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A post from DoubleX writer Mimi Swartz:
A few weeks ago I got the following e-mail from my son Sam: “MOM,” it
began, “GLENDA,* ALLISON* AND I JUST GOT PICKED UP IN A LIMO AND ARE
BEING GIVEN A FREE TOUR OF NEW YORK. I LOVE THIS CITY. I am not drunk
don't worry. Love you.” The e-mail was sent at 2 a.m. It was now 8 a.m.
“Listen to this,” I called to my husband, John, who was getting ready
for work in the next room. Halfway through my recitation, John came in
half-dressed and launched into an anxious monologue about kidnapping,
white slavery, and Sam’s responsibility to young women—friends who had
been visiting him—who entrust themselves to his care. John’s darker
scenario inspired me to place a just-in-case call to Sam’s cell phone,
which he didn’t answer. (Of course, he wouldn’t answer if he had been
out until all hours, I reasoned. He was, most likely, asleep—not bound
and gagged and on his way to some private compound owned by some
international human trafficking ring.) But just in case, I texted Sam:
“WHAT????????” I asked as neutrally as possible. “Let me know how this
happened, okay???? xxooMOM" ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)
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Speaking of being bummed out, I felt oddly blue after reading Mimi Swartz’s excellent
piece in The Daily Beast about empty-nesters in the Obama administration.
Swartz, who also writes
for Double X about being
an empty nester herself, talks about (and to) White House senior adviser
Valerie Jarrett, and also offers up WH Social Secretary Desiree Rogers and First
Lady Chief of Staff Susan Sher, among others, as collective proof that
professional life isn't over for women—in some ways it's just beginning—when
their kids leave for college. This may well be true, and it's striking to see so
many redoubtable women in positions of power. I admit to a keen fascination with
Jarrett and Rogers, who live in the same apartment building on the Georgetown
canalfront and who I like to think of as popping into each other's apartments,
like the cast of Seinfeld, or Mary Tyler Moore and Rhoda, borrowing
clothes and gossiping ... (Read more at DoubleX.com.)
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It is not easy to stop being somebody's mommy, but there comes a time
when your kids are done. The five-year-old gets on that damn carousel
and only two or three horses go up and down before she has a tattoo and
a boyfriend. Mimi Swartz in her Double X Empty Nest column wonders how she will restart her life as her son Sam transitions away to his own adult life. Over the next few months... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website at DoubleX.com!)
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