When GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s wife, Ann, touted mothers as the ones who “really hold the country together,” at the convention last week, she touched a nerve for a lot of us, and not in a good way. Not only did women who are choosing to be childfree wonder where they stand in mattering […]
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I have been thinking about Rupert Sanders’ wife of 10 years, Liberty Ross, which is weird because before the “scandalous” make-out session between Kristen Stewart and Sanders, I’d never heard of Sanders or Ross and (as the mom of boys, not girls) barely knew of Stewart and her — now-former — “Twilight” boyfriend, Robert Pattison. […]
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Posted in Divorce, Expectations, Family, Marriage on Aug 14th, 2012
I’ve been known to say inappropriate things but I’ve worked hard to be mindful in certain situations. So when a neighbor told me the reason there was a “For Sale” sign outside his house — he and his wife, parents of three, were divorcing — I’m not sure who was more shocked about what came […]
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If you’re divorced, you know all too well about the numerous studies of how divorce impacts kids; what we rarely hear about is how children impact their parents’ marriage. Not how tired, worried and poorer kids make us (and, yes, they do all of that), but what happens when things don’t go according to plan […]
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In a few weeks I will become an empty-nester. Like most parents, I have a lot of emotions about that. My boys, a freshman and a junior, are on their way to being fully independent; it’s what we parents have been teaching our kids how to do from Day 1. We hope we’ve laid the […]
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Posted in Divorce, Family, Parenting on Jul 12th, 2012
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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Posted in Divorce, Expectations, Marriage on Jul 2nd, 2012
No sooner did word get out that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were divorcing after five years of marriage than rumors of a marriage contract between them resurfaced. Judging by the comments people are leaving on websites like Huffington Post, etc., a marriage contract isn’t a “real” marriage (although a marriage license is just a […]
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I had been sitting at a table in the bar area of a local restaurant waiting for a girlfriend when the reality of my new life as a divorcee smacked me in the face and made me pay attention. “Joe,” a man I knew casually through work, was comfortably situated on his barstool and, after […]
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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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