This has been making the internet - emails circuits for a while now, but just in case you haven't seen it:

POSITION: Mother, Mom, Mama, Mommy, Ma

JOB DESCRIPTION: Long term, team players needed, for challenging permanent work in an often chaotic environment.

Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24 hour shifts on call.

Some overnight travel required, including trips... more

A while back I posted asking for witty comebacks.

We all need things to say when someone says something rude to you about parenting at your age..... like this one that came across my email group this morning:

A man came up to me and said, "You are a little old to have twins, aren't you?" I looked at him dumbly and said, "I'm too OLD to have twins?" To which he replied, "Yes. Are they yours?"

What to say to... more

My husband thinks the most interesting thing about me is that I’m an older mom.

Huh?

The conversation came up because I was discussing the list I just did, 100 things about me with him, and I was asking him about it.

What shall I put on the list? What is interesting about me? I was asking for input.

You are an older mom.

Yea yea, I know, What else?

Being in my forties... more

This is x-posted from the International Adoption Blog, where it is the second part of a longer essay on Darfur. Here's the link if you'd like to read the whole piece. This may not appear to have much to do with older parenting, but as we are making this world for our children as we go along I feel strongly that our horizons and boundaries must stretch to encompass and embrace the bigger world. To ignore a genocide occurring in our children's childhoods seems a failure of magnificent proportions.

By... more

K is staying with an old friend this evening while Hubby and I go out for a movie.

We saw one a few weeks ago when my sister was in town and I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time. So I’ve gotten the bug to go to a movie again.

Last time we went it was to see:

Little Miss Sunshine.

Ever heard of it? Anyone else seen it?

This isn't an older parent movie or an adoption movie but a movie about a family. (As opposed to a family movie).

At first glance this movie scenario seems tired and... more

Riddle me this. I never quite understood that statement, I think it's from a movie, isn't it? Batman, maybe? Still, it seems like a good way to start out a post about something that I think no one knows the answer to except maybe some recluse living on a mountaintop somewhere.

It is no secret that when you have children, they suck the life right out of your marriage. Yeah, yeah. I know. Not if you make sure to find time to "balance." Not if you maintain your priorities. Not if you keep everything in it's proper perspective. Not if you...are a saint.

As... more

X-posted, as this is all I'm taking about today ....

Like millions of others, I woke this morning determined to remember ... to set aside this day for recollections and reflection ... and to consider the world as it is today. Five years ago I was at my daughter's home in North Carolina. My granddaughter had made her grand debut on the planet a month before, and I was learning to be a grammy.

Darling Granddaughter and I were having some quality bonding time, as DD was having some quality sleeping time, when the phone... more

I wish I was one of those moms who always had a lot of kids in the house. Little ones following me, tugging at my skirts and heartstrings, making me smile all day long. But in reality, that just isn’t me. If I had a lot of kids, (say, more than eh, two), I’d probably have a full time headache, be grumpy, and end up growling.

A lot.

In my head, I’ve got multiple kids. They are all laughing, screaming even, with happiness, running and filling the house with joy, yet, in reality, if I get more than... more

Ok, I just heard the news, Older (but very hot) mom Madonna is planning on adopting!

Word on the street is that Madonna is planning on adopting a baby to add to her family.

Madge, who is married to film director Guy Ritchie, already has two children, Lourdes, 9 and Rocco, 5.

According to Handbag.com, Madge and Ritchie have already begun the adopting process, and are hoping to adopt a baby from Vista del Mar, California.

I had to get right on this blog and be the first,(Ok, more like the 10,000th person) to report it.

I... more

So I was on an interesting alternative sort of discussion board for adoptive parents the other day and a post jumped out at me.

An adult child was upset because her mom, in her late fifties, and her father, even older, were adopting a newborn out of foster care. The adult child was upset, because in her words, the parents were pretty terrible as parents, and also way to old to start again.

The adult child made it clear she (or he?) didn’t want the parents to take the newborn in permanantly. I don't know if it was ok as a foster child.

I had lots of questions.

What made them ‘bad parents’? Have they learned from mistakes, and were they just mistakes... more