In desperation, I entrusted my car keys to an approachable onlooker, offering a quick explanation before bolting through traffic on foot. It was a holiday and a beautiful morning for a parade. As daughters of a firefighter, my sisters and I always had a great love of parades – we wax nostalgic over privileged seating in the cab of the fire trucks, smiling, waving and sometimes throwing candy to onlookers. (Regulations later prohibited anyone but firefighters from riding in the cabs of the trucks.) This particular morning, however, my father lay dying at Hospice. With the parade route blocking my sole access to him, I barely noticed everyone’s smiling faces. I cannot recall ever feeling so hindered.
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You’ve played entertainer, educator, chief negotiator and vacation coordinator all year long. Kick off the holiday season by taking time to revitalize and reconnect with a mom’s night out! Although we are rarely alone, motherhood can often feel lonely and isolating. Spending time with a few friends to vent, laugh and reenergize in a kid-free zone is healthy and necessary.
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Why should moms have to wait until ‘some day’ to finally earn some downtime? Why not enrich every day by incorporating your favorite hobby into the nooks and crannies of the busy routine you already have, instead? Pressures of everyday life and being constantly pulled in too many directions at once can create stress for busy parents. And unfortunately, high levels of anxiety sometimes seem like a pride point granting you entry into an international over-committed moms club.
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Becoming a single parent typically happens through life circumstance or choice. Yet such instances or events aren’t limited to the years between your children’s birth and the day they turn 18. While divorce rates are declining overall, divorce rates for seniors are rising. Typically having spent a life preparing to retire together often these parents, or even grandparents, find themselves financially much worse off than if their divorce had occurred years or even decades before.
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