Mothering in the Middle

Hillary Clinton’s Next Act: Making Half the World’s Leaders Women – A New Year Has Begun

The Women in Public Service Project, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s new initiative to shepherd a new generation of women into politics and policymaking around the globe, could prove to be the most significant public diplomacy move since the Kennedy Administration launched the Peace Corps fifty years ago. It could also be a game-changer for the Seven Sisters Colleges (Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mt. Holyoke, Smith and Wellesley), with whom Clinton has partnered. The project’s goal is to ensure that by 2050, half of the world’s government officials will be women. They plan to accomplish this goal by offering leadership training, mentoring and support for scholarly research on women in public service. Read more on Blogher:

http://www.blogher.com/women-public-service-project-strives-see-women-become-half-worlds-leaders-2050

Much Older Mothers Having Babies…and Regretting It

by Carla Naumberg

The BBC recently ran an interview with Susan Tollefsen, a British woman who gave birth to her first daughter at age 57 in 2008. The baby was conceived with the help of in vitro fertilization, using a donor egg and her partner’s sperm (although the couple is now separated). Ms. Tollefsen was refused fertility treatment in the UK because of her age, and became pregnant with the help of a clinic in Russia. Two years later, a clinic in London agreed to assist her with a second pregnancy, but she ultimately decided not to follow through, citing potential health concerns. […]

Better Full Than Empty

by Jane Samuel

We added our third child when I was forty and that’s when the skeptical stares started. You know the ones. You are just coming up to the counter at the local gym or squeezing through the candy-packed aisle at the grocery, baby on your hip, mask of exhaustion painted on your face where make-up should be when some bright-faced-twenty-something looks over in disbelief and says, “My! You have your hands full.” […]

The Best Gift

by Rachel Snyder

I
Dawn awakens, morning time
When Lovers of Peace keep pace with the rhyme
Of the heart’s own beating, the drumming within,
The Life-Force eternal in Gaia’s constant spin
Soul-healing rhythms, the dance Earth-inspired
Bones bleached and knowing lie close to the fire,
Witness to the story that never will end,
The truth that is passed between Lover and Friend… […]

Step 5 (The Journey of a New Foster-to-Adopt Midlife Mom)

The year is coming to an end and I would absolutely love to wrap up my journey toward the adoption of a child up in a pretty package, waiting under the Christmas tree. Unfortunately, life is not that simple. Or maybe it is, I just am not in that flow…. […]

8 Strategies to Turn Your New Year’s Resolutions into Reality

Rosemary Lichtman and Phyllis Goldberg

Over two thousand years ago, the ancient Romans began the practice of making New Year’s resolutions when they named the first month after Janus, the god of beginnings. Janus had two faces, one looking back at the old year, the other looking forward to the new one. In order to secure good fortune in the future, January became the time when you ask forgiveness for past deeds and look inward for areas to improve. […]

Mindful Meditations for Mothers

by Rachel Snyder

Forgiveness

The most important person you’ll ever forgive is you. Forgive yourself for not being the perfect mother (whatever that is!). Forgive yourself for being blinded by love (or by fear or by attraction or by fill-in-the-blank). Forgive yourself for having children too early, too late, in or out of the right or wrong marriage, or any combination of the above. Wash away guilt with forgiveness. Cleanse yourself of regret through forgiveness. If you can’t find a way to forgive yourself for making choices that now seem less than ideal, how can you imagine that others can possibly find their way? How will you move through forgiveness? Write a letter of forgiveness to yourself. Sing a forgiving song. Dance your forgiveness into the floor. Bead a necklace of forgiveness, knit a scarf of forgiveness, and let forgiveness drop out of every finger as you work. Wear your forgiveness close to you heart, where you’ll be certain not to forget it.

www.rachelsnyder.wordpress.com

The Little White House (A Holiday Tale)

by Karen Hug-Nagy

Once upon a time there was a single girl who lived in a little white house. She lived alone and was searching for just the right person to settle down with and start a family. The house was so small that she barely had room for even a tiny Christmas tree. […]

Turn Down the Heat (A Holiday Primer)

by Valerie Gillies, LMFT

“Boiling point: The point at which anger or excitement breaks out into violent expression” – Wikipedia

Halloween in Connecticut came on the heels of a snowstorm of epic proportions. That is no exaggeration. Trick or treating was cancelled; power was out for over a week. Yes, people even lived (if you can call it that) without the Internet and cable, in unheated homes filled with ‘bored’ children. It was not a pretty sight. And that, my friend, was the start of the 2011 holiday season. “Uh oh” is right. In a flash we were through Thanksgiving, when the starting pistol was fired for the four-day marathon of Black Friday sales, followed by sensory overload, sleep deprivation and unlimited access to guilt. […]

Toys

by Andrea Lynn

I know I’m not supposed to embrace the “more gifts” approach to Christmas. But all I want for Christmas this year is more toys for my kids. I do. I covet all sorts of shiny and colorful things that I know they will love. My budget is tight, and I am trying to be financially responsible, but I see things other kids have and I want my kids to have that too. It is absolutely politically, morally, ethically corrupt to admit that, at this time of year especially, but I am fearless. I want more toys for my kids. […]