by Jane Samuel
We added our third child when I was forty and that’s when the skeptical stares started. You know the ones. You are just coming up to the counter at the local gym or squeezing through the candy-packed aisle at the grocery, baby on your hip, mask of exhaustion painted on your face where make-up should be when some bright-faced-twenty-something looks over in disbelief and says, “My! You have your hands full.” […]
by Cyma Shapiro
I have two sets of kids – a common occurrence for many Midlife Mothers. I have two generations, in two differing decades, with two differing experiences. (The total count of this is four children). One is Gen Y; the other is yet to be named (soon to be called Z or M). One is pre-9/11; the other is post 9/11. One is all about the advent of social media and the importance of the Internet; the other has never lived without all of it. One is the MTV generation, the other is all about the digital age, cell phones (only) and the world of texting. More importantly, one sees the world as basically benign and good, the other as being scary and dangerous and all about the horrors seemingly right outside our front door. These aren’t just man-made horrors; these now include tornados, hurricanes, flash floods, power outages, unhappy out-of-work people, and less money to live as we’d like. […]
by Karen Hug-Nagy
When I was in my twenties and thirties, the thought never crossed my mind that by the time I reached my mid-forties, I would be hauling kids around in a Honda Odyssey. While I never owned any sleek sports cars, my Ford Explorer was dedicated to weekend road trips in the country and taking the dogs for a ride. […]
by Cyma Shapiro
I’ve withstood the ravages of time: I have not yet been called “Grandma,” am still courted by those younger than I, and I still do not get the looks that others often get (“others” with gray hair, wrinkles, and sagging bodies). So far, I’m sitting like the Cheshire Cat, grinning from ear-to-ear about my little dirty secret. (You know, the one about my real age).
However, I do believe that it is all about to change. (Uh-OH!) […]
by Julie Donner Andersen
Being pregnant with baby number three – my midlife “oops” – was about as much fun as a funeral, and the responses to the news of our baby’s impending arrival were often just as depressing. Instead of the gasps and hugs by teary-eyed well-wishers the other pregnancies had solicited, this pregnancy was greeted with responses such as “Oh, I’m so sorry!” or “Better you than me!” It was as if I had just informed them that I was dying and not welcoming a new chapter in the book of our family by means of extending it.
I felt about as welcomed as a leper at our friends’ homes. No one patted my swollen tummy like a Buddha, hoping luck would rub off on him or her, as they had with my other pregnancies. Instead, our friends made hex signs with crossed fingers and said weird things like, “Hmm…wonder what’s in the water? I’M not drinking it!” or “Stay away from me! Your condition might be catchy!” No one wanted to feel this baby move, since that was old hat, too. Instead, they shot me sympathetic looks while secretly hoping my bladder would withstand the internal soccer match so I wouldn’t pee all over their sofas. […]
by Jane Samuel
As my children can attest, I am not much of a TV person. I think it siphons away needed brain cells and deprives our lives of valuable time. Nonetheless, when tethered to the elliptical for my workouts I am known to watch a little and one show that I often surf to is TLC’s A Baby Story. I find myself nervously pacing (well, sort of ellipticaling) beside the anxious dads, beaming eagerly with the expectant grandparents or panting and pushing along with the moms. […]
by Karen Hug-Nagy
I think my current mindset has all the markings of a midlife mothering crisis. It’s difficult to describe just what a midlife crisis feels like. Lately I’ve heard it termed a midlife transition, which sounds less frightening to me. I think I’m currently stuck in one of those transitions. My 10 year old twins are in fifth grade, so that means I gave birth to them at age 45, and if I do the math right, that would put me at about age, 55! […]
By Karen Hug-Nagy
OK, wranglers, we are just under three weeks until school begins. I know you don’t think you’ve had enough time off, but HEAR THIS, get your #2 pencils sharpened and your backpacks loaded up, because it’s time to return to the halls of knowledge!! […]
by Julie Donner Andersen
Being the maaahvelous parent I am (take it from me, because my kids will lie), I absorb all the literature I can get my hands on which have anything to do with parental improvement. Recently, I read that going on individual “dates” once a month with each of your kids will increase your intimate parent/child bond. […]
by Linda K. Wertheimer
“Click, clack,” I read, then paused. “Moo,” Simon shouted as he cuddled in my lap in a chair at Starbucks.
A man walked up and smiled. “Your grandson is so adorable,” he said.
I resisted the urge to glower. This man after all was paying Simon a compliment. I smiled back, then corrected the error as my 3-year-old son sucked his thumb and held onto my ear. “He’s not my grandson. I’m his mother.” […]