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Turning Your Day Around
Challenging days are common for those of us parenting adolescent or older children – and so are moments when difficult times turn around.
But there’s a problem: not many of us hear those positive stories, unless we happen to know people going through similar things. It’s easy to end up feeling alone, as if we’re the only ones dealing with an issue.
Menderist is a place where contributors draw on their own experience to share how situations got better for them. So that, as a reader dealing with a challenge – such as relationship or health struggles – you’ll often find ideas that might help.
Our Team
We’re a group of family-focused, experienced writers, editors, and digital specialists.
We believe in the importance of sharing personal, positive experiences to help improve mental health and daily wellbeing.
Publisher:
Anne Elliott, Publisher
Parent of two, living in York Region, GTA
Administration:
Blair, Technical Specialist
Jonathan, Marketing / Social Media
Contributors:
Writers include the Menderist team and subscribers, who are parents and follow @Menderist on Twitter. We welcome new contributors, who we follow on social media: see Share a Story for information, including where to send details of your proposed article.
A Note from the Publisher
The idea for Menderist began in 2018 after I’d had a tough couple of months. To feel more hopeful, I started writing entries in my journal about the best thing that happened each day.
Then the pandemic began: and like many parents, I often found it difficult to remain optimistic during the constant stream of bad news. How could I help my two children navigate this strange time? Were they going to be okay?
The new writing habit helped. As months passed, I began paying less attention to each day’s negative events — and more attention to the positive ones. Often these highlights would be enough to improve my mood or even turn the whole day around.
Using skills from my career as a magazine editor, technology teacher and in corporate communications, I began writing longer pieces about these daily turnarounds. And eventually, I reached out to other writers: they began sharing the moments that transformed their days, too.
My aim for Menderist is to build a community of people who help each other by sharing real-life stories about overcoming a difficult day. And because I’m a parent of older children, like many other people I know, I decided to primarily focus on this group – although many stories won’t be about children at all.
I hope you find Menderist’s stories helpful, especially during these challenging times.
Anne Elliott, Publisher
(She/her)
Our Mission
Menderist is an online publication whose goal is to promote wellbeing: we share real-life moments when someone’s difficult day or experience begins turning around. Our mission is to build a community that helps people feel less alone and more hopeful when navigating challenging days and situations.
We are committed to publishing respectful content that reflects the diversity of our audience, including those who identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, and other minority groups. Most of our content is for and by people who are 30+ years of age, the majority of whom are parents of adolescent or older children.
Submissions
Menderist will periodically call for submissions. See our Share a Story page for more details about contributing your work.
Getting In Touch
See our Contact page to reach us about issues related to customer service, editorial matters, and for general inquiries.
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Every few weeks, people share encouraging essays, anecdotes, and stories about moments that turned their day around.
