Are We Responsible for Our Children’s Problems?
“Parenting,” not a common word in our parents’ generation, now attracts a billion dollar industry of advice experts.
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Articles onFamily & Friends
In Praise of the Old-Fashioned Fourth
Three cheers for the traditional Fourth of July celebration, Americans’ annual salute to their country. Women's Voices has covered many such home-grown tributes. Today, from our archives, we’re featuring three traditional Fourths, from towns tiny to small to huge.
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Fatherhood: A Changing Picture?
While there have been great social changes in the past 50 years, with women entering the workforce en mass, sometimes bringing home bigger paychecks than their husbands, the division of domestic chores has not kept pace. Many women still feel like they do the lion’s share of the work at home, a “second shift,” in addition to their paying jobs.
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Memorial Day: Remembering Those Who Died in Service, and the Wounded and Traumatized
On May 30, 1868, families across the nation laid wreaths on the graves of soldiers who had fallen in the Civil War. That was the first national observance of Memorial Day (originally called Decoration Day, for the medals and ribbons left on the grave sites).
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Being A Mother — The Role of a Lifetime
[From Our Archives]
Here, chosen from Our Archives, are reflections on how well or disappointingly each of five very different mothers inhabited that “role of a lifetime”—from her daughter’s point of view.
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Daughters, Mothers, and Grandmothers
The paradox of parenthood is that while this overarching connection and investment in your children is essential, being a good mother also requires that you let them become themselves.
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Managing Christmas Chores So You Can Have Some Christmas Fun!
Try to have a little fun when you are doing all the work to make Christmas nice for everyone else.
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A Thanksgiving Medley
[From Our Archives]
A medley of reflections from our contributors about the day we set aside each year to celebrate generosity, gratitude, and goodwill.
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The Beauty of Friendships Among Women
[From Our Archives]
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.
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The Many Shades of Fatherly Love
[From Our Archives]
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.
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Fathers—Judged By a Different Standard?
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.
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Understanding and Forgiving our Mothers
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.
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The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Mother
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.
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Unconditional Love: A Wise Grandmother’s Advice
Being a grandparent is a tricky process nonetheless, but if you navigate it right, the joys are bountiful.
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Gift-Giving: How Can I Stop Overspending
“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?”
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