No Small Talk

Honest writing about trauma, motherhood, healing, and building a safer life. If you’re new here, start with Start Here for context, or begin with the series below.

Read the newest essay

Part 5: What “Just Leave” Doesn’t Understand – Leaving an Abusive Relationship With a Child

Part 5: What ‘just leave’ advice misses about abusive relationships when you have a child. A survivor-mom explains the real math of staying, leaving, and planning your escape.

Start with these posts

When the Man You Thought Was Your Miracle Stops Loving You After a Baby

Part 1: A personal essay about heartbreak, motherhood, and the quiet shock of realizing the person you trusted most no longer feels safe.

He Hurt Me in Front of Our Child. And I Still Stayed.

Part 2: A raw, honest account of staying in an abusive relationship to protect a child — and quietly planning a way out.

Building in the Dark

Part 3: How I started planning my exit while he slept in the next room — documenting, searching, and slowly building something nobody could see yet.

What My Father’s Absence Taught Me About Love

Part 4: A personal essay about how fatherlessness shaped my understanding of love, safety, and what I learned to expect from people who say they care.