Reinventing Ourselves Archives - Page 14 of 14

Self-Invention: The Bond Among Women of All Generations

by Suzanne Braun Levine

One thing about being an older mother is that you are constantly reminded of the truism that age doesn’t really describe the shape of a person’s life. Nor does our place on the family tree, the generation we are assigned to at birth. When my daughter was born I was 44, old enough to be her grandmother. When she went to school, I was old enough to be her teachers’ (and her friends parents’) mother. At the same time my contemporaries had long since forgotten about coping with babies and young children – they were on to the joys of grandchildren. My most meaningful cohort was other women with children my children’s age, but not my age themselves. […]

Dating as a New Midlife Mother (Or, How to Ride a Harley Sideways)

by Kristi Rodstrom

Okay, I will oblige you….if these are my golden years, then mine are more the color of rust-y.

I am a midlife mother. My children are nine and five years old. I am also a single mom, a professional, a daughter, an advocate for my children and, now, add to that list…someone who dates. Really?! […]

The Music of (Mid)Life (Motherhood)

by Cyma Shapiro

Just call me M&M or P. Doody. I’m the next Yo’ Ma-Ma-Donna, Lady Cerebellum, or Ice-Cream.

Erykah Fru-Fru,* Afro Queen, Knee-Knee, Chardonnay Pleaze, Unleash My Keys, Ja Skool, Lil’ Sin, Sit-on-This, Jelly, Tina Tuna, Clean MiTeetha. […]

Surviving New Midlife Motherhood

by Joely Johnson Mork

This topic is not what this blog post was going to be about. I was going to write about something much lighter, more manageable, and less anxiety provoking. But what has been on my mind for the past few weeks is survival. How do women survive motherhood? How do women like us, who have lived their lives differently for so long, suddenly (or not so suddenly) find themselves mothers and manage to keep working, thinking, breathing? I am unashamed to say I need to know. Because I am finding myself in a corner, with nowhere to run but here. […]

Unplugged or Plugged In?

by Andrea Lynn

I used to be very plugged in. Up to date. On top — of world events, popular culture, hot debates, best books. There have been times in my life and in my career when I’ve read seven newspapers a day. Later it became about websites and blogs, subscriber sites, email blasts, piles and piles of content and responses. Hard news and soft. Come Oscar time, I’d have seen every movie. I watched all the best TV shows, followed favorite columnists, and plugged myself into at least a dozen daily personal blogs. The Internet and I came of age at the same time so my career has never been without it, and I’ve spent my entire adult life feeling like isolation is impossible, and enjoying that fact. […]

MotheringintheMiddle – first blog post!

Here I am again, in my own space – as much a product of my own imagination as of your needs!

The response to our NURTURE blog (www.midlifemothers.org) has been overwhelming. We’ve been able to secure nationally recognized authors, experts and writers whose work involves and intersects with midlife mothers. MLM’s are women over 40 who chose motherhood (first, repeat, or last-time) through in vitro, natural childbirth, surrogacy, fostering, guardianship, adoption, and blending stepfamilies. Midlife Mothers (MLMs) R Us! […]

Midlife Mothering – Reinventing Myself and My Mothering After 40

by Kathy Caprino

As a 50-year-old mother of two – aged 13 and 16 – and a coach, entrepreneur and author, my plate is over-the-top full, as is the case for thousands of women today. I work with women who are facing numerous crises in their lives. The top challenge for them? The utter inaccessibility of work-life balance, and the chronic feeling that they’re letting down everything and everyone who matters to them. […]

The Queen Mother

by Donna Henes

Excerpts from her book, “The Queen of My Self: Stepping into Sovereignty in Midlife:”

Sometime, usually between about forty-five and fifty-five, we lose our monthly blood and hormonal balance. No matter how much we might have minded the fuss and muss of our periods, there is an alarming awareness of irrevocability when they stop. It is, after all, the end of a thirty or forty-year way of being in the world. Menopause marks the termination of our participation in the bottom-line, bigger than we are, biological imperative of our species. Our reproductive potential is now no longer an option. Whether or not we chose to use it when we had it is not the point. What is crucial is feeling that our choices have narrowed. […]