Daily Living Archives - Page 45 of 74 - Mothering in the Middle

Six Things Adoptive/Foster Families Need When New Children Arrive

by Lisa Qualls

This was the question,

What would have helped you the most in the early weeks and months of adding a child to your family through adoption or foster care? If somebody had asked you, “What can I do to help?” and you were able to answer anything at all with no shame, guilt, or concern about whether they really would want to do it, what would it have been?

This is what you answered:

Bring Food

Many of you stated that having meals delivered allowed more time to focus on all of your children, but also gave you some contact with “the outside world.” It does not have to be dinner, as somebody said, even bringing cut-up fruit would help. Someone else mentioned having dinner brought by friends who then shared the meal and spent the evening with them. One person wrote that when they adopted a baby, friends brought meals, but when they adopted an older child people assumed it wasn’t as demanding and didn’t bring meals. I think we can safely say that every adopting/foster family will be blessed by meals. […]

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. […]

My Worst Fears Have Come True…

by Marc Parsont

I have become…a soccer mom.

Car pools to ballet, soccer, art class, camps, play dates, school(s), and it’s just beginning. It’s going to get worse.

It was o.k. being the vacation pack mule. I have qualifications for lifting car seats, backpacks and 20 suitcases for an overnight trip. I’m male and I’m breathing. […]

Cyma Shapiro Interviews Erika Athanas, Co-Founder of 4GOOD

Dear Reader: I was SO impressed by this group and its founder that I requested an interview. Please read more about their 4/7/13 Los Angeles-area event.

In 2009, having organized the purchase of school supplies for her then 4 and 10-year-old children and posting the event on facebook, Erika, then 39 years old, immediately recognized the innate power of combining cooperation, community and social media. Together with friend Katie Goldman, she decided to put that philosophy to work. Within a few short months, Erika and Katie co-founded 4Good, now a nonprofit designed to match families with organizations in need.

Mindful of creating the right message, Erika sought causes and venues which would be appropriate for both children and their parents. Today, 4Good helps nearly 30 organizations in and around Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley; and can boast a following of nearly 3000 people encompassing nearly 250 individuals who regularly work with them. In 2011, the Athanas Family won the Scholastic Parent & Child Family of the Year Contest. Their celebrity ambassadors are William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman.

Q: Good Day, Erika! I’m so pleased to interview you – I was most impressed with the work you’ve done in just three very short years. Please tell me a little more about what you originally set out to accomplish. What personal experience did you bring to the table to foster this organization?

A: Honestly, I had no experience. I was just a mom who wanted to expose her kids to giving back. I wanted to make sure I was actively showing my children that one’s […]

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. […]

Traditions

Cyma Shapiro

As another Passover approaches, I can’t help but think back wistfully to my childhood with Eastern European grandparents and all that it held for me – the incessant Yiddish conversations, the Yiddish radio broadcasts; a home that smelled from a mixture of fish, moth balls and sometimes sweat. The odors that emanated from the kitchen during Chanukah, Rosh Hashanah and Passover, all of which have stayed with me to this day. The ever-present small Russian shot-glasses rimmed with “gold” are missing, except for the imprint they’ve left in my mind. Most of all, I remember the laughter and large tables filled with food, surrounded by extended family. […]

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. […]