Family & Friends – Women's Voices For Change

The Beauty of Friendships Among Women
[From Our Archives]

By Deborah Harkins

Today is International Day of Friendship — a way to honor the invaluable sisterhood in our lives, the community of women who surround us with joy, laughter, friendship, and fellowship.

Family & Friends

The Many Shades of Fatherly Love
[From Our Archives]

By Deborah Harkins

Our writers have experienced many shades of fatherly love—conditional, unconditional, warmly comforting, wintry, authoritarian, nurturing, judgmental. For Father’s Day—this Sunday, June 17—we present these varied memories.

Family & Friends

Fathers—Judged By a Different Standard?

By Cecilia M. Ford, Ph.D.

We love our fathers, and we need them. Father’s Day offers a chance to reward the good ones, forgive the imperfect ones, and educate the bad ones.

Emotional Health · Family & Friends

Understanding and Forgiving our Mothers

By Cecilia M. Ford, Ph.D.

The final therapeutic phase involves letting it go, which can only occur if we understand and forgive. This happens when we put ourselves in our mother's shoes, empathizing with her and recognizing how she became the person she is.

Family & Friends

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Mother

By Alexandra MacAaron

All of a sudden, I recognized the wisdom of the Windsors' concept of "the heir and the spare." Not that any child of ours would reap royal rewards. But it would certainly have softened the blow to have another child or two to focus on once my baby was gone.

Emotional Health · Family & Friends

Unconditional Love: A Wise Grandmother’s Advice

By Cecilia M. Ford, Ph.D.

Being a grandparent is a tricky process nonetheless, but if you navigate it right, the joys are bountiful.

Emotional Health · Family & Friends

Gift-Giving: How Can I Stop Overspending

By Cecilia M. Ford, Ph.D.

“Our family has always had such a good time being together at Christmas, and I don’t want things to change, though I see that they must. What should I do?”

Family & Friends

Right-Sizing Christmas Eve

By Patricia Yarberry Allen, M.D.

I right-sized Christmas Eve in our family calendar. But something was missing. Ah. . . there was no stress.

Emotional Health · Family & Friends

A Grandmother’s Worries

By Cecilia M. Ford, Ph.D.

Fears of war have always been present. But today there are several worries that are entirely new. Though we always feared we might destroy each other, the idea that we might destroy our planet is a fairly new one. What kind of future will our young people inherit?

Family & Friends · Health

Memorial Day: A Day To Remember Those Who Died In Active Military Service and Those Left Traumatized

By Patricia Yarberry Allen, M.D.

There are those of us who mourn those who returned to lives that were never fully lived due to post traumatic stress.These men, in their 80s and 90s, still talked about the recurring nightmares, the unexpected flashbacks, the isolation that they had endured after the war was over.

Emotional Health · Family & Friends

Being A Mother — The Role of A Lifetime

By Cecilia M. Ford, Ph.D.

Motherhood causes a shift in identity that may occur suddenly, but remains stubbornly in place ever after.

Emotional Health · Family & Friends

Adult Children and Stepmothers: Cinderella 2.0?

By Cecilia M. Ford, Ph.D.

Elderly men are easy targets for schemers, both in relationships and in business. But they are particularly vulnerable to caretaking women. On the other hand, while the fairy-tale-version stepmother has enormous power, in real life she often feels as if she has none.

Family & Friends

Love In All Contexts: My Two Aunt Mims

By Susan Lapinski

“Every day I spent with her was Valentine’s Day. I wish every girl could have an Aunt Mim in her life. I was lucky enough to have two in mine.”

Family & Friends

Valentine’s Day: For Granny, My First Love

By Toni Myers

Granny’s unconditional love was life-affirming. She was on my side. She was my first love. We never broke up; I was never disappointed by her, and she approved of me no matter what I did.

Family & Friends · Film & Television

Kathleen Collins — A Daughter Keeps Her Mother’s Artistic Legacy Alive

By Nina Collins

As I neared the age my mother was when she died, forty-six, I found myself finally ready to grapple with the themes that consumed her. I started to dig through the considerable archive of work she left behind. What I found blew me away.

Women's Voices For Change

Articles onFamily & Friends

The Beauty of Friendships Among Women
[From Our Archives]

The Many Shades of Fatherly Love
[From Our Archives]

Fathers—Judged By a Different Standard?

Understanding and Forgiving our Mothers

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Mother

Unconditional Love: A Wise Grandmother’s Advice

Gift-Giving: How Can I Stop Overspending

Right-Sizing Christmas Eve

A Grandmother’s Worries

Memorial Day: A Day To Remember Those Who Died In Active Military Service and Those Left Traumatized

Being A Mother — The Role of A Lifetime

Adult Children and Stepmothers: Cinderella 2.0?

Love In All Contexts: My Two Aunt Mims

Valentine’s Day: For Granny, My First Love

Kathleen Collins — A Daughter Keeps Her Mother’s Artistic Legacy Alive

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