Excerpts from The Zen of Midlife Mothering – Ellie Stoneley

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Ellie Stoneley

I’m old. In 9 months I’ll be 50. I’m a first-time mother. I have a 22-month-old daughter. I drive along singing, “The Wheels on the Bus” even when she’s not in the car with me. I secretly love it when she wakes up needing me in the night, however tired I am. I am still breastfeeding her.

So, it would appear that, certainly according to much of the tabloid press, I’m practically the devil incarnate. A crazy, breastfeeding, sagging old loon that a poor child has to put up with as a mother; a veritable harridan.

Personally I don’t think I’m that bad.