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 I’m a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail, and my work has appeared in most major Canadian publications. 

Here's a sample:

The Globe and Mail •

The world is burning. Should we tell our kids?

There’s not a lot I shield my young kids from. They are 5 and 3, and I try to answer any question they have with age-appropriate honesty. In broad strokes, they know how babies are made, what happens when our bodies stop working and the vague origin story of Santa Claus.

But one recent query stopped me in my tracks: “Why is the sky orange?”

Smoke from wildfires burning across Canada was turning our sunny Toronto day a mildly apocalyptic hue. Instead of being honest – and potentially causing pa...
The Globe and Mail •

Kids’ birthday parties are out of control, thank you fairy much

I had been planning the event for months. There was a theme, a guest list, a curated three-course menu. There was a colour scheme, a carefully arranged playlist and detailed sketches of the three-tier cake. It wasn’t my wedding – yet it felt just as stressful. It was my daughter’s “fairy sweet” fifth birthday party, with 42 people invited to our backyard.

My bold, imaginative, fearless firstborn was turning five – a momentous milestone marking the end of toddlerhood and the beginning of her big...
The Globe and Mail •

When nothing else worked, ChatGPT helped me be a better parent

For months now, whenever I ask my mom friends the usual questions – How are we tricking a stubborn toddler into potty training? What on earth are we making for dinner tonight? – their responses have been uniform: “I don’t know, I just ask ChatGPT.”

But as someone who writes words for a living, artificial intelligence, and specifically generative applications of it such as ChatGPT, feel ominous. The more they’re used, the better they get at sounding like a real person, or a columnist – so I’ve t...
The Globe and Mail •

Talking turkey: When my vegetarian kid speaks up at family meals

“Mommmmm!” My four-year-old burst through the front door one afternoon after kindergarten in hysterics. “You’re never going to believe this: My best friend likes hurting animals!”

She was in disbelief that her bestie ate a turkey sandwich for lunch. Raised as a vegetarian since birth, my daughter believes animals are our friends, not our food. There are wild turkeys on the way to our family’s cottage, and she likes to pull over to talk to them, promise that we won’t ever hurt them and wish them...
The Globe and Mail •

After I had a real kid, I despised my fur babies

“Oh.”

That was my reaction as my dogs ran toward me, folding in half with excitement at my feet, after our time apart. The wiggles, the kisses all would have made me swoon just days earlier, and I likely would have recorded their reactions. But this time, this reunion, I felt nothing.

When we had parted, I had been on my way to the hospital to have my first baby and had squeezed them both so tightly, promised it would only be a few days, and gave the dogsitter pages and pages of instructions o...
The Globe and Mail •

Opinion: Swing, slide, yawn: Why are our playgrounds so boring?

Amberly McAteer is a writer in Toronto, and a former editor in the Opinion section at The Globe and Mail.

It’s a scene that has played out dozens of times this summer: My husband pushes our two-year-old daughter on the swing at our local park, in sync with all the other dads. They all stand behind their vaguely entertained kids, stare out into the abyss, and say nothing. Meanwhile I try, and fail, to have a basic conversation with another mom while my older daughter is climbing up a slide.

“Ho...
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The Globe and Mail •

When nothing else worked, ChatGPT helped me be a better parent

For months now, whenever I ask my mom friends the usual questions – How are we tricking a stubborn toddler into potty training? What on earth are we making for dinner tonight? – their responses have been uniform: “I don’t know, I just ask ChatGPT.”

But as someone who writes words for a living, artificial intelligence, and specifically generative applications of it such as ChatGPT, feel ominous. The more they’re used, the better they get at sounding like a real person, or a columnist – so I’ve t...
The Globe and Mail •

Talking turkey: When my vegetarian kid speaks up at family meals

“Mommmmm!” My four-year-old burst through the front door one afternoon after kindergarten in hysterics. “You’re never going to believe this: My best friend likes hurting animals!”

She was in disbelief that her bestie ate a turkey sandwich for lunch. Raised as a vegetarian since birth, my daughter believes animals are our friends, not our food. There are wild turkeys on the way to our family’s cottage, and she likes to pull over to talk to them, promise that we won’t ever hurt them and wish them...
The Globe and Mail •

After I had a real kid, I despised my fur babies

“Oh.”

That was my reaction as my dogs ran toward me, folding in half with excitement at my feet, after our time apart. The wiggles, the kisses all would have made me swoon just days earlier, and I likely would have recorded their reactions. But this time, this reunion, I felt nothing.

When we had parted, I had been on my way to the hospital to have my first baby and had squeezed them both so tightly, promised it would only be a few days, and gave the dogsitter pages and pages of instructions o...
The Globe and Mail •

Opinion: Swing, slide, yawn: Why are our playgrounds so boring?

Amberly McAteer is a writer in Toronto, and a former editor in the Opinion section at The Globe and Mail.

It’s a scene that has played out dozens of times this summer: My husband pushes our two-year-old daughter on the swing at our local park, in sync with all the other dads. They all stand behind their vaguely entertained kids, stare out into the abyss, and say nothing. Meanwhile I try, and fail, to have a basic conversation with another mom while my older daughter is climbing up a slide.

“Ho...
The Globe and Mail •

Can I have a magical summer with my kids, without ruining their sleep?

“I’ve made a terrible mistake,” I thought, watching my two toddlers buzz around the room, jump on the beds and refuse to get into their pyjamas. An hour past their usual bedtime with no end in sight to the madness.

Hours earlier, my four-year-old had her first soccer game – and I use that term loosely. It felt like the first real night of the summer. I took in the warm night air with my mom friends as we cheered our older kids on and the little ones ate watermelon on the sidelines. And then, on
St. Joseph Media •

If we value mothers and motherhood, excellent postpartum care should be standard

The first of its kind in Canada, a new postpartum retreat wants to revolutionize the care mothers receive in the days and weeks after giving birth. But why isn’t this standard practice, instead of an elective luxury?

Thomassen had heard the “horror stories” of early motherhood—trying to keep a new human alive on little sleep, little food and high anxiety—and wanted something better. “What was giving me the most anxiety was not having baby expertise,” she says. “My mom is wonderful, but she hadn
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The Globe and Mail •

After I had a real kid, I despised my fur babies

“Oh.”

That was my reaction as my dogs ran toward me, folding in half with excitement at my feet, after our time apart. The wiggles, the kisses all would have made me swoon just days earlier, and I likely would have recorded their reactions. But this time, this reunion, I felt nothing.

When we had parted, I had been on my way to the hospital to have my first baby and had squeezed them both so tightly, promised it would only be a few days, and gave the dogsitter pages and pages of instructions o...
The Globe and Mail •

Opinion: Swing, slide, yawn: Why are our playgrounds so boring?

Amberly McAteer is a writer in Toronto, and a former editor in the Opinion section at The Globe and Mail.

It’s a scene that has played out dozens of times this summer: My husband pushes our two-year-old daughter on the swing at our local park, in sync with all the other dads. They all stand behind their vaguely entertained kids, stare out into the abyss, and say nothing. Meanwhile I try, and fail, to have a basic conversation with another mom while my older daughter is climbing up a slide.

“Ho...
The Globe and Mail •

Can I have a magical summer with my kids, without ruining their sleep?

“I’ve made a terrible mistake,” I thought, watching my two toddlers buzz around the room, jump on the beds and refuse to get into their pyjamas. An hour past their usual bedtime with no end in sight to the madness.

Hours earlier, my four-year-old had her first soccer game – and I use that term loosely. It felt like the first real night of the summer. I took in the warm night air with my mom friends as we cheered our older kids on and the little ones ate watermelon on the sidelines. And then, on
St. Joseph Media •

If we value mothers and motherhood, excellent postpartum care should be standard

The first of its kind in Canada, a new postpartum retreat wants to revolutionize the care mothers receive in the days and weeks after giving birth. But why isn’t this standard practice, instead of an elective luxury?

Thomassen had heard the “horror stories” of early motherhood—trying to keep a new human alive on little sleep, little food and high anxiety—and wanted something better. “What was giving me the most anxiety was not having baby expertise,” she says. “My mom is wonderful, but she hadn
The Globe and Mail •

As a mother, I’m worried we don’t honour female art enough (just ask Barbie)

This is the weekly Amplify newsletter, where you can be inspired and challenged by the voices, opinions and insights of women at The Globe and Mail and our contributor community.

This week’s newsletter was written by Amberly McAteer, a freelance writer and editor in Toronto, and former editor at The Globe and Mail.

When my three-year-old daughter, Lucy, asked her teacher what she thought of her art project in preschool, the teacher answered: I won’t tell you what I think, it’s about what you t
The Globe and Mail •

Opinion: When the truth matters most, I won’t lie to my child about Santa

Amberly McAteer is a freelance writer in Toronto and a former editor in the Opinion section at The Globe and Mail.

The first time I remember feeling truly devastated was Christmas Day, 1987. I was four years old.

A few days before the Big Day, my brother, four years my senior and a dedicated truth-teller, was trying to convince me Santa was pure fiction. “He’s a fat guy, you think he’s in the kind of shape to go to every house in a night?

“Do you think he eats all those cookies and isn’t viol
The Globe and Mail •

12 wonderful pet gifts, and adoptable pets, perfect for your home this holiday season

It is the most wonderful day of my year. Getting to spend an entire day with wonderful animals – homeless through no fault of their own, looking for their second chance and full of plenty of love to give. Add to that, the thrill of giving these deserving babies the best toys and products of the year? It’s a very merry day indeed.

Bruce came in the door bursting with puppy energy. He had no time for introductions; he wanted to play immediately and made everything a game. His favourite? Pounce on
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