mother over 50 Archives - Page 3 of 7 - Mothering in the Middle

The Sweet Surrender of Sleep

by Jennifer Magnano

Sleep always seems to come most easily to those in great fatigue in every place and space of being. All of our “bodies” – physical, spiritual, emotional, mental – are finally depleted. It so appears that only at this very moment, when we have nothing left to give and are completely “fried,” that we just might be able to rest… and rest well. Yet, this often is not the case. Most nurturers don’t experience really great slumber. Restless or chronically overtired, it is with great uncertainty that we reach out to the blissful edge of sweet surrender. […]

Priceless…

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Being Ageless – Resilience!

by Aleta St. James

Recently, I’ve been focusing on inspiring people to Be Ageless. Many of you may imagine that’s about exercise, vitamins, and green-tinted healthy shakes — and it partially is — but one of the greatest keys to agelessness might surprise you: resilience. […]

Older Mom, Growing Older

by Barbara Herel

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.

That said, I always knew I’d be an older mom. When my college friends were getting pregnant, in their twenties and thirties, I never felt I was missing out. It was only after marrying Tony that I caught “baby fever,” and by then I was 40. […]

An Interview with Karen Quinn, Creator of TestingMom.com

by Cyma Shapiro

Q: Thank you for giving us your time, today. I think the world of the “gifted and talented” remains elusive and out of reach for many parents who will never experience this with their children. Please tell me a little about the impetus for founding such a program/company?

A: It’s actually quite an interesting story! After writing The Ivy Chronicles and Testing for Kindergarten, I was in the process of creating IQ Fun Park, a board game designed to help prepare kids for testing. I stumbled on a blog about NYC’s gifted and talented programs and was impressed by the breadth and depth of its content. I eventually reached out to the blog’s author, and we talked about how there was no comprehensive online resource for parents preparing their kids for G&T or private school exams — which we thought was surprising and also really unfortunate!

Ultimately, we decided to create TestingMom.com for that very purpose — to help parents busy parents who want fun and readily-accessible test prep materials for their children. That was in 2010, and so far it’s been a fascinating and really rewarding experience building the site and hearing from parents who have used our services. […]

A Mother In The Middle

by Ellie Stoneley

March has two events of note, firstly, in the UK (and I know it’s different in the USA) there’s Mothering Sunday, and secondly, the Ides of March … and it struck me that ultimately both are about trust. One, the greatest kind of trust – that of a child of its mother, and the other – the betrayal of trust.

Reflecting on my own situation, I was an elderly primagravida and now I’m a geriatric first- time mother! I am sitting here having tucked my 14-month-old daughter into bed after bidding good night to my own mother, now eighty something and it sort of struck me that I am not just a midlife mother, but I really am a mother in the middle ( and generally a mother in a muddle too!). Trusting and trusted. […]

The Childcare Dilemma

Andrea Lynn

The one clear benefit of being late to motherhood is that many of my friends have older children, and I have a glimpse of the future.

This week is March Break here – the kids out of school and the parents on vacation or scrambling for childcare. The morning subway was emptier than usual all week so it was a bit of a surprise to run into a friend on the dawn run downtown. She was heading to the gym before work, I was on the early shift. And her two girls? Edging into their teens, they had March-break jobs – providing before-and-after care at a dance camp for kids. Instead of having to find someone – a camp, a babysitter, a grandparent, a neighbour – to watch her girls during the week’s break from school, my friend for the first time could just relax and go to work, unhassled by the relentless school calendar, with its PA Days and Snow Days, holiday and vacation weeks, early dismissals and shortened weeks. […]

A Midlife Mother Defines Success (A Commentary)

by Jane Samuel

All the recent media-hype about Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg’s new book Lean In has got me thinking again. Thinking like I did last year when Anne-Marie Slaughter’s piece
“Why Women Still Can’t Have it All” (Atlantic July/August 2012) hit the newsstands and the airwaves like an IED. Thinking like I did years ago when another, more senior, female partner tried to dissuade me from dropping to part-time status after the birth of my first child, arguing in part, “the men won’t like that.” Thinking again about my daughters, about their pasts when I put aside work to nurture them and their futures when they may or may not have a chance to lean in and have it all. Thinking again about the ultimate thing to think about: what it means in life to “have it all,” to be “successful” and to be a woman and a mother. […]

Gluten and Fertility

by Cindy Bailey

I have already written about wheat (which contains gluten) and why it needs to come out of your fertility diet in a previous blog. To recap: wheat is, first of all, hard to digest. “It’s like Velcro on your gut,” a chiropractic doctor at a naturopathic clinic told me recently. In addition, if you’re sensitive to it—and a large percentage of people are, many without knowing it—wheat can cause all kinds of problems and affect thyroid function. All of this is not good for fertility. […]

Listen and Be Heard

by Jennifer Magnano

Women – nurturers – are the most resilient beings in the Universe. Yet, no matter if you are in an aesthetically pleasing state, at the top of your career, happily mothering, or within the most profoundly loving relationship, you may tell yourself otherwise. Most likely, you tell yourself that you could be more or do more.

I know this because I shared this affliction. Raised to believe that I was never enough, I strove every day to be more than enough. It was not until my knees met the earth of my temporary dwelling place – a damp and musty basement – that I experienced an awakening. An old soul with cells full of trauma, I came to this place in wonder. Had my time expired? We all have these moments, if only we move out of the mind. If only we pause to notice our own heart beating… or breaking… and if only we listen. […]