Home About Articles Contact

Essays

SJC Media •

I’m so sick of hearing “just you wait” from veteran parents

Maybe I’m being too earnest, but as a new mom, there are so many stages I'm truly excited about. Please don’t rain on my parade prematurely.

I hadn’t even given birth to my daughter when I received my first “just wait.” I was telling a friend at work that I was having trouble sleeping. In the 30th week of pregnancy, essentially housing a full person, turning over in my sleep was near impossible. I felt like I could not possibly get bigger, or more uncomfortable.

It would be my first “just wait
The Globe and Mail •

I walked away from my dream job for motherhood

This is the weekly Amplify newsletter. If you’re reading this on the web or someone forwarded this e-mail newsletter to you, you can sign up for Amplify and all Globe newsletters here.

Amberly McAteer is a former editor for The Globe’s Opinion section.

Every work day at 10:30 a.m. for the last six years, I’ve been part of a story meeting with a team of brilliant editors, debating which news items would make the strongest fodder for engaging opinion pieces.

Our team comes away from these meeti
The Globe and Mail •

There’s nothing wrong with Peloton Woman, or giving exercise as a gift

This is the weekly Amplify newsletter. If you’re reading this on the web or someone forwarded this e-mail newsletter to you, you can sign up for Amplify and all Globe newsletters here.

“Am I supposed to be upset that you gave me a spin bike?" my dad called to ask recently.

Yes, I got my 70-year-old father hooked on indoor cycling. About four years ago, I discovered the pure joy and rush of spin classes, and suggested my dad, for whom exercise was never a fun thing, try it out, too. Soon, we we
The Globe and Mail •

There may be no crying in baseball, but A League of Their Own was a game-changer

Welcome back to Summers at the Cinema, in which Globe Arts contributors offer a window into their favourite summer-movie memories from years past. This week, Amberly McAteer recalls the game-changer that was 1992′s A League of Their Own

My most prominent memory from my time on the St. Thomas junior girls’ softball team is not making the game-winning catch, nor smacking a line drive over the heads of the infield, to the cheers of the home crowd. It is the metal taste of blood, paired with the vi
The Globe and Mail •

Living in Paris, and visiting its Notre-Dame, taught me resilience

This is the weekly Amplify newsletter. If you’re reading this on the web or someone forwarded this e-mail newsletter to you, you can sign up for Amplify and all Globe newsletters here.

I never tell anyone this, but the first four days I lived in Paris, I didn’t leave my flat. I was 22, had never really been outside Canada, and, in the third year of my undergrad, had flung myself across the ocean into what felt like a movie set. I didn’t speak the language and knew no one.

I had enrolled to stu
The Globe and Mail •

Less hippie, more hip: Seattle’s Pike Place gets a makeover in cool

On my first visit to Seattle's Pike Place four years ago, the rain was relentless. The January afternoon temperature hovered between -1 C and 1, allowing for an extraordinarily terrible sleet-hail combination, soaking me to the bones.

While I tried to buy all the fleece in the Pike Place market I could find, the people around me were so very chilled out. I kid you not: There was a man in Birkenstocks, sipping a craft beer under an awning, while watching the fishmonger nearby toss the catches of
The Globe and Mail •

Online dating: Can you offload the hard work of finding a catch?

Last summer, I experienced the worst Internet Date of All Time. According to this man's profile, he was a 6 foot 2 communications specialist with a master's degree. In real life, he had completed one month of university, worked at a call centre and was 6-foot-8 (I'm five feet tall, so imagine my surprise). He was jaw-droppingly rude to the waitress, made fun of my dress and had few teeth (beware of profiles with no smiling photos, my friends).

I lasted half a beer, and excused myself. On my wal
The Globe and Mail •

I’m fighting for a rescue dog I thought I didn’t want

I never thought I’d get a rescue, let alone be ready to go fisticuffs for one.

My dog search is in high gear, and I know two things: I want an adult - puppies are cute, but too needy for a single urbanite - and I want a boxer. They're playful and smart, and my tough-girl guise is no match for those big eyes and floppy ears.

But hundreds of readers insist I go the rescue route. "There is something extra special about a dog who knows you saved its life," implored one e-mail. How could I pass tha