About

ABOUT MOM WANTS A LIFE
Mom Wants A Life/Renew the Woman In You is about YOU. The woman beyond the mother. Mom Wants A Life provides information on relationships, fears and anxieties, career advice, elderly care for aging parents, teen/parenting information, and more. A Better You is full of articles, ideas, tips and quotes for encouragement, as well as improvement of your body, mind and soul. Real Parenting covers articles on organization, tips, simplistic parenting techniques, and some silly stuff too. Career includes tips on returning to work, starting a business, networking and more, including handling the anxieties often felt by stay-at-home moms or those that slowed down their career. Visit Quotes/Laughs for a variety of thought-provoking wisdom (or simple silliness).  Last, but not least, is Writing (my passion). Writing includes articles and tips on professional and creative writing. Writing prompts to get started, and a few excerpts from my work.

 

 Susan Graham

Author-Writer-Blogger-Marketing Specialist

 

ABOUT ME:
I'm a mother, wife, sister and aunt. I was a daughter, but after losing both of my parents within the last two years, I am now an orphan. (Yes, that’s how it feels to me, even though I’m a middle-aged adult.) In my opinion, the best thing I ever did was to stay at home with my children. Several consequences followed this decision: I gave up a career, a personal paycheck, an updated resume, any relevant business connections and almost all of my professional confidence.

I experienced other consequences as well: I watched my daughter take her first step. I volunteered at school every Monday and Thursday. I knew all of the kids and most of the parents in each child’s classroom. I was available on sick days and snow days. I mowed my parent’s lawn when chemo made my father too tired. When my husband traveled, my children and I stayed with my folks a few nights a week, making dinner, keeping them company, spending time with them. I cared for my mother when she lived alone for the first time in her life. I drove her to doctor appointments, the grocery store, had lunch with her when my children were in school. I sat by the bedside of my father when he took his last breath, and the same when my mother took hers. After, I volunteered at a hospice until my favorite patient no longer needed me either.

My children are still relatively young, but they won’t be forever. And time is not static.

When school is in session, my kids don’t need me as much. My parents don’t need me at all. My husband has a new job, but still travels.

Life is changing. I'm not quite prepared.

Recently, an ex-employer (my favorite boss and a man in his seventies) made a comment that struck a chord. He said, “Your kids only need you for twenty years or so. If you don’t keep your own identity, what will you do for the next fifty years of your life?”

Suddenly, it hit me. I love my children with everything I have. In many ways, they are me, or, so I had led myself to believe. Of course, they are not me and I’m not them.

So who am I? The me, beyond the mom?

I love to write (but not journal), read (but only the good stuff), I love my family (but enjoy peace), I left the workforce to be a caretaker (but I'm not needed so much anymore.) So it's time to find out all about me...the real me...and what my place is in this world.

But again, this blog, is also about YOU! In my research to move forward, I’ve discovered I AM NOT ALONE. I am not the only woman facing this mid-stage of parenting, who has given up a bit of her identity. Yet, instead of feeling excited about this extra bit of freedom, it seems many of us are facing it with anxiety, fear, guilt, and lots of what ifs.

Mom Wants A Life, is geared toward any mother or caregiver, any woman who is ready to discover what’s next in life.

IN MEMORY OF MY PARENTS: RALPH AND SALLY