Balance Archives - The Culture Mom

26May

Diary of a Breeder

It is with immense interest that I've been following the conversation that has developing around what is being coined "non breeders," women my age who have decided not to conceive, or have set out to explain why they are not conceiving. From Meghan Daum's book Shallow, Selfish and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids to , the conversation has been both deep and contemplative about a new generation of women who are not having children. I respect every single one of these women's decisions. As the mother of a 10 and 12 Read More

09May

Week 6: Middle-Aged Personal Training at Encore Fitness NY and a Giveaway

Posted by The Culture Mom 29 Comments

If you've been following my mid-life crisis fitness blog posts, you may have noticed a lull. I wasn't avoiding my routine, but trips do seem to knock me off my momentum a bit. However, since my weight gain from week 4, I've been more determined than ever to keep everything I'm learning at Encore Fitness NY up, particularly while traveling. I've also managed to challenge myself to a few new forms of exercise to keep my body moving and my keen interest up. So, when I walked into Encore the other day for my sixth session with Robert, I felt confident and Read More

14Oct

On Being Judged as a Mom

Posted by The Culture Mom 25 Comments

I don't think I truly ever gave motherhood a thought before I stumbled into it 11-1/2 years ago after the birth of my first daughter. I didn't really know what how much my life would change after having kids. I was very young (in my opinion) when I had my first and I just wanted to do it all. But I found out quickly that I couldn't and over the years I've made decisions to enable to be a better parent, while not forgoing all my dreams, and unfortunately, I have been judged for them, even here on this blog. My original tag line was "For moms not ready to Read More

02Sep

School Daze

Posted by The Culture Mom 3 Comments

I'm a huge Spike Lee fan, but in case you were wondering, no, I am not going to be writing or talking about his hit 1988 film School Daze. I'm talking about the daze I'm left in after looking after two tween aged kids for one month straight. Don't get me wrong, I do cherish this time with them and realize they are short, so please don't misunderstand or misinterpret me, as some of you often do. But as a mom who works from home, it's hard to entertain two kids who still love and crave all my attention. And it's a lot of work to keep two them content, Read More

01Oct

Mom Gone Wild

Posted by The Culture Mom 4 Comments

I found this video about a WAHM on my friend, Ilana's, blog tonight. It was inspired by a young woman who quits her job via video dancing around the office she decidedly spent a year of slavery in to the tune of Gone by Kanye West. In the domesticated version (video above), a mom dances around the house she's expected to clean, in addition to keeping up her work responsibilities. She dances in front of piles of dishes. Trash. Unmade beds. Flotsam in the sink. And so, like her predecessor , she decides to leave. Only it's to get milk. Oddly enough, in Read More

23Sep

A Return to the Land of the Living

Posted by The Culture Mom 1 Comment

When I left my full time job after my first daughter was born, I don’t think I was fully functioning. Call it post partum. Call it temporary insanity. I don’t know what you would call it. All I know is that within days after my departure, I felt a hole in my gut and I knew I had made the wrong decision. I had looked to stay-at-home moms with a tinge of jealousy before leaving the work-force and I really wanted to be home with my daughter. Then I got pregnant and had two babies at home, and I knew it was wrong. For me, anyway (please don't read this Read More

17May

When Mom Goes Away

Posted by The Culture Mom 1 Comment

I've been away from home a lot more than usual the last few weeks. I've been traveling with a client and have really cranked up the air miles, traveling to Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Charlotte and Washington, DC. The timing collided with the start of a new job for my husband, so I knew it would prove difficult for him. It also coincided with a show I was producing, Listen to Your Mother. But the bulk of my priorities remained at home as the primary caretaker, and I needed to plan to be away for days at a time. Now I'm on the last leg of the tour, Read More

23Jan

Wanderlust is My Drug

Posted by The Culture Mom 8 Comments

Wanderlust. It's like a drug. I encountered my first dose while living abroad at age 18 when I was introduced to a completely different culture, language, cuisine and fell in love. That was a crazy year and it opened me up to everything and made me realize how much the world had to offer me. I would spend the next 10 years exploring as much of the world as I could, spending a year in London, traveling around Europe, living in Israel and ending up in NYC. And then I had kids. And believe me, having kids has not deterred my love of travel. We've Read More

26Aug

Balance. My Daily Struggle.

Posted by The Culture Mom 1 Comment

Balance. That's a word I've struggled with since the kids were born. It's not easy to have as a mom, it definitely takes work. It's a skill that I've developed over time but I'm still perfecting. I'm definitely a mom that loves being with my kids and one that needs my own time, as well. The kids take up a lot of energy and just slipping away to read a book, catch a film or play in the city, taking a long, hot shower and belting out 80s tunes gives me the power I need to march on and be a better mom. But I also see the value of spending time alone Read More

11May

Happy Anti-Mother’s Day from Time Magazine

Posted by The Culture Mom 4 Comments

By now, you've all read the blazing controversy surrounding the latest Time Magazine cover. To be honest, I am not even interested in featuring the cover here on my site. I don't want to feed into the whole sensationalism aspect of what Time has done, driving thousands, if not millions, to the store to pick up a copy to see the image of a 4 year-old standing on a chair while breastfeeding. The story inside the publication that the picture is referring to is about pediatrician Dr. William Sears and attachment parenting. But the headline reads: "Are you Read More