Grandchildren

I woke up that fateful day in March to a panicked group of parents and co-workers. I work with kids on the autism spectrum and at 4 o’clock that morning, our county schools suddenly made the decision to close for two weeks…
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We do our imperfect best. From the moment we push them naked and helpless from our bodies, they’re ours to nurture, protect, and love. They come without instructions and each one is so uniquely different that a single guidebook would never suffice. Read More

Perhaps you are a “newbie” to skip-gen travel, and this was the summer you planned to take that first special trip with your grandchild. Or perhaps you are a seasoned skip-gen traveler and were looking forward to another great trip…
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Are you a grandmother? Does that give you absolute joy or considerable worry? Or perhaps both? Read More

It is often suggested that babies should be born with a manual, because it is so hard for new parents to work out how best to look after them. We, mothers, know that we managed somehow or other. But now it begins again, as we are faced with being a grandmother. Read More

It is said that once a mother, you are always a mother. However old your son or daughter may be, they are always your children. This may be right, but it is a blessing and a curse. Most of us cannot escape it. This realisation came home to me…
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I am known for exposing the “elephant in the living room.” Those things everybody knows but nobody is talking about. Not every mother-daughter relationship reads like a Hallmark card, and our culture makes that a shameful secret to bear.
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Some time ago, I wrote an article about how to deal with estranged adult children. It was in the choppy wake of Mother’s Day. Many of us were feeling the heightened sting of loss. Read More

Now we are 60 (as A.A. Milne of Christopher Robin fame might have said), we are of an age to think about grandmothers. Perhaps you are a grandmother or hoping to be one. Perhaps your friends are grandmothers…
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In some ways, retirement planning is fiendishly complicated. You have to guess how long you will live. You need to decide on the right balance of risk and reward for your investments. And, of course, you have to find the money to save in the first place!
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