 As she gets older my daughter and I spend less time together, but our drives to school a few days a week have spawned what I refer to as my morning lecture series. Mornings are hectic and we hardly ever achieve a clean getaway; one of us invariably forgets and has to go back for […]  We all have ways of maintaining our sanity and lately I’ve been baking myself sane. In the last week I’ve written the phrase ‘I’m losing my mind’ more times than I have in the rest of my life combined. I feel like I’ve tumbled through the looking glass, and I can’t recognize my surroundings. I’m […]
 I will never forget the shock of the smack my mom gave me. No one had ever spanked or even yelled at me until we moved into the new house. I was six the summer we moved there. It was a beautiful, old Tudor house with more than enough room for my parents, my brother […]
 It’s time for the annual winter cold. I get sick once every winter. Not the flu, but somewhere between that and a cold. You will get sick enough to take to your bed for a day or two. When it happens you need to lean in. You need to succumb, stay home and take care […]
 Crazy, stupid driving; we’re all guilty of it. Everyone has strong opinions about what’s good driving, especially other peoples’ driving. Most of us think we’re good drivers, yet the world is filled with lousy drivers, so as Meg Ryan put it in When Harry Met Sally, you do the math. Some of those lousy drivers are […]
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Peggy Gilbey McMackin - Nice post-Nancy. However, truth is, your job will never, ever, be done. The questions may change, but new ones will occur, morning lectures may transition to other forms of conversation and communication, but end… it definitely will not.
nrlowell@comcast.net - Peggy, best news in a while, and I suppose you’re right. I still miss my mom’s advice!
Danielle - It seems like you and your daughter have a really wonderful relationship, Nancy. I hope to be that close to my girls as they grow, too. It’s one of the signs of raising girls well, I think, to earn enough trust with them for the tough, scary questions.
nrlowell@comcast.net - Danielle, I treasure that relationship, I think we often feel it’s just us, and we sustain each other.
Uma - Loved how you approached the topic and have these honest conversations with you daughter. I agree fully when you say that we learn as much when we explain our views to our children. Mornings are rushed for most of us but it’s so important to develop a routine and have an open channel where the parent and the child truly connect.
Melony Boseley - Nancy, your daughter is so lucky to have such a vulnerable mother. You seem to be doing absolutely everything right. Coming from a girl who never has been able to talk the tough conversations with my mother, it’s a breath of fresh air that you don’t try to force your opinions onto her. Xoxo
nrlowell@comcast.net - Melony, believe me, I am hardly doing everything right! I often joke with her that it will 10-15 years before we know the damage I’ve inflicted on her 🙂
Kalpanaa - Your post was thoughtful and well written. It took me back to my days of car rides with one or the other of my now adult daughters – the discussions and questions.
nrlowell@comcast.net - Thanks Kalpanaa, I know I’ll look back on these times with great fondness.
Laura Neill - I adored this post. What I liked the most about this is the fact that you ‘stopped’ the lecture on sexuality when you found yourself ‘selling’ your opinion. How incredibly self-aware. For me, these moments between you and your daughter much more interactive than a real lecture though – maybe a Monday morning workshop series?? 🙂
nrlowell@comcast.net - Laura, perhaps, but I find that I do most of the talking… Sometimes I’m stopped by the eye-roll, other times she is very engaged…
Parul Thakur - I loved your post, Nancy and I will tell you why. Your relationship with your daughter is absolutely ideal and how it should be. Mums are friends to daughters and they are one like you and yours, the world will be a better place.
Fabulous piece!
nrlowell@comcast.net - Thank you Parul. I feel so lucky!
Amy Bee - Well, I always enjoy your writing, and this one was extra good. It tickles me that you call your ride to school the “Morning Lecture Series.” It sounds so PBS, lol! The idea of feminity is an interesting one, and you deftly take us through it. The way you intermingle the topic with your daughter growing up is wonderful and engaging. I especially like the ending; you wrap it all up nicely.
nrlowell@comcast.net - Thanks Amy!
Margaret - Seventeen is such a special age. For my girls it was the age they came back to us from the pulling away of the early teen years. Sounds like you are a great mom!
nrlowell@comcast.net - Thanks Margaret, I try to be a great mom, but as we all know there are plenty of things I’m screwing up 🙂
yeah write #304 weekly writing challenge winners and staff picks - […] posts. Whether the post revolves around an evolving definition of seeing yourself or around a physical place (the car) that anchors what would otherwise be a list of too-brief explanations, it’s clear that most writers took a serious look at structure this week. The strong theme […]