Daily Living Archives - Page 66 of 74 - Mothering in the Middle

Two Generations of Kids

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. […]

Thoughts on Staying Healthy During the Holidays

by Peg O'Neill, M.D.

I am the queen of making lists. Like many busy working moms, I use lists to help me juggle the myriad of balls that I need to keep in the air on a regular basis: the grocery list, the list of school events, sports and music lessons, not to mention the lists I make at work to remind me to follow up on patients and to take care of the other responsibilities that come with being a partner in a busy pediatric practice. Though they sometimes drive me crazy, lists actually help keep me sane by keeping me at least a little bit organized and by helping to prevent important stuff from falling through the cracks. With the holidays approaching and the myriad of extra things to do, I find myself making even more lists. […]

What Difference Does a Title Make? (A Story of Moral Adoption)

by Loretta Tayar

I am a verb. I am all action. I make homemade soup for my daughters when they are sick. I jump out of bed in the middle of the night to lend a sympathetic ear to a frightened child and reassure her it was just a bad dream — their mother, father, brother, sister or friend did not get shot to death in their apartment. I write checks for tuition, tutors, cheerleading uniforms, school supplies, clothes (some functionally necessary and some to avert the fashion death that they believe will occur if said clothing wasn’t purchased), food, cell phone charges, doctor visits, gym memberships, family vacations. When my daughters were younger I went to parent-teacher conferences, graduations and plays. I did not go to PTA functions at one daughter’s high school because she didn’t think she could explain having a white parent when she’s black. […]

One Hero in a Community of Mothers

by Andrea Lynn

In my life, there are many mothers I respect and admire. Friends, family, colleagues, even strangers. Mothers I see in the world doing the right thing with children, showing small kindnesses, endless patience, needed discipline. Moms who have faced huge obstacles, small tragedies, who started their journeys late or in roundabout ways. But heroic mothers? I only know one, and I don’t know her well. She is a midlife mother, in her 50s, and attends the same church as I do. I know her because our congregation has adopted her cause as ours — emergency foster care of the youngest children in our city. […]

Midlife Crisis in a Minivan

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. […]

words for mothers: yesterday, today and tomorrow

by Rachel Snyder

Here are three pages from my book, 365 Words of Well-Being for Mothers (Contemporary/McGraw-Hill, 2003), which, alas, is currently out-of-print and generally available only in used or remainder copies. My own mother has taken up fragile residence in between worlds: here but not here, there but not there. She can’t express whether she remembers who any of us are, though I like to believe that in her deepest heart, she will never forget.

I always liked the thought that there are two kinds of people on the planet: those who are mothers — and those who have mothers. Whether you are one or the other or both, you may find resonance within these words. […]

The Healing Power of Olive Oil

by Barbara Hannah Grufferman

(Dear Reader, I stumbled on this post having recently discovered the incredible power of olive oil, myself. In fact, I swear by it. I eat it and use it in a multitude of ways. So does Barbara. So, after contacting her, we discovered a clearcut connection. This is the first of what we hope will be many of her writings about over-50 living.)

Interesting fact about turning 50: Things change surprisingly fast.

For example, everything’s just a tad bit … drier. My hair, skin, eyes and, umm, other places, too. […]

Midlife: What Goes Down Must Come Up

by Vivian Diller

When Obama turned 50 in August, warring political parties and world leaders paused to congratulate him. Thousands of fundraisers in his hometown of Chicago sung “Happy Birthday,” and his two daughters left summer camp for Camp David for a more intimate celebration. But among the outpouring of well wishes were warnings too. Turning the big 5-0, he was told, meant that things would go downhill from there — as if he didn’t have bigger downturns to worry about! […]

Sweet Dreams at Daylight Savings Time

by Peg O'Neill, M.D.

Sleep is a hot topic in my world.

As a pediatrician, I spend a good part of my time talking to people about it; whether I am helping parents of newborns hang in there during those early sleep-deprived days, or talking to teenagers about why it’s so important to get as much shuteye as possible, whether it’s a well visit or a sick visit, the subject of sleep is usually lurking somewhere in the conversation about staying physically and emotionally healthy. The importance of good sleep is a constant across all age categories. The more you sleep the better. The less you sleep, the more likely you are to feel crummy, whether you are a sleep-deprived fussy infant or a cranky toddler who needs a nap, or an ornery, stressed adolescent who doesn’t get to bed early enough. If you are sleep deprived, whether you are a kid or a parent, you are more likely to be crabby. If you are sleep deprived, you are more vulnerable to illness. There are studies which back this up. The less you sleep, the lousier you feel, in general. And the more you sleep, the better you feel. […]

How I Overcame My Fear of Being Mistaken for Grandpa

Len Filppu

About 11 years ago, my wife and I joined another pregnant couple for a snack after our pre-natal class. They were a typical demographic of this class… young, bright-eyed and fresh, unwrinkled, unworn and eager to learn what lay ahead in parenthood. Their youth and enthusiasm unnerved me because I was then 49 years-old and facing fatherhood for the first time. I ordered coffee and cherry pie a la mode. […]