We’ve talked a lot on this podcast about our parents’ impact on our lives, mostly in the context of supervising their eldercare and/or grieving their loss. But this conversation with Amanda Magee is our first to delve into how it feels to stop all contact with your parents, especially when your kids start aging out of the household.
Any fundamental change in an intimate relationship leaves a mark, regardless of how it comes about. And during this turbulent time among the three generations, she relies on several creative pursuits—writing, music, set design, and entrepreneurship among them—to help keep her train on the rails.
Amanda speaks frankly about adjusting to motherhood, building her parental self on her own terms, and how her three daughters, raised in the age of social media, have learned that when someone knocks, it’s OK not to answer the door. And we almost got to the end without mentioning menopause!
We also talk about maintaining a business with your spouse for 20 years, the perfect simplicity of the Tug Rule, and the children’s book about The Secret Pee that needs to happen.
Other links:
The abiding influence of Kate & Allie
All Of Us Strangers has arrived on Hulu
Blown away by THX and Maxell tapes
Why we love Sally O’Malley
The potential havoc caused by the piriformis muscle
Episode 39: "As much as I ran from my childhood, there gets to be another chapter."