by Rosemary Lichtman, Ph.D. and Phyllis Goldberg, Ph.D.
When a crisis hits – the end of a marriage, the loss of a job, or the death of a loved one – it throws you into a complete tailspin. Suddenly your world is no longer safe and secure. What can you do to pick up the pieces and take the first steps toward living a full life again? […]
by Valerie Gillies
“There are no classes in life for beginners; right away you are always asked to deal with what is most difficult.” Rainer Marie Rilke
There’s an old video game called Prince of Persia. You progress from room to room, and need to choose, hidden among the clutter — shall I take the flashlight or the dagger? or maybe the rope? There is no way of knowing what will come next, what you will need. You just have to do your best, with no time to think, and keep on moving. […]
by Andrea Lynn
Every month in my Single Mothers by Choice group, members who are trying to conceive using various fertility treatments link up on our internet forum to cheer each other on during the dreaded “two week wait” between their insemination or IVF and their pregnancy test. I am a lurker on this thread now, my days of knocking myself up all in the past. But I’ve been watching the average age of these hopeful women drift younger and younger, with mixed feelings. […]
by Jane Samuel
Recently I read Michael Wolff’s New York article “Mother I Love You” (May 2012) and found myself nodding to every other experience he had penned about his involvement with an aging and terminally ill parent. Two years ago I would have read that article and been an outsider looking in, now I have pulled up a chair at the same table. […]
by Maggie Lamond Simone
“What do you want to do with your life?” It’s a question I ask my college students this time of year to help them define their goals, and I’m beginning to realize the silliness of the question. It’s almost like asking people casually at the grocery store what they did over summer break — expecting them to sum up 10 weeks of their lives in a sentence. Not an easy task. […]
by Susan Newman, Ph.D.
“She’s an older mother!” The obstetrician bellowed to the attending staff and everyone else in earshot as I was rolled in the operating room to deliver my son.
“Do you have to announce that to the entire hospital?” I cringed.
Even as more women wait until their mid-thirties and early forties to become parents, most physicians consider them to be of “advanced maternal age” and high risk simply because they’re older. In one way, the extra attention paid to each advanced maternal aged patient is reassuring. […]
by Julie Donner Andersen
Every child-rearing book will tell you that children reach a point in their babyhood when being naked is preferred to wearing clothing. Child psychologists concur that this is a normal, healthy phase of development as children start exploring their birthday suits. […]
by Phyllis Goldberg, Ph.D. and Rosemary Lichtman Ph.D.
Image from the Bullying Project
Dear Reader: Now that school is in full-swing, issues are arising. Among them – bullying. See what Her Mentor Center can suggest for you:
Remember what it was like to be in school, afraid of the big bully in the neighborhood? The documentary Bully reignited the national dialogue about this challenge for kids, following several students and their families over the course of one school year. […]
Jane Samuel
The title of this blog – Mothering in the Middle – comes at me in more ways than one.
It sums up my life because I am a mid-life mother. I am the mother who wears night sweats and ponders progesterone while also wearing the face paint my nine-year-old old recently painted over my fine lines. […]
by Cyma Shapiro
Dear Reader: We, as midlife mothers, have a never-ending (and sometimes unattainable) quest to keep current at all times, esp. given our generational gap (did I say that?). We must know what (or even more than) our kids know, while remaining contemporary. In our desire to stay hip, cool, young, I mean: tight, sick, clean, dope, sweet, bad a$$ (need help? these all mean “cool”), I’ve compiled a list of new words for 2012, which should, at the very least, catapult you ahead of your friends while playing Scrabble. Got it?
1. aha moment – a moment of sudden realization/inspiration
2. cloud computing – the practice of storing regularly used computer data on multiple servers that can be accessed through the Internet
3. copernicium – a short-lived artificially produced radioactive element that has 112 protons
4. earworm – song or melody that keeps repeating in one’s mind
5. energy drink – a usually carbonated beverage that typically contains caffeine and other ingredients (as taurine and ginseng) intended to increase the drinker’s energy
6. f-bomb – the word f$$k —used metaphorically as a euphemism
7. game changer -a newly introduced element or factor that changes an existing situation or activity in a significant way
8. gassed – drunk
9 gastropub -pub, bar, or tavern that offers meals of high quality
10. man cave – a room or space (as in a basement) designed according to the taste of the man of the house to be used as his personal area for hobbies and leisure activities
11. sexting – the sending of sexually explicit messages or images by cell phone
12. systemic risk – the risk that the failure of one financial institution (as a bank) could […]