I am not living a fate worse than death, although that's certainly the implication from a recent "Heroes Among Us" People magazine feature called, "One Mom's Mission: Help Others Adopt."

The Mom explains that she was motivated in her cause because she "can't live" with the idea of people living a… Read full post »

"It was like going to a party you're terrified of, and finding out to your amazement that you're having a good time."

That's how Betty Ford, who passed away today at 93, described her life in the White House during one of the most turbulent times in U.S.… Read full post »

June 10, 2008 was a day unlike any other. There I was, Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos, pictured on the home page of The New York Times with a link to a health feature about my husband and me — Exhibit A: one of the many millions of “involuntarily childless” couples… Read full post »

Allen Ginsberg once described "Howl" as “a promotion of frankness, about any subject.” He might have made people uncomfortable with his words, but he also made us think deeply. In Oprah's world, we're supposed to pull up our socks and put a smiley face on any subject that… Read full post »

A new movie may bring to light what some of us of already know: overzealous parents today have not only changed the tenor of parenting, but the nature of friendships with those who do not have children.

"We're going mainstream."

That comment from a friend without kids accompanied a link… Read full post »

In 2006 I read a news brief in the Wall Street Journal about women chronicling their infertility experiences online. I was aghast and intrigued. I tore the item out of the newspaper and washed the newsprint from my hand.

A few months later in February 2007, I sat down in… Read full post »

 The political season is (thankfully) at an end. I've gnashed my teeth more than once listening to candidates — from both political parties — proclaim their fitness for office by invoking their mystical "mom" powers. Enough already with the "Mama Grizzlies," "As a Moms" or those… Read full post »

I don't like to bring grown men to tears, not the least of which because it usually gets me verklempt.

"It has grieved me greatly," he said with just the barest hint of Southern drawl, "to think I might have hurt you in some way..."
"Oh," I protested, "please don't think..."
"No," he… Read full post »

What would Aldous Huxley say? The pioneer behind in vitro fertilization gets the Nobel Prize, new research determines the probability of successful embryos, and children created with donor gametes want to know more about their "genetic parents."

Scientists observing the behavior of one-celled embyro… Read full post »

It may be 2010, but in one very big way we're still locked in the past. It took Gail Collin's book, When Everything Changed, to make me… Read full post »

We'll be singing
When we're winning
We'll be singing  ...

It was mid-afternoon in the Sierra Nevada Mountains when the email arrived.

Three loads of laundry were folded and tucked back into their rightful place. The kitchen floor glistened, still fresh from a serious mopping with Murphy's Oil… Read full post »

Who knew that perimenopause would give me the cleavage of Kim Kardashian, some days bordering on Heidi Montag?

Listen up here, hormones, I'd like a word with you...

Okay, now that I've got your… Read full post »

Despite being a funny looking, gangly slip of a girl,  my dad made me believe I was the most beautiful, bright daughter a father could ever want. He encouraged me to reach high, and celebrated every victory no matter how small. He engaged in the usual dad activities… Read full post »

America's frustration, impatience and angst around the BP's attempt to cap the deep water oil spill felt remarkably familiar, an echo of a more personal demand for science and technology to step it up.

We live in an age of unprecedented knowledge, technological advancement.  There should be n… Read full post »

Today's fertile women have yesterday's infertile women to thank for the development of the mighty Pill.*

That's right. My people have apparently had quite the societal impact. I learned about the Pill's paradoxical beginning in a recent Time cover story. In researching the Pill's consequences, writer… Read full post »

“Infertility,” my husband once observed, “is one of those topics you want to bury, and then bury the shovel.”

His perspective is hardly unique among those who have had to confront infertility head on. The diagnosis packs a devastating punch and cuts to the very core of what i… Read full post »

In a television show about a modern family practicing polygamy we get ringside seats as the family members navigate the seamier side of politics, gambling and fringe religion, but one thing is clear: fertile women rule.

There are plenty of plot twists and surprises packed into each hour-long episode… Read full post »

"How's the baby....?"

The question hung in the air Friday afternoon. My stomach clenched.

"There was no baby..." I said quietly.

"No baby?? That can't be...the response, it was so good. I didn't see you again..."

Tears stung and burned in my eyes. I shook my head hard, forcing myself to be matter of…

Read full post »

From worries about being the strange old lady moms you see in the park to infertile women in their 30s and 40s getting questioned about when they're going to start their families, misreadings by passersby interpret people's life status… Read full post »

Elizabeth Gilbert I am not.

Envy about her being #1 in Amazon.com's "memoir" category aside, there are other reasons to dwell on her this morning just as the sun is about to rise.

Let's start there. The sun is about to rise and I'm *not* consumed with angst. Breakfast with angst,
…

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 MSNBC vs. FOX?

McFields vs. the McCoys?

Red States vs. Blue States? 

Nope.  This rumble concerns parents vs. non-parents. And, even more ironic? The cornucopia of criticism came just in time for the holidays. 

That I've never been a card-carrying member of either of the two opp… Read full post »

 

Alice S. Rossi passed away this past week. An unwitting beneficiary of her life’s work, I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I didn’t know her name or what she’d accomplished. It was the descriptor in a New York Times obituary headline that encouraged me to dive into the piec… Read full post »

Nothing gets me grumpier than having a peaceful morning shattered by an inflammatory news story -- especially before my first cup of coffee.

Yet there it was on the front page of the Sunday New York Times:  The Gift of Life, And Its Price. Mellow morning ruined.

Why? I was reminded… Read full post »

The last place I ever expected to see my ideas, my words appear in the form of a guest column was on a website devoted to moms -- Current Mom to be exact. My thanks to the editors for their willingness to hear a different point of view. Here's what I shared with the site's re… Read full post »

I'm way late (no, not that late -- that's something I have never actually experienced).

I'm talking late in writing a review on Julie & Julia. Who waits six weeks after a film comes out to weigh in?

Me, that's who.Think of it as an opinion that's been, well,… Read full post »