About Marisa Svalstedt

Marisa Svalstedt is a stay-at-home mom living in her hometown of Bethel, CT, with her husband, and their daughter. She received her MA from Western Connecticut State University where she taught as an adjunct professor. She's recently been featured on The Mighty and Babble.com. In addition to writing, she enjoys crochet and photography.

Posts by this author

About Those Sagging Buns: Forget ‘Em

Just BE Open1 Comment

We had a great day at the beach. My daughter loves playing, making castles in the sand. My husband and I both relaxing, barefooted, and walking along the water’s edge with our frolicking three-year-old. I put on my favorite bikini bottoms, super cool, edgy bikini bottoms I always feel proud wearing. They felt a bit different, but perhaps it was just because I hadn’t worn them since last summer. We enjoyed the day, snapped photos, and most importantly, made great memories. When we got home, I looked at the photos and did more than a double take when I came across ones of me standing in the water. That had to be a bad angle. But the images made a little piece of me cringe, thinking, “Oh, so this is what’s changed”.

Child on a slip and slide

The Carefree Summers I Had As A Child Are Gone

Just BE Open2 Comments

I’m a bit sad my daughter won’t have the kind of carefree childhood I recall. There was a certain magic to being a kid in a world where everything wasn’t served with a side of warning, and one wasn’t tethered to some form of electronic device at all times. Moms felt comfortable yelling from the back porch out into the wilderness, knowing their kids would come home, worried less about organic foods, or the latest rise in Lyme’s Disease.

A summer day in my childhood went something like this:

Mom makes pancakes and scrambled eggs while my brother and I watch cartoons in the morning. After a while she tells us to go play, and we head out into the woods behind our backyard. It’s a forest to our young eyes. Our sunscreen-free skin lightly toasted in the light, exposed to ticks, poison ivy, and other dangers, but we don’t think about it at all.