I've seen lately that I feel offer much more supportive advice than the usual ones.

This one is written from the perspective of stay at home moms, but I found it completely relevant for all moms.
What we need when we say we need a break:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda-king/stay-at-home-parent_b_2558642.html

This is a great reminder that you are very, very human, and you should forgive yourself!
To parents of small children: Let me be the one who says it out loud:
http://www.stevewiens.com/2013/03/12/to-parents-of-small-children-let-me-be-the-one-who-says-it-out-loud/

And another along those lines:
How to be a perfect parents in 5 easy steps... or probably never:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/una-lamarche/how-to-be-a-perfect-parent_b_2888253.html

A lot has been said about Sheryl Sandberg's new book Lean In and how it tells women to prioritize work over family. The people who are saying that have NOT read the book. I found the book to be incredibly supportive, real, realistic, and inspiring. I recommend this book if you have chosen to be a mother and also in rat race. If you don't have time to read (a true reality of motherhood...) then just watch her Ted Talk here: it's the same message, and most of the same stories. And its still really good!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18uDutylDa4

And I'll leave you with my favorite description of true life these days: