Every year, Laura Onstot goes on a family lake trip. And every year, that involves inner tubing on a big red float dubbed “Big Mabel.” She writes: “This was the first year we let our 7-year-old daughter go tubing without me sitting next to her, with a death grip on her leg. As a former lifeguard, anything that requires being pulled behind a boat is high on my danger radar. And as a mom, watching her tube is far outside my comfort zone. It’s one of the rare moments in parenthood where I can see her, but have no way of communicating with her aside from a few hand signals.”

So when her daughter went flying off the tube, Laura freaked out a little bit. But what happened next led her to a valuable realization. You’ll want to read this one.

Kelly Faircloth, Executive Editor

“Skipped periods. Fatigue and trouble sleeping. Mood swings. Breast pain. Sounds like you could be pregnant, right? Welp, think again,” writes Sarah Bourassa in today’s edition of our new column called What The Health?! “These are actually also symptoms of perimenopause, which, because of lack of awareness and education about it, many women don’t expect it to happen as early as it does.” She’s got all the info you need — give it a read.