Since I know there are a lot of you out there who are taking care of parents at the same time you're raising little ones, a couple of pieces in today's news seemed like good bits to pass along.

The first is from the UK, but the information works beyond geographic boundaries, although I'll have to do some currency conversion for you. (I don't mind a bit!)

A "Cost of Parent" survey -- yes, how much it costs to take care of aging parents -- was conducted... more

Fellow Boomers, do you ever get the feeling that we're scaring the poop out of the young whippersnappers of the world?

I've been reading this feature from the Washington Post, "Brave New Boomers: Area Officials Plan for a Generation That Won't Call Itself Old And Opts to Stay Put Far From Transit and Health Services" about steps in the DC area being taken to prepare for an onslaught of geezers, and detect just a note of panic.

Calling... more

When my first child was born in August of 1969, her father, all of nineteen at the time, was a long-haired, motorcycle-riding hippy sporting love beads and peace signs. I did a good rendition of the female version of the style-du-jour, complete with flowing skirts, eau de patchouli, a load of questions for authority and lack of trust for anyone over thirty.

After a year or so of partaking in the free love that all self-repecting teens of the times were expected to partake of without benefit of any sort of protection other than some wishful thinking we thought... more

Six years ago today, I was dozing on the couch in my daughter's house in North Carolina, cuddling my month-old granddaughter and giving her mom some needed sleep-in time.

Although I had planned to be in the States for the birth, an emergency C-section brought Addie three weeks earlier than expected. It was over the phone that I learned I was a grandmother and my first sight of this amazing child was via an email, but a couple of days of travel time brought me eye-to-eye with this new human being that my daughter ... so recently a baby herself ... had made. (Okay, her... more

I am about to share something with you all that is so sad ... pathetic, actually .... and has me puzzling away at any possible significance. I'm wondering if I should be worried, angry and devastated or unconcerned and totally okay.

You see, in the course of posting an earlier blog, I happened to check the calendar to check what the heck month this might be ... September? How did THAT happen? ... and I suddenly came face to face with the fact that yesterday was the 13th anniversary of my marriage to Mark.

Hmmmm.

What? No flowers? No card, candy, gift?... more

I have a few items relating to older parenting that have been gathering pixels ... or whatever you'd call cyber dust motes ... in the corners of my desktop. They've been collected for sharing, so I'll do that today.

This article from the Sunday Herald asks the terrifying question: "Have you turned into your mother yet?"

Although the author takes off on wrinkles, she eventually focuses on some really scary ... read: right on the money ... observations of those... more

Some days seem to hammer home points about aging, while others continue to lull me into the illusion that no matter how quickly time passes, ripened fruit will forestall any dropping for one heck of a long time.

Today, as you'll notice from the rather one-note song sung on this blog, is one of the former, unfortunately. Appropriate for a category where "Older Parent" places equal emphasis on both words, although the 'older' could beg the question:... more

Right now I'm staring at a huge wall, upon which someone has written: Yo! Sandra! You're O-L-D!

Okay ... the wall's been there for a while ... tall, wide, flat -- a perfect surface for imposing messages ... and I have noticed some scribbles across it before, but all of a sudden over the last couple of days it's all gone rather neon-bright and impossible-to-ignore-blinky / flashing-pay-attention and get-with-the-program-like.

Why?

Gee ... let me think. Could it have anything to do with ... more

I have one of those small world things possibly going on now that has me amused at possibilities, so I'd like to share.

One of the regular readers here on the blogs, a geezer dad of teens adopted from foster care named John, has clued me into the fact that he's on a fishing trip in Oregon at the moment. Since fishing trips now come with WiFi, apparently, he's in blog contact even as he relaxes in the crisp mountain air ... I can almost smell the piney-woodsy tang from here ... and letting me know the fish are few and far between.... more

Yesterday's blog about women's suffrage in honor of the day American women were granted the right to vote started me pondering ... in true geezer fashion ... on all that has been hard-fought, but eventually deemed too inconsequential to bother about.

In 2004, for example, 61% of eligible women voters actually... more