Epilogue
Epilogue
Completing families, completing lives
The stories of the interviewed women illuminated much, much more than expected. One of the biggest surprises was how the women had “completed” their families. This chapter notes that it was in the telling and retelling of their stories that each woman recasts her humanity. That is to say, their own rewriting of their master plan, especially their agenda to resequence children and marriage, shows the very inconsistencies and changes that bring them once again to life. Their children had transformed their lives as parenthood took center stage. Women adjusted their personal lives and streamlined their employment, and often were surprised to discover that having children energized them. This chapter discusses the dilution of the mother-child family; celebrating entanglement in woven families; exploding and shrinking careers; and empty nest or life after children.
Keywords: mother-child family, marriage, parenthood, streamlining employment, woven families, empty nest
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