Samantha Kemp-Jackson

COVID-19 has presented additional challenges and stresses on parents who are raising children with special needs.

When Amanda Munday returned home after the breech birth of her daughter, she was in shock, both physically and emotionally. It’s no wonder, really: Four hours after giving birth, she was discharged. The 36-year-old mother of two vividly recalls her first few weeks of motherhood: “I couldn’t sleep. I started to feel really high anxiety that the baby would die. Then I started to tell myself, ‘If the baby dies, I’ll kill myself,’” she told HuffPost Canada.
Though she wasn’t aware of it at the ti...

Lynette Patterson already had her hands full, before the pandemic. The 42-year-old is a working mother of four — 14-year-old twin boys, a nine-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter. Now, with the mandated e-learning, this IT audit director has had to add another unpaid job to her already busy schedule: educator.
While her older children are fairly self-reliant in completing their schoolwork, her nine-year-old son keeps Patterson on her toes. E-learning has proven to be a formidable foe.
“M...

A mid-life diagnosis of Lupus changed the way one woman perceived her life.

As an immune-compromised person, I’m petrified of germs. Seasonal viruses that rear their ugly heads are a constant concern, with the common cold and the flu leading the charge. Each year, I stock up on hand sanitizer and harangue my kids more often than not to wash their hands thoroughly, and often.
Recent news of the COVID-19 pandemic has made me more worried than ever.
With the coronavirus outbreak heralded through fatalistic news stories, it’s no wonder that people like myself are worried...

BY SAMANTHA KEMP-JACKSON
PHOTO © michel74100/123RF Stock Photo
He jumps into our bed, spry as ever. “Good morning, Mommy!” he shouts cheerily.
This kid, though. He’s awfully happy at 5:30 a.m.
“Mommy, I’m hungry! Can I have waffles?” It’s 5:31 a.m. now. C’mon, kid!
But having to arise from my warm and comfortable bed isn’t the worst of my worries. Nope, the party has just started.
Samantha Kemp-Jackson poses with her twin sons. (Photo courtesy of Samantha Kemp-Jackson)
“Mommy! Mommy! MOMMY!” ...

Natasha Hall was 40 years old when she became a parent. The broadcaster and radio host, who had been in a long-term, committed relationship, figured it was now or never. “I always knew I wanted to be a mom but I couldn’t quite get my act together to settle down properly, and my guy was kind of in the same boat,” she reflects. “[But] after five years together, we realized there was never going to be a perfect time and that we’d better get cracking before it was too late.”
Today, they’re enjoyi...

The final straw for Paula Coop McCrory was when her neighbour accused the 44-year-old teacher of flooding the neighbour’s basement. Living in a small semi-detached home in Toronto’s east end, McCrory had tired of the lack of privacy. She loved her home but had long been feeling the strains of Toronto’s dense population and close living quarters. At the time, the mother of three elementary school boys and her husband shared a wall with a single woman whose lifestyle was the complete opposite o...

When Adam posted a picture of himself and his infant son on the dating app Hinge, he did so with deliberation and purpose. The 45-year-old sales manager at a corporate event company wanted any prospective partner to know who he was and what he prioritized in life: being a dad.
The Toronto father of two, who asked for his last name to be withheld to protect his childrens’ privacy, had posted four photos of himself, with one clearly showing a man enamoured with the baby sleeping contentedly on ...

Article featured in the Summer, 2019 edition of Travel Life magazine, print and online. Title: "The ABC's of Resort Travel With Kids."

"There are people who will not like you because of the colour of your skin."
As a woman of colour raising biracial children, I have always been very aware that their reality will one day include the experience of being discriminated against solely for the way they appear. It's an uneasy truth that I've not wanted to address, because who wants to think of anyone hurting their children?
And so I muddled through. Tomorrow, next week, next month — that's when I'll talk to them.
Then Alton Sterlin...

When Heather Hamilton’s son was called the N-word at school this year, it wasn’t the first time.
As the white mother of three biracial boys, there had been at least four other racially charged incidents that the 46-year-old Toronto area mother had to address. Racism at her son’s school had become too common of an occurrence.
The painful and sensitive topic of race is of particular importance for parents like Hamilton who struggle to provide education, support, and advocacy for their biracial ...

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Fariha Naqvi-Mohamed had a problem. The Montreal-based journalist and mother of two had received a call from her daughter Marian’s* school. At the time, Marian was in kindergarten and the class was in the midst of holiday excitement. Christmas was around the corner and the anticipation of Santa’s visit was palpable.
Marian, however, had no illusions about the existence of jolly Ol’ Saint Nick. She knew the truth: that there was no Santa. Her mother had told her and her younge...

When Michelle Osbourne became a mother at age 42, it was a shock. Having lived four decades unfettered by anything other than her dreams, motherhood was grounding, to say the least. She was tired like most new moms, but she also had other challenges to overcome.
“Maternity leave for me not only was a challenge because I was an ‘old’ new mom. It was a challenge because I was a lesbian [living] in a place where being black, anglophone and queer is looked down upon,” Osbourne told HuffPost Canad...