I was standing in line at the grocery store this weekend when I watched a paramedic truck and a fire truck pull up to the front. In hurried about five men, and I watched as they began talking and administering to a boy, around 13- to 15-years-old, who was seated at the front of the […]
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This probably has been a hard week for childfree people. San Francisco just approved six weeks of fully paid parental leave, coming on the heels of New York City’s law requiring up to 12 weeks of partially paid time off for new parents and California Gov. Jerry Brown boosting paid-family leave benefits. Well, hey, wonderful, you […]
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For some, the big news this week was that President Obama was in Cuba or the latest mishegas from Donald Trump, but in certain circles, the big news was about divorce. More men and women are against divorce, according to a new poll, which came out right around the time that actress Jennifer Garner said […]
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Recently I read an article that stated that getting married is not an accomplishment. Natalie Brooke — who is engaged to be married — bemoans the fact that once she got a ring on her finger, that’s all people wanted to talk about — not the many real accomplishments (her education, career, etc.) she’s had. […]
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Posted in Children, Cohabitation, Divorce, Family, Marriage, Mothers, Parenting, Relationships, Single parents, Women on Feb 23rd, 2016
When I divorced the first time, in my 20s, there were a few people who were upset — my former husband and me, naturally, as well as our parents. Beyond that? Nope. How different a reality than when I divorced the second time. Was it because I was then middle-aged, and people worried about what […]
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Posted in Children, Expectations, Family, Fathers, Men, Mothers, Parenting, Relationships, Sex, Women on Feb 2nd, 2016
When I said “I do” the second time, at age 32, I knew what this marriage was about — kids. We both said we wanted to have a child, maybe two (my preference), and we talked about what that might mean for us financially. We were both journalists at the time — not big income […]
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There has been a lot of hand-wringing about single mothers and the rise of children being born outside of marriage nowadays. About a third of children in the U.S. live with an unmarried parent, according to the Pew Research Center — 34 percent, up from 9 percent in 1960 and 19 percent in 1980. While […]
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Ben Affleck’s mom is unhappy. According to news reports, Christine Boldt supports Jennifer Garner’s willingness to reconcile, and is advising her son to get his act together and try counseling as a way to work through their marital problems. While I’m sure Boldt means well — as a mom myself, we always mean well — […]
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Posted in Children, Divorce, Expectations, Family, Gender, LGBT, Love, Marriage, Parenting, Relationships, Stereotypes on Dec 15th, 2015
“Whatever, love is love,” actress Maria Bello’s 12-year-old son Jackson said to her when she told him that she had fallen in love with a longtime family friend — and a woman. In her Modern Love essay in 2013 and her book, Whatever … Love Is Love: Questioning The Labels We Give Ourselves, which came […]
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Does divorce really set a child’s life on the path to ruin? Is it better if parents stay “for the kids,” even if they no longer love each other? This has been much debated by academics, therapists and others. How do we know for sure how divorce impacts a child, if it even does at […]
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