Written by Lisa Endlich Heffernan

The most expensive decision of my life I made alone. There was no realtor, no car dealer and no travel agent when I chose to leave the paid workforce. There was just me looking at...

What was I thinking?

I have just about finished raising my kids. My youngest has one foot out the door and only senior year in high school stands in the way of his liberation. I know exactly how he feels. During my senior year, I put a huge...

Much has been written about the "mommy wars" and almost all of it speculates on the costs to mothers and children of the decision to stay at home or stay in the paid workforce. In this "war," women who have continued to work full-time while having children look down at...

I have survived two decades of parenting by talking to myself. My incantations are my alter ego reminding me to put things in perspective, step back and take a breath and that things will probably be okay. So while the mom voice in my head is shrieking, at myself or...

In the world of blogging about parenthood, there are few writers who make us laugh at our mom selves with more genuine skill than Jill Smokler, aka "Scary Mommy." A mother of three and a mega-successful blogger, Jill's first book was on the New York Times bestseller list. Her second...

Dear Harvard Business School,

Celebrating 50 years of women MBA graduates is a major milestone and you pulled it off beautifully. Please accept my sincere thanks for inviting me to the big bash.

Here is what I loved about last week's "W50 Summit:"

* I spent time with 850 women,...

You will have many, many chances to make contributions of time or money to different worthy causes. In some special cases, you, too, will have to ask the question, "If not me, then who?"

-- Bob Wright, 2007 commencement speaker at Holy Cross...

You used to be so confident, successful in your career, juggling life responsibilities and bringing home a paycheck. But then came a career break, an extended period of time where, for family or other reasons, you left the full-time workforce. Now there is a gap in your resume and a sense...

I am over 50 and I should know better. I should know that life isn't always what it seems, that everyone is just doing their best and that perfect is a dangerous fantasy. But somehow, deep, deep into adulthood, I still hold on to childish dreams.

It is much...

I am the first person to complain about my kids and the trials of parenting. I am more than happy to indulge in over-analyzing my over-parenting. But, just for a moment, I want to give thanks for the opportunity to nag, to break-up sibling fights, to worry, to cuddle, to...

I have a confession to make. I have gone to one of my sons' dorms and done his laundry. I have scraped every dirty sock and jersey off of his bedroom floor, carefully separating his debris from that of his two roommates, which was all commingled in one large, reeking...

Great parents: we know them, we watch them, we learn from them and ultimately, we want to be them. Between our children's other parent and the many adults that surround our kids, we are exposed to a vast array of parenting models and practices. Some we emulate, many we reject...

I am among the millions of fans who will mourn the season finale of "Downton Abbey." I happily anticipate, yet dread, the end of Season Three on February 17 when the show goes on hiatus until January, 2014. Here is what I will miss most during the long eleven months...

Like so much of the nation, we are caught in "Downton Abbey's" thrall. Sunday evenings have been transformed from the dreaded night when preparation for the following week begins to Downton Night, a blissful evening of mindless, Edwardian fun. But is it mindless? Layered into Julian Fellowes' crackling dialogue are...

Recently a friend told me of a thrilling career opportunity that he had been offered and accepted. He and his wife are in their late 50s and the opportunity involved relocating to Asia. Excitement was written all over his face as he...

If the only thing I told my kids about sex was to use protection, would you think I was a good parent? If I had never said more about drugs other than "don't," would that have been OK?

Then why is it alright that the only thing I told...

Facebook was developed by teenagers, for teenagers and I wonder if it, and its cousins Pinterest, Twitter, Reddit and Google+, are not turning us all into adolescents. Adults conduct their social interactions differently than teens and young adults but the constructs of social...

The single best thing about our first year blogging has been expanding our world with all of the amazing writers we have met. The second best thing is reading their work. In that spirit we have gathered some of the best reading we found in 2012.

Before this year...

"Can we get a dog?" Maybe your child right now is begging for a puppy that he desperately wants to find wearing a big red bow under the Christmas tree. If you answered "no" to his or her plea, don't be surprised when the question doesn't go away. Whenever I...