Vicki Larson's OMG Chronicles

When the news broke this week about why Kate Perry and Russell Brand’s 14-month marriage ended last year — Brand, at age 37, was eager to start a family and Perry, 27, wasn’t ready — I was reminded of my first marriage. It was clear that the singer and the comedian didn’t have the conversation […]

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For Father’s Day, I sent my dad — who lives in a nursing home in Florida, some 2,500 miles away — the obligatory card and called him. In the two-plus years since he fell, hit his head, got emergency brain surgery, almost died and miraculously recouped, I have a lot of time to reflect back […]

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My son’s high school graduation last week was a sea of faces filled with a mix of joy, exhaustion, sadness and uncertainty — not just the 18-year-olds but their parents as well. As I looked around me, I wondered how many married couples, a good portion about to be empty-nesters, would still be married for […]

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We’ve been hearing about better male birth control for years now, but in recent weeks two new promising options have come to light: RISUG (reversible inhibition of sperm under guidance), being developed by an Indian scientist,  Sujoy Guh, and the discovery of a gene, Katnal1, critical for sperm production; if scientists can tweak the gene […]

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Of the many conversations couples need to have before they get married — or move in together — comes another one: What role will the Internet play in their relationship and how transparent are they going to be about that? At least that’s the opinion of Beatriz Avila Mileham, who interviewed married people who used […]

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I consider myself pretty lucky that when I divorced, my former spouse and I were civil enough — or maybe just too cheap! — to mediate and avoid lawyers and stay out of family court.  And, we agreed that we would coparent 50-50, one week on, one week off. It hasn’t always been easy for any […]

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I enjoyed reading Barbara Risman’s take on the whole Mommy Wars thing, allegedly reignited by the Hilary Rosen-Ann Romney flap. Risman, the head of the sociology department at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Council on Contemporary Families’ executive officer, called it a bunch of silliness, while acknowledging a truth (emphasis mine): (T)here […]

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Mothers are back in the news again, thanks to Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen whose comment about stay-at-home-mom of five Ann Romney, wife of presidential candidate Mitt Romney, as a woman who “has actually never worked a day in her life” reignited the so-called Mommy Wars. No one really knows what to do with the state […]

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This Mother’s Day, I’m working with Clever Girls in support of Macy’s Heart of Haiti  to shine a light on the “trade, not aid” program, which provides sustainable income to Haitian artisans struggling to rebuild their lives and support their families after the 2010 earthquake. ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ My mother liked to give advice. Well, it was […]

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He’s the son of an alcoholic, she’s the daughter of a Holocaust survivor — can this marriage be saved? In my case, no, but why should our familial backgrounds even matter? Because they do, a lot. Infidelity, abuse, addiction, drug abuse — those of frequently cited as issues that lead to divorce. Never mind all […]

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