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2 days ago | 
businessinsider.com | Rosemary Donahue |Alexandra Meyer |Henry Blodget
I sensed there could be tension as soon as I stepped into the beautiful vacation home my parents-in-law had kindly rented for our big family holiday. "'Isn't it a wonderful view?" my mother-in-law said, looking out at the sparkling sea. "Lots of glass around though — wouldn't it be awful if the children ran into it and cut themselves?"And with that, I felt unexpected anxiety creep over me. There were multiple parenting styles in the same houseOf course, the trip wasn't all bad.
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1 week ago | 
businessinsider.com | Rosemary Donahue |Sophie Boudreau |Henry Blodget
When I was born in the winter of 1991, my mother was 39 years old. She turned 40 before my first birthday, while my dad hit the big 4-0 when I was only 2. Their reasoning for having children later than many of their peers was multifaceted: they didn't meet until their late 20s, then school took center stage for a decade or so, pushing kids out of the picture for another decade. For much of my early childhood, I didn't know the difference between my parents and my friends' (often younger) parents.
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2 weeks ago | 
businessinsider.com | Rosemary Donahue |Melissa Noble |Henry Blodget
My parents recently celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary. They met while traveling through Spain in 1971 and married six months later. My mom has always said it hasn't all been rainbows and butterflies. But they've worked through the hard times and persevered with their marriage, even when things have been tough.
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2 weeks ago | 
businessinsider.com | Rosemary Donahue |Melissa Noble |Henry Blodget
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Mira Armstrong, a 92-year-old from Porepunkah, Australia. It has been edited for length and clarity. I built my home with my husband, Bruce, in 1956. Now that I'm 92 years old, I still live independently. I hope I croak it here. I was born in Poland in 1933 during the Depression. My father was a shoemaker and in the army reserve. When World War II broke out, he was taken prisoner and sent to Germany. My mother, siblings, and I followed.
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2 weeks ago | 
businessinsider.com | Rosemary Donahue |Kris Ann Valdez |Henry Blodget
I thought I'd return to work after the birth of my first son, but once he was born, the thought of leaving him felt like a sucker punch to the gut. When I announced I would stay home, my friend gave me a "Congratulations on Your Retirement" card. I was 24 at the time — hardly ready to retire. It was a tough decision to makeFor me, like many other new parents, the decision to leave the workforce was multifaceted.
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3 weeks ago | 
businessinsider.com | Rosemary Donahue |Heidi Lux |Henry Blodget
My parents always encouraged me to be myself. Still, I somehow picked up the belief that there's a "right" way and a "wrong" way to do life and that the right way means doing things in a certain order. I believed that your early 20s were the only time it was perfectly acceptable (and perhaps even adorable) to be a hot mess, while your late 20s were for taking the first steps toward getting "old and boring" — getting married, getting serious about a career, the whole nine yards.
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3 weeks ago | 
businessinsider.com | Rosemary Donahue |Marissa Willman |Henry Blodget
Graduating during an economic downturn isn't for the weak. I earned my print journalism degree in early 2009, just as traditional newsrooms were becoming a thing of the past during the Great Recession. After months of job hunting with no success, I packed my bags to teach English in South Korea for a year. While it was challenging at times to live so far from my family and friends, I met like-minded travelers while immersing myself in another culture.
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3 weeks ago | 
businessinsider.com | Rosemary Donahue |Asha Dore |Henry Blodget
I've been working since I was 14, and I've always had at least one side gig on top of a primary job. Through economic dips, graduate school, and raising three kids as a single mom, my backup jobs have brought me peace of mind for 25 years. I was raised to believe class was a state of mind. "Always broke, but never poor," my father said. He was a Florida State Park ranger, and my mom was in and out of cosmetology school. They worked hard, but their paychecks weren't enough.
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4 weeks ago | 
businessinsider.com | Rosemary Donahue |Bethaney Phillips |Henry Blodget
Almost nine years ago, while I was pregnant with our oldest, my husband asked me if I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. I said no. I wouldn't have been happy if I weren't working. It would've been hard for me to thrive without daily interactions with other adults, and I find my fulfilment in my career. In the years since, we've made financial choices based on the fact that our household has two incomes. It's not that we're keeping score, but I'm also the bigger earner.
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1 month ago | 
businessinsider.com | Rosemary Donahue |Veronica Booth |Henry Blodget
Ever since I was a teen, I've been saying I don't want to have children. My partner and I got together when I was 20, and though I was very open about my lack of desire for kids, I never used the word "never." I knew I was young, and that over time, people change. But as the years went on, I still didn't feel strongly about procreating. Six years into the relationship, he dropped a bomb: He'd been seriously thinking about it and decided he very much wanted to have kids. It was a difficult time.
