http://www.themotherhood.com/circle/show/id/8191 en-US http://www.facingcancer.ca/thebaldandthebeautiful/2012/01/19/guilt-stricken/
An amazingly powerful blog post that really resonated with me {also, NOT written by me}]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Brandie) Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:14:10 -0500 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/511113 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/511113 ________________

Bald and beautiful...Barbie?

TODAY - Her figure may not exist in nature, but Barbie's status as a role model for young girls is undeniable.

Now a movement is afoot on Facebook to create a "Bald Barbie" as a role model for young girls going through chemotherapy or suffering from hair loss conditions such as alopecia.

"We would like to see a Beautiful and Bald Barbie made to help young girls who suffer from hair loss due to cancer treatments, Alopecia or Trichotillomania," reads the introduction to the Facebook page, Beautiful and Bald Barbie! Let's see if we can get it made.

The Facebook page, created by a group of women who either had children dealing with baldness or were dealing with it themselves due to chemotherapy, went up a few days before Christmas. It currently has more than 18,000 likes.

"My daughter is battling leukemia right now and she's been going through chemotherapy for the last two years," says Beckie Sypin, a 32-year-old special-education teacher's aid from Lancaster, Calif., and one of the mothers responsible for the Facebook campaign.

"She was bald for about seven months and we would go to the store and people would stare or kids would ask her why she's bald. It's not something they're used to seeing. We think [a bald Barbie] would be therapeutic and I think it would help baldness become more quote unquote normal. It would be seen. It wouldn't be this odd thing that people don't have hair."

Continue: http://todayhealth.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/11/10122324-bald-and-beautifulbarbie]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Kayla S) Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:49:15 -0500 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/510926 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/510926
A new Marist poll indicates that even though 62% of the overall American population will not make resolutions for 2012, 59% of Americans younger than 45 planned to do so. For those older than 45, the resolution-making ratio drops to 28%.

"Younger people may be less satisfied with their lives, may have more dreams or goals to accomplish," said Lynn Bufka, psychologist and assistant executive director of the American Psychological Association.

The age statistic makes sense, agrees psychologist and Psychology Today and WebMD contributor Leslie Becker-Phelps, saying that for people who have experienced prolonged emotional pain, the time of year does not prompt them to change.

"I think as people mature, you may find that they just come to a place where they're ready to change," she explained. "Then you're not necessarily seeing it as a New Year's resolution, you're seeing it as an evolution that might happen any time of year for them."
On the whole, only 38% of the more than 1,000 Americans who responded to the poll said they will make a New Year's resolution for 2012.

The top resolution was to lose weight (18%), with exercise in second at 11%. Quit smoking, save more (and subsequently spend less) and be an overall better person tied for the No. 3 spot with 9%.

"It's a human quality to want to reduce your pain and increase your pleasure," Becker-Phelps said of the top three resolutions. "I think theyıre often culturally determined: If you look at us as a culture, we certainly have an obesity problem, and we value youth, young bodies and the physical appearance of health."

Read on: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/03/living/resolution-psychology/index.html?hpt=hp_bn8]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Kayla S) Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:55:41 -0500 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/510868 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/510868
USAToday.com - Each year, Jan. 1 falls on a different day of the week, and the entire following year shifts accordingly. Schools, sports teams, businesses and banks spend many hours and millions of dollars calculating on what day of the week certain dates will fall, to schedule holidays and set interest rates.

It doesn't need to be that complicated, say an astrophysicist and applied economist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. They have a proposal to make schedules simpler: a permanent calendar in which each 12-month period is exactly as the year before, on into perpetuity.
The extra days created by the Earth's inconvenient 365.242-day orbit around the sun would be dealt with not by adding Feb. 29 for leap years, but by a leap week tacked onto the calendar at the end of December every five to six years.

"It would simplify things enormously," says Richard Conn Henry, the professor of applied physics at Johns Hopkins who first proposed the idea in 2004. This past year he began to discuss the idea further with a colleague, Steve Hanke, a Johns Hopkins economics professor.

The result is the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar, which they proposed in December. In it, March, June, September and December would have 31 days, all the rest 30. Christmas would always fall on a Sunday. Halloween would become Oct. 30 and always fall on a Monday.

Keep reading: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/story/2011-12-29/new-calendar-same-days-every-year/52276386/1?loc=interstitialskip]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Kayla S) Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:24:36 -0500 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/498829 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/498829
USAToday.com - Sears Holdings was walloped by Wall Street and Main Street on Tuesday, following news that it would close 100 to 120 of its Sears and Kmart stores in a bid to shore up finances.

Its stock tumbled 27% to $33.38. It's off 83% from an April 2007 high of $195.18.

Critical customers responded to the announcement by griping about messy stores and rude associates on online forums. A report issued Tuesday by Credit Suisse analyst Gary Balter said the company "effectively ask(s) customers to pay for a poorer shopping environment than available at competitors and online."

INTERACTIVE: Wikinvest data, commentary on Sears stock

New sales data show that Sears Holdings stumbled during the all-important holiday shopping period. Comparable-store sales were down 4.4% for Kmart and 6% for Sears for the eight-week period ended on Christmas Day, the company said.

"We can do better than this. We will do better than this," Sears Holding CEO Lou D'Ambrosio said in an internal memo.

In addition to shuttering U.S. stores, the company plans to reduce fixed costs, improve inventory management and have more targeted pricing and promotions.

Keep reading: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/story/2011-12-27/sears-stores-closing/52240208/1]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Kayla S) Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:56:50 -0500 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/498799 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/498799
CNN.com - Movie ticket website Fandango polled customers to come up with the ultimate holiday flop, and now has a list of the top 10 worst Christmas movies ever made.

The top pick for worst Christmas movie ever was 1964's B-movie ?Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.? According to the New York Times, the flick cost only $20,000 and features a cardboard set!

Other top contenders included ?Home Alone 3? (the one without Macaulay Culkin), Hulk Hogan?s 1996 flick ?Santa With Muscles,? and Arnold Schwarzenegger?s holiday family comedy ?Jingle All the Way.?


Check out the final results:

1. "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians"
2. "Silent Night, Deadly Night"
3. "Jingle All the Way"
4. "Jack Frost"
5. "Santa With Muscles"
6. "Ernest Saves Christmas"
7. "Home Alone 3"
8. "Deck the Halls"
9. "Surviving Christmas"
10. "Christmas With the Kranks"

Funnily enough,?Santa Claus Conquers the Martians? is back on the big screen this holiday. ( Fandango says it?s a coincidence.) In case you?ve never had the pleasure, the movie?s playing in New York and Los Angeles and a few other cities until Christmas. View the list of theaters at SantaMartiansMovie.com.

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/19/fandangos-10-worst-christmas-movies/?hpt=hp_bn7Original article:]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Kayla S) Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:48:23 -0500 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/498102 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/498102
By Eric Pfeiffer

Scientists have isolated a gene in mice that works to give them "super memories" and reverses the course of several degenerative mental illnesses like Alzheimer's. And because of the similarity of mice and human brains, a powerful brain pill for humans may now not be far off.

The brains of both mice and humans release a gene known as PKR, which is triggered by the onset of Alzheimer's. But the newly discovered gene can apparently block PKR's release--a development that not only can reverse the course of degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer's, but induces a state of "super memory" in the mice it has been tested on.

"If we were to find an inhibitor, a molecule, a drug that will specifically block PKR, we should be able to do the same [in humans]," Maura Costa-Mattioli, who led the research study at Baylor University, told the Vancouver Sun. "And we did."

"We recognize that PKR plays a dual role, one in regulating simple everyday processes like the way neurons talk to each other [for] memory, but also has a stress response," added John Bell, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute who also contributed to the study.

More from the Sun:

A virus is one form of stress that triggers PKR, but Alzheimer's patients' brains also experience PKR-releasing stress, said Bell, whose cancer research led him to create PKR-deficient mice which he shared with Costa-Mattioli's lab. Researchers found that when PKR is genetically suppressed in mice, another immune molecule, called gamma interferon, increases communication between neurons, improving memory and making brain function more efficient, Costa-Mattioli said.

Reportedly, when PKR is blocked, the gamma interferon can work more or less spontaneously to improve brain functions--and can be activated via a simple PKR-inhibitor injection into a mouse's stomach rather than through more conventional and drawn-out gene therapy. The possible application for humans would lead to something like taking a "brain pill" to treat diseases like Alzheimer's, or simply to give the memory a significant boost:

When the researchers tested the PKR-deficient mice in a series of memory tests, those mice were able to pick up on patterns and remember them on the first try, while the other mice needed days to figure out how to solve the puzzle. The PKR-deficient mice consistently showed significantly better memory and learning abilities than their counterparts.

Of course, Costa-Mattioli said the goal is not to create a new society of super-memory powered people.

"Let's say we'd compare with Viagra. People use Viagra at whatever age, let's say 60, 65. But someone (who) is 40 goes to buy it, they can get it," he said. "But this is not our goal . . . Our goal would be to treat people who have a memory problem."

See the article: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/super-memory-pill-possibly-alzheimer-cure-could-around-162010613.html]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Erin O) Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:27:20 -0500 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/497850 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/497850 By Seth Borenstein, Associated Press

WASHINGTON ? NASA has found a new planet outside our solar system that's eerily similar to Earth in key aspects.

Scientists say the temperature on the surface of the planet is about a comfy 72 degrees. Its star could almost be a twin of our sun. It likely has water and land.

It was found in the middle of the habitable zone, making it the best potential target for life yet.

The discovery announced Monday was made by NASA's Kepler planet-hunting telescope. This is the first time Kepler confirmed a planet outside our solar system in the not-too-hot, not-too-cold habitable zone.

Twice before astronomers have announced a planet found in that zone, but neither was as promising. One was later disputed; the other is on the hot edge of the zone.

See the article: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/story/2011-12-05/nasa-finds-planet-that-could-sustain-life/51656310/1?loc=interstitialskip]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Erin O) Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:23:12 -0500 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/497470 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/497470

CNN.com - In this age of farm-to-table dinner adoration and making one's own butter and baking powder from scratch, I rise up in defense of the drive-thru, the TV dinner and the semi and fully-prepared dinners from the grocery store. That includes bags o' salad, minced garlic and frozen pizza.

As I return to work full-time at CNN.com, I take this stand for my mother, a single parent just a few decades ago. Not known for her cooking, she sometimes drove me through McDonald's after soccer practice or theater class and served me a Swanson's TV dinner once week.

Many more parents today are the children of parents who did not know how to cook, so I applaud any supermarket effort that makes it easier to eat at home - even if it involves opening a chicken pasta combo package and pre-cut veggies.

It's obviously a popular way to feed our families. Nearly half of all Americans use partially prepared foods or ready-to-cook foods to feed their families, according to a 2010 Mintel survey.

"Fast food and TV dinners did serve their purpose on days when we had one thing after the other or there was no time to go to the grocery store or nobody had clean underwear so laundry had to be done," says my mom. "With the time saved, we could still talk about what happened with a kid harassing you at school, without my worrying about burning something-which I did anyhow, every so often."

My mother's own mother had refused to teach her to cook, thinking that it would trap my mother in the home rather than in the world of work where my grandmother thought she should live. That was a radical notion in the 1940s and 1950s, that my mother should have an outside adult life.

Once she married and had me, my mother figured out how to cook a few things - we often had nice arroz con pollo (chicken and rice) with platanos (fried plantains). But it has never been easy for her the way it has for mothers who have cooked from scratch since they were little girls. My mother cooked big batches of stew or other dishes on the weekends and punted on soccer practice and theater class nights.

That's why I cringe when the foodies make speeches in condescending tones about how parents should try harder and commit more time for cooking at home. In some two-parent families with enough money and time and help, please do turn off the electronic devices and try to cook with your children - and eat with them too.

Continue: http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2011/11/29/serving-pre-prepared-food-doesnt-mean-youre-a-bad-parent/?hpt=hp_bn8]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Kayla S) Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:30:03 -0500 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/497407 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/497407 ___________


Why does entering a room make you forget things?
Psychologists say the simple act of walking through a doorway can make us two to three times more likely to lose track of our thoughts

Have you ever strolled into the kitchen to get something only to immediately forget why you're even there? You're not alone. Psychologists from the University of Notre Dame have discovered a link between walking through doorways and lapses in our short-term memory. Here's what you should know:

How was this study conducted?
Psychologist Gabriel Radvansky asked participants to select an object from one table and exchange it for an object at another table in a different room. A control group was asked to do the same task, except their tables were in the same room, at a distance equivalent to the first group's.

What happened?
Even though the task was deceptively simple, the performance between the two groups was "big enough to drive a truck through," says Radvansky. People asked to enter another room were two to three times more likely to forget what they were supposed to do.

Why?
Passing through a doorway, whether we're entering or exiting, creates something called an "event boundary" in our mind, says Radvansky. That event boundary "separates episodes of activity and files them away." It's just one of the many tricks our brain uses to keep life organized. Our mind parses events out with "event boundaries" to help us sort through thoughts and memories. But in the case of forgetting things, it's "like the brain is too efficient for its own good, sticking thoughts back in the cabinet before you're done using them," says Cassie Murdoch at Jezebel.

See the article: http://theweek.com/article/index/221765/why-does-entering-a-room-make-you-forget-things]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Erin O) Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:20:56 -0500 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/497398 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/497398
USAToday.com - As the biggest shopping days of the year approach, consumers' buying habits are shifting dramatically from big-ticket items to less expensive purchases that are enjoyed and consumed quickly, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Eating out, hair coloring and perfume are in. Cars, appliances and furniture are out.

Consumers are rewarding merchants who entertain them, save them time and make them look and feel good now rather than later.

What's different: People are accumulating less stuff ? houses, cars, lamps, clocks. This money was saved early in the economic downturn but is now flowing to services and small items that can immediately boost a person's happiness.

Typical change: Consumers are spending more on wine, less on wine glasses. Spending on wine is up 14% during the recovery after falling 2% in the recession. "Wine is considered an affordable luxury," explains Gladys Horiuchi of the Wine Institute.

How preferences are changing, according to an analysis of Bureau of Economic Analysis spending and income data:

?Quality of life. Americans are spending a greater share of their income on pets and vets, spectator sports and disposable contact lenses ? non-essential pleasures and upgrades that don't cost a fortune. Psychological counseling is also attracting the highest share of income on record.

Keep reading: http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/basics/story/2011-11-22/consumer-spending/51354602/1]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Kayla S) Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:43:25 -0500 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/497379 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/497379
(Reuters) - First Lady Michelle Obama on Monday launched a new arts program to pick five student poets from U.S. high schools who will spend one year promoting poetry through readings, workshops and other activities.

The National Student Poets program is backed by the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, of which the first lady is honorary chair, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services through a partnership with nonprofit group, the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers.

"What you learn through reading and writing poetry will stay with you throughout your life," Obama said in a statement. "It will spark your imagination and broaden your horizons and even help your performance in the classroom."

The five National Student Poets will be chosen from a pool of teenagers who have already received a national Scholastic Art & Writing Award for poetry. The selection panel will be comprised of poet Terrance Hayes, "Ploughshares" editor David Lynn, Alice Quinn of the Poetry Society of America, and the Library of Congress' Robert Casper.

More than 185, 000 students apply annually for the Scholastic Art & Writing Award and since 1923, winners have included teenagers such as Truman Capote, Sylvia Plath, Joyce Carol Oates and others.

The first five National Student Poets will be announced in summer 2012, and will each receive academic awards of $5,000. They will serve as literary ambassadors in their communities and encourage kids to develop writing and creative skills.

Continue: http://news.yahoo.com/michelle-obama-unveils-program-student-poets-090945433.html]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Kayla S) Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:59:52 -0500 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/497295 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/497295
USAToday.com - Jaime Puente is a first-year graduate student working on a master's degree in Mexican-American studies. He's also a feminist, a blogger and an example of how today's feminist movement might startle its suffragette ancestors.

"The things I blog about are definitely from a feminist perspective," says Puente, 29, of the University of Texas in Austin.
Although his parents didn't use the term "feminism," Puente says he and his sisters got a clear message. "One of the things my mom was always telling my sisters is 'You don't need a man in your life to do anything ? to tell you what to do, to support you or provide for you. You can do it all yourself.' "

And his family has always worked in the community. "That's my foundation in feminism," he says. "Even though they may not have used the words, now that I have the language to describe it and discuss it, that's what it was."

Puente is among the faces of a new feminism and is one of those who commented online after a recent USA TODAY story about how feminism has changed since the founding of the National Organization for Women 45 years ago.

He and others who proudly call themselves feminists say feminism today is much more than a gender issue, and their street protests ? such as the "SlutWalks" against sexual violence ? focus on oppression of all sorts, not just women's rights.

Continue: http://admin.themotherhood.com/main/frontpage]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Kayla S) Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:42:26 -0500 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/496985 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/496985
USAToday.com - They are REALLY anxious for a Will and Kate royal baby in the U.K., especially among the royals reporters. And American journalists are almost as giddy.

Because Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, refused to taste some peanut paste during a royal engagement in Copenhagen on Tuesday, reporters in Britain and America are leaping to the conclusion that she must be with child. Pregnant women are routinely advised these days to stay away from peanuts for fear of causing dangerous allergies in their babies.

"Something you're nut telling us, Kate?" teased the headline in The Sun, Britain's largest tabloid.

It was big news over there and pretty big over here, too, making the top stories on Diane Sawyer's ABC News Friday evening.

Palace officials are not saying anything about a pregnancy, as is their usual practice. However, they did tell reporters that the former Kate Middleton is not allergic to peanuts. "Her spokesman went out of their way to stress that she has no nut allergy whatsoever," Duncan Larcombe, royal editor for The Sun, told ABC.

Continue: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2011/11/brits-go-nuts-over-possible-duchess-kate-pregnancy--/1]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Kayla S) Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:43:17 -0500 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/494744 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/494744
http://www.zoeticamedia.com/paypal-paper-shows-celebrities-not-always-the-best-choice-for-fundraising

A recent study sponsored by PayPal Nonprofit, and penned by Geoff Livingston and Henry Dunbar for Zoetica, shows that a personal story, a tight knit community and the authenticity of the messenger count more than simple fame.

Through case studies and examples the paper outlines the following four tips for fundraisers looking to incorporate celebrities or weblebrities in their online campaigns.

Click through to read more and get Four Tips for Using Weblebrities for Fundraising http://www.zoeticamedia.com/paypal-paper-shows-celebrities-not-always-the-best-choice-for-fundraising

(I think many great organizations, such as ONE.org who wisely connected with our own Emily and Cooper, know this!)]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (juliepippert) Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:04:40 -0400 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/494024 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/494024
By Tim Shipman

David Cameron will strike a deal today to reform the monarchy, which will let the eldest child of Prince William and his wife Kate inherit the throne ? even if it?s a girl.

The Prime Minister will put an end to more than 300 years of history by thrashing out an agreement with Commonwealth leaders to end the rule that the first-born male inherits the throne ahead of any elder sisters.

The deal will also end the ban on members of the Royal Family who marry a Roman Catholic being able to succeed to the throne.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2054467/William-Kates-child-thrown--girl.html#ixzz1c2oBYcl3]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Brandie) Thu, 27 Oct 2011 23:44:24 -0400 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/493743 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/493743
(CNN) -- In the past 30 years we've learned that babies and young children know more and learn more than we would ever have thought possible.

Philosophers and psychologists, even the great Swiss child-development theorist Jean Piaget, once thought that babies and young children were irrational, solipsistic, illogical and amoral -- unable to take the perspective of others or understand cause and effect. But new scientific techniques have taught us that even the youngest infants already know a great deal about objects, people and language, and learn even more. In fact, they have implicit learning methods that are as powerful and intelligent as those of the smartest scientists.

They can unconsciously do complicated statistical analyses and their everyday play turns out, remarkably, to be very much like a set of scientific experiments. And I, at least, think that they may actually experience the world more vividly than we do.

Here's just one example of this new research:

One of the hardest problems for all of us is figuring out what other people want, think and feel. It's especially difficult when what they want is different from what we want ourselves. Traditionally, psychologists thought that children couldn't take the perspective of other people until they were 8 or so. But my student Betty Repacholi and I gave 15- and 18-month-olds two bowls of food, one of raw broccoli and one of goldfish crackers.

The children, even in Berkeley, liked the crackers and didn't like the broccoli. With the children watching, Betty tasted a little food from each bowl and made either a disgusted face or a happy face. Then she again gave the babies both bowls of food, put out her hand and said, "Can you give me some?" The 18-month-olds, just barely walking and talking, gave her the crackers if she had acted as if she liked the crackers and the broccoli if she had acted as if she liked the broccoli.

Continue: http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/23/opinion/gopnik-ted-children-learning/index.html?&hpt=hp_c2]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Kayla S) Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:16:36 -0400 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/493543 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/493543
SALINAS, Calif. (AP) ? Taylor Farms Retail Inc. is voluntarily recalling 3,265 cases of various bagged salad blends that have the potential to be contaminated with salmonella.

The Salinas, Calif., company said Wednesday that its action comes after the Washington state Agriculture Department conducted a random test on a finished package of spinach.

No illnesses have been reported.

The bagged salad products include those with "best by" dates ranging from Oct. 18 to 21. They were marketed under the brand names Fresh Selections, HEB, Marketside and Taylor Farms.

The items were distributed in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Puerto Rico and sold in various retail supermarkets.

Consumers can call 1-877-323-7374 for more information.

Original article: http://yourlife.usatoday.com/fitness-food/safety/story/2011-10-20/Calif-company-recalls-bagged-salad-blends/50836738/1]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Kayla S) Fri, 21 Oct 2011 09:55:40 -0400 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/493526 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/493526 _______________________

Is the 'Good Enough' Marriage Good Enough for the Children?
by Judith Warner

The Atlantic?s current obsession with the alleged ?decline of men? continues in the magazine?s November issue with a cover story by Kate Bolick that begins with a sad summing-up of her own relationship status (?I am 39, with too many ex-boyfriends to count and, I am told, two grim-seeming options to face down: either stay single or settle for a ?good enough? mate. At this point, certainly, falling in love and getting married may be less a matter of choice than a stroke of wild great luck.?) and then meanders on into a long discussion of the future of marriage in man-challenged America.

Ms. Bolick?s argument, in a nutshell: women have never before faced a landscape with such a shortage of ?marriageable? men ? defined by her as ?those who are better educated and earn more? than women do. As a result, as women continue delaying marriage and motherhood, they?re putting themselves at a greater risk than ever before of aging out of the marital marketplace ? and in a sense, of pricing themselves out of it, too. Faced with this dreary reality, single women getting up in years, instead of losing themselves in the quest to find Mr. Right, ought to focus instead on feathering their own nests ? with pride, contented self-sufficiency and sustaining friendship.

This article (all the premises of which we could pick apart for hours, but I?ll leave the detailed doing so to you) was brought to my attention this weekend by a childhood friend who had recently left her husband. She was looking pretty gloomy as she told me about Ms. Bolick?s notion of ?the new scarcity.? She didn?t regret her decision to seek a divorce, she said; she was in fact enjoying feathering her nest, and reaping all sorts of personal benefits. But, she worried, was what she?d hoped would be a temporary time alone fated to become the story of the rest of her life?

Continue: http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/is-the-good-enough-marriage-good-for-the-children/#more-27297]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (Kayla S) Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:27:11 -0400 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/493218 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/493218 http://labyrinthwellnessllc.blogspot.com/2011/10/foster-people-pumped-up-kicks-lyrics.html]]> webmaster@themotherhood.com (robin) Sat, 15 Oct 2011 11:31:03 -0400 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/493213 http://www.themotherhood.com/post/show/id/493213