Diary of a Gen X Mom

Intro to a weekly writing challenge

My original blog from long, long ago was supposed to be a diary of an expat mom. It started out as letters home to friends when we moved to London and it became a blog about comparative culture and politics — because I like comparative culture and politics. That blog became freelance writing on the same, plus legal explainers for laymen. (Lawyers, we can make everything dry.)

All of those wonky posts take time, the legal explainers in particular. While I kept writing Erma Bombeck style drafts, I rarely finished them. (Although, I stole a quip of hers before I knew it was hers. I dubbed our house Wit’s End and it stuck.) I’d use bits and bobs from those mom story drafts for intros or illustrations to lighten up policy pieces. I’ve done a fair few how-tos, also with illustrations picked from my growing store of observations of Gen X motherhood.

In the 10 years since (wow, has it been that long?) I’ve not had an outlet for the fun stories and pithy observations. Then, along comes the 52 week challange from the The Writing Cooperative. Sold.

If I’m going to tell motherhood tales, I suppose a quick intro is in order. I am a fortysomething mother of four. I have one son (a new teen) and three daughters. As a villager, it is also relevant that I have two nephews, three goddaughters, and one godson as well as an assortment of furry kids. Like many a Gen X mom, I had my children later and close together, but adventures in baby bunching will feature in a fair few entries, so more on that later. A lawyer by education, I left practice (admiralty — really) when my son was born and started on-ramping into a complimentary career (writing) about 5 years later. When my kids were little, we lived in London. We returned to Houston, Texas five years ago. But more on that later too. You get some funny stories out of rasing kids in two cultures and among expats from all over.

Until next week. LL