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We’re almost always lost. And please don’t tell us it’s so easy to get from here to there, and then proceed to instruct us with a long list of verbal directions: “Turn right, turn left, go five miles, go up the hill, turn right again, then left, and where you want to go will be on your left past the gas station.”  STOP. Our brains stopped processing your list of helpful twists and turns after it heard the first few. We need to write this down or plug it into notes on our phone. And then don’t ask perfunctorily: “Don’t...

By Linda Orton, Founder of SingleDot.com* Those of us over age 50 all talk with each other about how the world has changed because of technology, the Internet, and if you are single (as I am), dating apps. The changes drive some of the most important aspects of our human interactions with our work colleagues, families, and friends and how we meet new people, whether those individuals are friends or romantic interests. Dating and long-term compatibility are determined by a wide host of elements, but at the root is unquestionably physical attraction. That’s why apps like Tinder and JSwipe have...

“Ouch,” we say when our knees hurt as we bend down to put something heavy away.  “Oh no,” we complain because it hurts when we stretch to get out of bed in the morning.   And “ugh,” we utter when we look in the mirror and see new creases around our eyes and upper lips that are starting to look like a set of pleated drapes.    Aging has its challenges, physically, visually and mentally. Some are bad—aches and ailments, mental lapses, repetition of the same story, again and again, and forgetting things. Frankly, it can suck. And at the...

I recently spent several hours in the sky with Skyler, my son’s 6-year-old cat. She was my carry-on luggage on a flight from St. Louis to New York City. My son and Skyler were moving there for his new job.  Oh, the things we do for our children!  Transporting a cat this way never seems like a great idea unless you’re the cat whisperer, which I clearly am not. I’ve never owned a cat. I’ve had several dogs and have taken care of Skyler in her own surroundings when my son has traveled. That meant giving her food, water and...

What do we do as middle-aged kids in the middle who are trying to parent our children, even when grown, and find ourselves suddenly responsible for taking care of our aging parents who want to remain independent and age in their own homes? The situation can trigger battles between the generations over money, about not taking medicine, and with the aging parent who tries to remain independent but forgets to turn off the range, leaves the refrigerator door open, eats the wrong foods, or tries to make it to the bathroom alone in the dead of night and falls.  ...