by Andrea Lynn
My mother just dodged a cancer scare. My uncle is in the middle of one. My brother is having heart problems, and on Sunday I rushed my 2-year-old into the ER with an allergic reaction, that, thank God, resolved itself in a few hours without much medical intervention. So far, fingers crossed, everyone is fine. But it is that time of life when I’m feeling like we’re living on very shaky foundations, and no one should be taking anything for granted. […]
by Jenilyn Gilbert
Seems I live in the most fertile house in history. Everything about this house is fertile and that’s partly why this house was so appealing to buy. Eight children and two parents lived here before we bought it last summer. Later I learned that the mother was expecting her ninth baby.
The neighbors joke, “Don’t drink the water in that house!” I was drinking water by the gallons, are you kidding me? Although normally I’m pretty conscious of drinking only filtered water, I started drinking straight from the tap as well as offering it to all of my fertility clients. […]
by Jo Beth Young
Healing Angel
by Jo Beth Young
Have you ever wondered if your child has a Guardian Angel? If you have had your own first-hand experience of Angels, then you’ll already be in doubt that they do! However, if you’ve yet to see or sense the angelic realm around you, help is at hand!
I’m looking forward to sharing my experience and insights with you to help you make this loving heavenly link which not only brings a whole new exciting dimension to parenting but can help us understand our own children on an even deeper level.
I have connected consciously with Angels since childhood myself and I can tell you that not only do your children and yourself have these beautiful benevolent beings of light loving looking over you, but that far from being ‘wishful thinking,’ they actually have a very important and integral role during the different stages of your child’s development. […]
by Cyma Shapiro
Nine years ago, while sitting in the Moscow Marriott at age 46 with my newly adopted year-old daughter, I realized that I was going to be old when she graduated from college. The “old” was nearly my grandmother’s age – old! This was the very first time I’d ever felt my mortality and had ever even stopped to consider my chronological age. I had long ignored the biological clock theory thinking that it was mere hyperbole.
Although it came as a shock to me that I had not previously become pregnant, on that cold winter’s night nearly 9,000 miles from home, I finally felt my life begin. My age was a nagging problem, but at that moment I was filled with pride, joy and the fullness of starting a new family. I could see nothing but rosy times. Or so I thought. Little did I know that I had just joined a new club – moms over 40 – with no dues-paying members and no glue to bind them. Little did I know that in reality, I was one of them. (Two years later, we adopted our son).
Since then, I’ve made it my mission to expose the world to the group I call “Midlife Mothers” – that is, women choosing motherhood over 40. I have been featured on NPR and written for numerous online sites including Psychology Today and the Huffington Post. MLM entities MotheringintheMiddle.com and NURTURE: Stories of New Midlife Mothers (the only art gallery show dedicated to presenting women choosing motherhood over 40; now traveling North America) are intended to present a voice, face and forum.
Together with other midlife mother/women bloggers, we are helping redefine women in mid-life, dispel myths about who we are […]
by Cyma Shapiro
Dear Reader: I wrote this blog post a handful of years ago for MotherhoodLater, but have rerun it every year. I also received those flowers from my stepson several years ago. However, the two experiences have reaffirmed the power of motherhood and my joy at being a mother.
It’s amazing how one year can change things; how motherhood makes us forget what happened when our children were younger or youngest; how they came into our lives and what changes we needed to make once they were here.
I can honestly say that I am nearly fully comfortable in my Motherhood-clothes, a role that I played well in the beginning, but one that I now don each day with ease in the same way that I donned singlehood for many, many years. I won’t say that there aren’t days I wish I could wake up, yawn, and go down for coffee all on my own time, my own rhythm. I will say, however, that I’m the happiest that I’ve ever been – now that I have children. […]
“Truly, in many ways, my (adult) life began with the arrival of my children. As the days move forward, I beam with joy at their growth and my seemingly endless amount of love for them. I love to be a mother and experience the various stages of their lives. Mom after mom has shared the joy they feel when they hear the words “Mom” uttered, and recognize that it’s meant for them. In this case, it’s meant for me, too!”
“The average life expectancy for women in the U.S. is anywhere from 73.5 to 86 years of age. As the 48-year-old mother of a three-year-old, if I kick when I am 73.5, I’m going to be pissed.”
“I most definitely enjoy the extra special love and treatment on […]
by Cyma Shapiro
I believe that we, as women, live in a culture of shame, failure and inferiority regarding our attempts to reach, and our paths to achieve, motherhood.
There, I’ve said it.
I believe that our gender – known for compassion, nurturing and strength – has created a hierarchy of sorts rating the exact method, age, and end result of securing motherhood. Note the whispers about actress Kate Winslet, who was purported to have lied about utilizing natural childbirth when she had a C-section. Or, Halle Berry, who has until-now failed to show the “bump,” and is the focus of stories indicating that she may be using a surrogate. To me, none of this is anyone’s business – and certainly not ours. […]
by Michelle Eisler
Reflecting on my first Mother’s Day, now three years later, my thoughts and memories are as powerful as if it was yesterday. Each morning I wake up, no matter how tired I am, and realize that I don’t take for granted the treasure that arrived on the plane January 30, 2010 – my precious daughter. Here is my original post.
I just celebrated my first Mother’s Day this past weekend. At the age of 38 it feels late but as I understand, it isn’t as odd these days. One would think motherhood has been something I have been trying for forever but it isn’t. I’m just a late bloomer! I have, however, waited a couple of years for this but didn’t know just how much I’d truly waited, until this past January.
My husband and I were matched with Nathalia in October ’09 and would have traveled to Haiti in February 2010 to sign the first Haitian documents for our adoption process. We expected to be a family by the summer of 2010. […]
by Maggie Lamond Simone
“Look at you – you’re just like your mother.”
Weren’t those dreaded words at one point in my life? Didn’t I work all these years to not be like her, to identify her faults and weaknesses and to do everything humanly possible to avoid them?
I read a comic strip once in which a woman was lamenting the fact that she’d turned into her mother. All the behaviors she hated, she’d adopted. And I heard once that if a man wants to know what his wife will be like in 30 years, he should look at her mother. It was meant to be mean.
Why now, then, am I desperately wishing for that one profound gift that eludes me – to be like my mom? I think it’s because I’m a mother now myself, and I’m beginning to wonder if I could ever hope to be the mother she has been to me. […]
Q: Mothering is a complex topic fraught with so many aspects and adjuncts. What was the impetus for writing this type of book?
A: Obsession is the impetus for most books, and this was no exception. The last gift my mother gave me was a beautiful black wool scarf with pastel embroidery – quite striking and gorgeous – that she’d bought from a holiday vendor at the assisted living place where she lived at the end of her life. I wore it for many years over the neck of my winter coat, and got compliments on it all the time, and was always asked where I got it. It was always hard to answer, both because I couldn’t direct anyone to a store, and because it came from my mother, with whom I’d had distant and fraught relationship.
After she died, I became silently obsessed with the scarf, and went into a panic when I thought I’d lost it. For years, I thought about what the scarf meant to me – that it kept me warm, that it stood for my mother, that we’d had this distant relationship. After a lifetime of not feeling close to her, I felt an intense attachment to the scarf. I eventually wondered if other women had such a gift from their mothers, a gift that opened the door to the whole relationship. I started asking writers, and the result has just been published. […]