I used to think that adolescence was the rough ride of parenthood and that once it was over I could cruise to the finish line. But the one thing they neglect to tell you going into this parenting gig is that it never ends. (Parenting is the only job from...

You know when you're at a wedding and the speeches are about to begin, and you take your seat with a heightened sense of anticipation, because this is the moment when the magic happens. The moment when two people who have chosen to spend their lives together publicly declare their...

I must have crossed some kind of age threshold, because when I go to funerals lately, I start thinking about my own. It's not the dying part that scares me. It's the numbers I'll draw for the service. I'm in the sanctuary and the place is packed and some relative...

Divorce has been around in a serious way in our culture for more than half a century, so you'd think by now that we'd have developed an etiquette for what one can and cannot say to the maritally-maimed. You'd think we'd have devised a common language of condolence for the...

On Sunday, the New York Times published its now-infamous "Vows" column about newlyweds Carol Anne Riddell and John Partilla, who met at their kids' Upper West Side pre-kindergarten class, fell madly in love, and dumped their respective spouses to be with each other.

The piece set off a

I remember reading an interview with Martha Stewart once where the reporter asked her if she planned to re-marry. "I was married for twenty-five years," she replied. "Isn't that enough?"

Her retort made me laugh, because it seemed to me that Stewart was impatiently expressing a shift...