First Things RSS Feed - Sibyl Niemann https://www.firstthings.com/author/sibyl-niemann en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:56:47 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/sibyl-niemann 60 The Necessary Mother https://www.firstthings.com/article/2003/05/the-necessary-mother https://www.firstthings.com/article/2003/05/the-necessary-mother Thu, 01 May 2003 00:00:00 -0400 The baby was extra clingy today. At eighteen months, Monica has just this week cut two of her three emerging molars, which had been bulging and sore for weeks. She did not want to be put down and kept coming to grab my legs as I tried to make sandwiches for the older children, unload the dishwasher, fold laundry. Every time I nursed her, she looked intently into my face, willing me to quiet myself, unwind my attention from the rest of life, and give her the one thing in the whole world that no one else can give: my undivided, loving attention.

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