One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them. Virginia Woolf

(Well, that and the realization that Mick Jagger will be sixty-four later this month ... and looks more like Barney Fife in spandex every year ... when it's so easy to recall him, and Keith Richards, being cute young things.)

Brian May, the 59-year-old composer and founder of ... more

Here's a question for Boomers to think about, especially those of us with small children:

How much of a commitment are you willing and able to make to help your aging parents?

Or to put it more bluntly:

How much of your lifestyle do you potentially give up so your mom and dad can lead the kind of life you ... or they ... think they should lead?

These are being asked in USA Today, and should... more

As older adoptive parents, many of us find the age gap between ourselves and our children to be much wider than that between ourselves and our parents. As an example, I am 53 years older than Cj, but only nineteen years younger than my mother. My age puts me easily in grandma territory ... and, in fact, I am a one ... , and my mom great-grandmotherly, or even great-great if the reproductive timing had gone just a bit differently.

At... more

I was my mother's first child. Born in 1951, my early years were an experiment in post-war parenting that saw many mothers ... mine included ... stuck in a ration coupon mentality that insisted that dinner plates started out with a bit of everything on offer and ended up sans even a single scrap or morsel. The theory on the preparation of vegetables at the time, at least in my house, involved prolonged boiling until most of the color had faded, the flavor had mutated and the consistency assured... more

One consideration I would guess creeps into the minds of most of us older adoptive parents goes something like this: Will my kids be embarrassed about having a geezer for a mom (or dad) when they're teens? I'm thinking the answer to this question will always be ... well, yes.

The good news is that every teen is embarrassed by their parents, and every teen thinks their parents are geezers, even if said parents are... what? ... like thirty-five? Yeah. Thirty-five. (That's how old my mom was when I was 15, and MAN! was she ever ancient... more

If like my darling husband, Mark, your fondest desire is to make certain your newly adopted child will still be sharing your bed ... co-sleeping, as it's called ... right up to and beyond the time he starts shaving, here are a few pointers on how to keep your little one out of his own bed and sleeping sideways in yours. Some of these tips may not apply if children come to you at older ages, but if like us your kids are home as small babies, you'll have the perfect opportunity to condition them to spending each night... more