More and more people are finding themselves engaged in "nontraditional" relationships; which leaves the traditional definition of family (a heterosexual couple marrying to have children) increasingly ambiguous. Here Susan Piver wonders whether the absence of a child is indicative of the absence of family with couples.
A real-life monster-in-law is poisoning one reader's family ties. Susan King talks survival tactics for Mrs. Mama's Boy
"Bruce would not want us to wallow in our grief, and I always hear him … His voice is always there saying, 'Get on with it.' There was a saying that I loved, and that he loved, by Robert Frost: 'In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.'" Actress Blythe Danner publicly discusses the loss of her husband Bruce for the first time.
The author's generation fought to have careers as well as families. Now, more and more young mothers are opting to raise their kids full time. But what happens when a husband leaves, gets laid off, or dies? Leslie Bennetts makes the case for keeping the day job. "I spent many years establishing a rewarding professional life before having two children — just as my biological clock was winding down—and ever since then I've felt as though I won the lottery. A great career! A wonderful husband! Two beautiful, healthy children! Lucky me! Imagine my surprise, then, to learn that Having It All—the quintessential goal of recent generations of women—has gone out of fashion. Who knew?"