Photo Credit: Phoebe Jones
You’ve released a new compilation of essays called The Bitch Is Back, featuring many of the writers from your first anthology, the New York Times bestseller The Bitch in the House. What was your motivation behind your new book?
The first anthology, The Bitch in the House, had come out at a time in my life when I was angry and overwhelmed. Since then, I’d gone from a young, harried, struggling working mother with too much to manage and do, to a happy, middle-aged working mother with a ton of gratitude for my very nice life. And while a lot of that outcome was due to luck and privilege, a significant other part resulted, I felt, from having been true to what I wanted all along, to have really done the work of digging deep and trying to figure out things and ask for things and get things, even if they bucked the norm. And I knew the same was true of my friends—some of whom were contributors to Bitch 1 (as I now call The Bitch in the House).
After retiring three times, Barbara has reinvented yet again, this time seeking to bridge the divide between parents and adult children with her website and blog, Parents of Grown Offspring.
When Helen hit midlife, she felt the need to contribute more and to expose her children to real-world issues. After volunteering for RefugeeOne, she accepted a full-time position overseeing many refugee programs for this Chicago nonprofit.
You are a relationship coach. Tell us more about your work.
My work as a relationship coach grew out of my personal experience, actually. I was working as a therapist, was married, and had two young children. And then I got divorced.
In that process, I came to understand what I didn’t want in my next relationship. But I was unclear about what I did want—and how to go about getting it. I came to believe that in order to find someone to share my life with, I needed to be a successful, fulfilled, and happy single person.
Two decades into a teaching career, saddled with health problems, Jodi chose to embrace her love of writing. She has since published a book, They Could Live with Themselves
and is working on more short stories, novels, and poems.
You write and teach about ageism. What has made you so passionate about the subject?
I wasn’t originally passionate about ageism. Quite the contrary. I was looking for progress stories. “Midlife Exhilaration,” the first mainstream article I wrote, for the New York Times Magazine in 1989, reported some giddy new surprises about feeling good about growing older. Midlifers were being seen by writers and pundits as more competent, more assertive (and sexier) than anyone anticipated. The book I published, also in 1989, was called Safe at Last in the Middle Years
. Many thought the so-called Baby Boomers would change old age as well as midlife decline ideology.
You’ll be hosting your 11th conference this October. Tell us more about your program.
This Return to Work You Love Conference is targeted at professionals interested in changing careers or returning to the workforce after a career break. We offer hands-on, small-group workshops on topics ranging from “Unleash Your Hidden Brilliance” to “Go from Bored, Burned-out, or Unfulfilled to Doing Work You Love” to “20 Networking Tips from 20 Years of Networking.” Our goal is to help attendees accomplish as much as possible during the conference in order to develop a plan of action with next steps, beginning the following day.
With her kids leaving the nest, Liz realized she’d need something new to fuel her, staving off potential boredom and creating a new professional identity in the process. She’s done just that in her new profession, where she enjoys collaborating with couples to help make their relationships as strong as they can be.
After careers in horse training and film editing, Jeanie found her midlife passion in composing and performing fun songs for young children with her band Jeanie B! and the Jelly Beans!
Tell us a little about your background…
I grew up in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, the youngest of five kids. We were a handful for my dear mom and dad, who are still alive and kicking at 88 and 89 years old—Mom still plays tennis twice a week and does Pilates! I want to be like her when I grow up! My parents have the fairytale marriage of 65 years and are still in love. Such a blessing and a joy to see, and for them to still have each other this late in life is amazing.
