Submission Deadline: September 25, 2017
(600-900 word count)
Be Gutsy
Sometimes we don’t take responsibility for our lives. We carry the weight of expectations, feeling out of control over the pace and trajectory of our days. Being gutsy is about realizing that you get to decide how busy you are, what you say yes to, what is best for your family and what you make a priority in your mothering. If you need to slow down your life, you can do that. If you feel like you don’t have any friends, go out and make some. This is the year of release from believing life has to look a certain way, and isn’t there so much freedom and audacity in that? The truth is, we have more authority to shape our daily lives than we think we do. Your life can match your values and your passions, it will just take some guts to make it happen.
Article Ideas:
- I said, “No” to __________ and reclaimed my sanity.
- Living outside of your borders or comfort zone such as moving out of “your neighborhood,” starting at a new school, befriending someone racially or culturally different from you.
- Embracing the idea that I am my child’s best teacher and choosing to home school.
- Taking yourself out of “routine” by going back to work, quitting your job to stay home, or going back to your faith.
- Describe something that you did simply for the sake of making friends, such as joined a club, started a hobby (e.g. I started watching a reality TV show [which I didn’t really like] so I could go to my coworker’s weekly viewing parties).
- My husband is my best friend, but this is why I still need girlfriends.
- My husband is my best friend, my kids are my social life … and I’m just fine with that right now.
- I’ve cut this (one thing) out of my life/routine and I’ve gained more time to _______.
- I’ve broken one of the biggest “rules” or taboos and it was the best thing that I’ve ever done.
- Going against the societal acceptable “norm” for boys and girls; share about your son who is a ballet dancer; a daughter who plays football.
- By speaking out, I found healing and community in the most unlikely places.
- Tell us about how you are advocating by starting an organization, campaign, charity or bringing awareness to something in your community.
- This is how I found my voice. Who or what life circumstance gave you a voice?
- If you’re a single parent, or you or your spouse works nights, travels extensively or serves overseas, tell about your family’s unique routine on how you spend time together.
- What big/crazy dream did you decide to pursue and how did you make it happen?
- My family and/or I cut out social media or internet or cable and lived to tell about it.
- Reclaiming Saturdays for my family. Share how you’ve made Saturdays sacred again by either eliminating sports and weekend classes, or finding a new perspective on children’s weekend activities.
- Confessions of a recovering tiger mom or stage mom.
How to submit
Send us your article at content@MOPS.org.
Submission Information
For more information about the tone of our materials and our submission process read our writer’s guidelines (Insider hint: We take these very seriously, so it’s important you take a peek before submitting.)
Submission Process
Just so you know, all articles are received on speculation. Regretfully, we are unable to respond to all submissions when they are received. However, if your article is selected for publishing, we will email you a submission agreement and the date we will be publishing.
And Since You Always Ask
Since this is a writing submission for The MOPS Magazine, we do not print articles that have been previously posted.
What About General Content?
Yes, we certainly accept general articles about parenting, mothering and woman-related issues. In fact, we’re always up for a good tear-jerker or one of those stories that gets us laughing. We welcome those submissions through the same submissions process, but we should tell you up front that since we’re a theme-based magazine, we only publish a few.