midlife mothering Archives - Page 6 of 8

Embracing It All (You Can Call Me Grandma!)

by Cyma Shapiro

Dear Reader: I often write about the pitfalls and achievements of new older motherhood; the angst of moving into menopause; the knowledge that being over-50 means that the end post is right straight ahead, and in plain sight.

But, today, I’m writing about enlarging our family. No, despite many sleepless nights over this topic, we will not be adding any more children to our family. However, we are adding another member, of sorts. Today, I’m writing about my older son, who appears smitten with …let’s call her “Lady Godiva.” I am happy for him; he (and she) seems happy. I envision a wedding and all the rest of it coming my way – much sooner than later. […]

Runaway

by Valerie Gillies

And I would run away
I would run away, yeah…, yeah
I would run away
I would run away with you

Cause I am falling in love with you
No never I’m never gonna stop
Falling in love with you

The Corrs “Runaway”

I use music like a pyromaniac uses gasoline. It’s a mood accelerant. Sad? I can be sadder in a flash. Elated? Romantic? Hyper? There’s a tune for just about everything. Technological improvements, like the iPod I can’t quite master, caused me to misplace some of my favorite tunes. How appropriate it was that I found the loaded CD holder yesterday, the first of my 48 days of summer. I popped in Runaway and was swept back nearly 20 years, late at night after all four chicken pox ridden children had finally collapsed, my lover and I falling into each other’s arms in the dim light, and slow dancing around the kitchen. I don’t dance. But I did. And it felt so good that my mind captured it like the rare prize that it was, and beautifully stored it in sensurround. […]

Full Circle

by Peg O'Neil, M.D.

“I can do it myself!” says my six-year-old, as he swings his leg up the high bottom branch of the cherry tree in our front yard. I have just given him a barely perceptible, gentle nudge to help him get where he wants to be, but it’s clear that he doesn’t want this. I need to back off. What he really wants at this point is for me to be there, to cheer him on and observe his triumph. […]

Not That You Look Old: The Aesthetics of Modern Motherhood

by Elizabeth Gregory

Like quite a few people I know, I had my first child in my late thirties–39 to be exact. My maternal grandmother had a child at 39, too, but that girl was her eighth baby and her last.

This difference summed up for me the change that had occurred in two generations, when I started writing a book about the new later motherhood–its causes and effects, personal and social. Where 1 in 12 first babies these days is born to a mom 35 or over, it was 1 in 100 in 1970. Add in the adoptive moms, and you’ve got a big group. […]

Mother’s Day Blessings, and Regrets

by Andrea Lynn

My Mother’s Day this year was a wonderful one. I had a dinner party playdate – three of my Single Mothers by Choice friends and their three children joined my girls and I for dinner and play, under the blue skies and leafy green canopy of my back deck. There is nothing like spending this particular day among women who almost didn’t get to be mothers to make it all the more special. […]

The Journey to Bitch and Back

by Peg O'Neill, M.D.

Mother’s Day was a little different for me this year. During my past decade-plus of Mother’s Days, my general approach, similar to that of many of us who wear these shoes, has been that this is a day for my children and husband to appreciate me. But this year, I decided that I needed to mix it up a little bit. […]

Just Being A Mother

by Cyma Shapiro

Dear Reader: This is another reprint of a previously posted essay. Nearly every year I read or rerun it, simply to get perspective on my life. During this month of Mother’s Day, I hope it provides something for you, too!

When I began my first midlife mother’s project – the art gallery show NURTURE: Stories of New Midlife Mothers – and then began writing about related topics, I was grappling with my truths: about coming into motherhood at a much later age; about my impending middle age; about the “Change of Life” and all that it brings; and about reinventing oneself and all that it means, especially once I’d gone past the century mark (sssshhhhh). […]

Paying It Forward

by Peg O'Neill

Motherhood costs us. There’s no question about it. Parenthood requires sacrifice – not only financial, but also physical, emotional and in many other realms. For “older” mothers, this may be particularly true. The harmonic convergence of mid-life and raising young children creates numerous opportunities for growth, but also many challenges. Of course, most of us would agree that whatever the price, our kids are worth it. Whatever we pay in terms of lost sleep, delayed retirement, worry over aging parents while still raising our own families, and other costs, our lives are enriched in countless, priceless ways by our children. […]

Wise Women & Mid-life (Re)Blooming

by Jamie Walters

Many of us have experienced, or are experiencing, a sort of radical rebirth, a reincarnation within this incarnation.

We’re living in uber-transformative times, so perhaps it comes as no surprise that transformation around us happens through transformation within us, even as circumstances seem to conspire to nudge us into that change. […]

The Bone Structure of the Landscape

by Valerie Gillies

“I do an awful lot of thinking and dreaming about things in the past and the future – the timelessness of the rocks and the hills – all the people who have existed there. I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape – the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.”
― Andrew Wyeth

I hate the cold, with a passion. Spring, summer, and early autumn, with their warmth and lushness and never-ending sounds, are my times. No matter how hard I try to reframe it, I loathe winter for its dark, bitter bleakness. […]