I know it can be difficult to find women blogging who aren't talking about kids in pre-school or elementary school, but we're out there. And while I do still have a kid in elementary school, I consider myself "middle aged" - I don't really want to live past 90 so I've hit the middle of the road. ;-)

Have you checked out the blogroll of Ronni Bennett at Time Goes By? You'll find an awful lot of great bloggers there.

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings

Carol Solow Freedman

I, too am a midlife blogger, with a focus on the experiences of midlife mothers of children with special needs. I am obviously still struggling with some of the technology of blogging, since I wrote an extensive response to your post, previewed it, posted it and volia - it came up as a blank!

I'll try again. My blog focuses on the special challenges of going through midlife while mothering children with disabilities - I almost named it "Hot flashes and melt downs" but decided on "A Different Nest." I have an eight-year old son with autism, and also a 14-year old son (who can provide some IT help!)

I found that many disability blogs and web sites were more targeted to younger mothers with younger chilldren; my blog is more for the mom who is looking to foster independence and inclusion for their child while meeting her own need for sleep, relaxation, and maybe a martini with friends now and then!

Blogger staff: How do I leave a permalink for my blog with my signature?

A Different Nest
http://adifferentnest.blogspot.com

Carol

And I bet Catherine's list of female political bloggers has women over 40 (or so!) on it too. We are out here - absolutely! :)

Jill
Writes Like She Talks

I admit, I'm Forty-Something...And the "Catherine" with a list of political bloggers that Jill just mentioned (thanks for the link Jill). I think you'll find many women our age are blogging, and many of them are here on BlogHer.

I checked out your blog, and it looks great. I would suggest you keep blogging about the things you are passionate about, and participate in the conversations here on BlogHer...before you know it, you will find what you are looking for.

:-)

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
CatherineBlogs, The Political Voices of Women, Care2 Election Blog

And left a comment. You're not alone! :)

_____________________________
bohemiology my personal blog
blogtations sort of like brainyquote, just with sayings only by bloggers

I don't write about being middle aged because I don't know what that means to me yet. I'm getting clues about aches and pains, and the need to refrain from bopping stupid people.

I write about who I am at this time. I am planning to write/video about each of my decade on my blog as a self-memorial. I'm more shocked than anything that I am still here. I've seen what has come before and what is coming down the road and it is thrilling.

Lusty Dusties Power!

Gena - Out On The Stoop

Msmeta - I was doing the same thing this evening, searching for blogs that appealed to me, my middle aged self. I don't usually admit that tag. Not that I hide my age, I don't. I'm so eager to dive into new things it doesn't seem that I have aged, rather the reverse.

What am I looking for? An arena to be heard and to listen. A place to discuss teenagers, new relationships and a not so new body, a busy career or lack of one. Self discovery, confidence, what to wear, family dynamics, alone time and what comes next in life.

Quite surprising I find myself lacking a circle of friends and minding their absence. I kept myself so busy with work, marriages (all 3!) and moving, I never made the time. I too don't have a page on facebook or my space, my daughter would be horrified not to mention I don't see the need. I just learned how to text message, barely.

I shall bookmark this site in hopes that it is what I am looking for ....

Kathryn

We're here. Though even at middle age, I am still dealing with an elementary aged daughter. Come on over to my place and we'll "chat!"

PunditMom
http://punditmom1.blogspot.com
Contributing Editor, Politics & News

I'm more post-menopausal, but I understand about the difference in talking to young moms with babies and talking to people who have already experienced quite a bit of life. I, like you, wasn't totally sure there were any "slightly older" women out here.
I will go over and have a read on your blog. I'm looking forward to it.

Ladybeams

http://www.ldbeams.wordpress.com

http://www.lauriannsnewlife.blogspot.com

h

I'm 43, so I guess that would include me.   I'm not sure how much I blog about "middle-aged things."  I'm a single non-Mom.  Anyway, welcome to the blogosphere!

 http://www.analisfirstamendment.blogspot.com/

Well, let's see....if I live to be 114 I am middle age! So I guess you could say I have been middle age and now I'm not but I have no idea what I am right now. I'm not old...HEY! I can see you laughing, but I truly don't feel old. Hmmm, what is between middle age and old age?

http://www.jannysplace.com

42! Raising a teenager (16 years old with permit to drive)  I am rapidly feeling beyond middle age though ;)

 Rhonda

http://www.recipecarousel.com/blog

I hear you and I agree completely.  The world of moms is wonderfully covered, but those of us who don't identify that way--not so much.  I've brought this up with some CEs at Blogher two years ago and then more specifically last year at the conference in Chicago.  I was told then that the issue was being handled.  Some nine months later, I still don't see a CE handling that beat.  We are out there, lots of us, but our voices are having a hard time getting through.  I'll go to your blog, Ms. Meta, and thanks for bringing it up again.

By Jane

ByJane.blogspot.com

It's such a wide open and difficult topic to cover.  Look at the women who responded so far:

they have been mothers  and non-mothers. Politcal and not.

There ARE a number of us out there (hey, at 55 I consider myself middle-aged) but I don't think most of us are writing about WHAT IT'S LIKE/WHAT IT MEANS to be middle-aged.

You could read my blogs and not know my age.  Would that eliminate me from your list?  

I think that by this stage of my life... though it is constantly changing and wow are some of the changes dramatic!... they are not changes that I would shape an entire blog around.

When you ask where the middleaged women are, what specifically are you asking for?  If we blog?  YES!  In huge numbers.  If we blog about being "middle aged" No.  not so much.  Not any more than young bloggers specifically blog about what it's like to be a college student, or a quarterlifer. 

They ARE college students, quarterlifers, mothers, newly weds.  They blog about  what interests them.. which may have little connection to their age.

Oh, and BTW.. I DO have a myspace identity (I'm only there for the music).. and a Facebook profile (how else would I play Scrabulous with my buds?)  And I've been a member of Boomers since it was a private CWRU usenet group..  

Debra
A Stitch In Time
Deb's Daily Distractions

Debra,

I don't think the topic is any more wide-open and difficult to cover than the Mommyblogger genre. Look at how many varieties of 'mom' there are, and somehow they manage to be seen as a viable group--to write to and to market to. I'd like similar consideration. I'd like to read about women who are past childrearing/bearing age and dealing with the issues that are specific to us: midlife career changes, second and third relationships, sexuality after menopause. It's not that I don't care about women who are dealing with the Stay At Home vs Go to Work after kids issue. But the considerations of early retirement, I need to have expert opinion on that. I'd like to see my body and my age and, therefore, my issues addressed in the fashion and beauty section. I'd like to see my health issues addressed in Blogher regularly and specifically, the way it's done for reproductive health issues. In all of these topics, and others, I can think of solid story ideas that should be covered by Blogher.

More magazine does all this very well; why can't Blogher? Perhaps it's because those who make the critical decisions at Blogher are not yet of that demographic, and so it's not on their radar. But it will be, and should be for those of us who are there now. In this I'm afraid that Blogher has not provided the vision and been the support for us that it has been for the younger women who identify as mommybloggers.

As I'm writing this, I'm thinking--Hillary Clinton doesn't have a voice here, and maybe that's why she hasn't spoken to us.

By Jane
ByJane.blogspot.com

I just joined Blogher this week and was also wondering where the other bloggers of a certain age hung out.  Thanks Msmeta for asking the question.  You created the breadcrumbs on the path for middle-age (although I prefer midlife) blogging women to find one another here. 

I'm a 56 year old post-menopausal divorced mother of a 32 year old son, daughter of an 88 year old mom with  Alzheimer's, half orphaned by the death of my father, aunt to a 4 year old niece who my sister adopted at 49 years old, drop-out corporate exec and attorney in my 3rd act as a life coach, gardener and knitter trying to make sense of my journey through the wisdom and experience of others in midlife like me. 

A year ago I didn't even know what a blog was and now I blog pretty much daily on the good, bad and the ugly of midlife.  Despite the ups and downs, I wouldn't miss this trip for the world!  And that's what I blog about. 

I'm usually one of the oldest on the sites I visit--not a mommyblogger yet not an elderblogger either.  It's kind of like being the middle child in a family--sometimes you feel like you don't quite fit.  I hope it's different here on Blogher and maybe, ByJane, that just happens over time and because we're here.

So I'd love to talk with all of you--Msmeta, Carol, Denise, Jill, Catherine, Musing, Gena, Tanis, Pundit Mom, Ladybeams, Anali, Jan MBSC, Rhonda, ByJane and Debra.  And I'm glad to know you're here.

Midlife Muse

http://midlifesatrip.com

I'm so glad you asked this question, as I've been struggling to find blogs written by moms (or dads even), where the topics aren't all about pre-school age children throwing tantrums, or the latest pictures of "little johnny" with cupcake all over his face, etc.

I'm 47 and raised 6 kids mostly on my own, and mine are all grown now. That allows me to have a wide range of topics to write about on my blog, and I'm thankful for that.

I'm grateful that you have posed this question, because now I can browse profiles and blog sites of those who have commented in order to find more older women (or men) bloggers that have content of interest to me.

I'm all about social networking and building community amongst fellow bloggers, but I've been hard-pressed to find older bloggers to network with and subscribe to. Thank you for posting this query! 

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind". Dr. Suess

Even though I started my blog as a way to share and explore the long-standing effects of infertility (and come to terms with the losses associated with never being a mother) I'm now facing 45 and looking to get beyond the barren years. In the words of Gail Sheehy, I'm ready to start my "second adulthood" and make it a rewarding and satisying new chapter in my life. 

Pamela Jeanne

Coming2Terms

What a relief to read these comments.  I'm just joining in the conversation myself and trying to get the blog thing going. It's like playing tag. Do I want to go for it or not?  I do, but I wonder if any one will care, be interested, and so on! I've been writing mostly to myself about navigating raising two girls in a world of constant exploitation (The Princess and the Pea blog).  

So I've been disciplining myself to post once a week on each of my blogs so I can register them here (!).  Maybe they'll show up in the blog listing one of these days upon review. (The other blog, The Gamete, is from the perspective of being a health psychologist helping fertility patients - who are often over forty -- navigate the world of high-cost maverick medical treatment in a culture that relentlessly reinforces the narrow idea that women are "whole" only when they can bare biological children). 

And me, I'm about to turn 43 and I don't even know what to make of the age-thing.  I was born in 1965 and I can remember when I turned 10 calculating how old I'd be in the year 2000, which seemed eons way.  Now it's 2008, and my eldest daughter is 10. What a different world.  I guess I hope to capture this vast distance with blogging.

taracousphd

I started thinking more about this and the question I asked of ByJane. Is there ML specific blogs that talk about ML topics.

I'm rendering video and doing laundry so in the spirit of true multi-tasking:

Diary of a Midlife Crisis http://diaryofamidlifecrisis.blogspot.com

Meta FootNotes http://metafootnotes.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/where-are-all-the-middle-age-women-bloggers/

She is asking the same question but she has links.

Bohemiology's About Page - Her life in decades

http://musing.typepad.com/blog/2005/02/about-me.html

Free to be Frisky And On the Prowl - not a blog per se but a post about Cougars from Sue Hutchinson

http://www.masterlandscaping.net/landscaping-stone/sue-hutchison-free-to-be-frisky-older-women-are-on-the-prowl.html

This is harder than I thought. I'm coming up with either spam blogs, or blogs trying to convince ML women that they are in need of serious help. Yikes!

Will keep you posted.

Gena - Out On The Stoop

I'm jazzed and overjoyed--by the response here.  I've felt pretty much alone before, the middle child, as MidlifeMuse put it.  I've got all your urls and I'm going to go now and put a post on my blog linking to them.  We WILL be heard and seen and all the rest of the stuff that sisterhood is supposed to be about. 

By Jane

ByJane.blogspot.com

I blog daily, sometimes on two or three sites. My blog is about everything in my life: family, garden, farm, antiques, old books, rasing animals, grandchildren, coping with a son in Iraq, recipes, poetry, stories and storytelling--all the many facets of what it is to be a rural, professional woman with a huge family (12 siblings, 5 sons, 12 grandchildren) and many diverse interests.

And perhaps that's the key: we don't identify ourselves necessarily as mid-life or older women because our lives at this are so rich and complex-there's nothing middling about it!

Having said all that, I agree that we have issues and concerns in common: health, of course, the realization that we've passed midpoint and what that means, knowing that we ar facing or have faced the loss of parents and probably several friends and there will be more of that to come as the years pass; financial issues as we near retirement; and finding ways to pass on our knowledge and traditions to next generations. What we all share at this time of our lives is the richness of our journeys.

Granny Sue: Stories from the Mountains and Beyond www.grannysu.blogspot.com susannaholstein@yahoo.com

That's a great idea of doing a post of the various older mom bloggers. I'd also be happy to do a blogroll link exchange with fellow mom bloggers.

My Blog: http://www.tellinitlikeitis.net

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind". Dr. Suess

This topic is a lifesaver! I've loved reading through the original post and all the comments since. I'll be checking out a lot of these blogs in my quest to find others like me.

I'm also new to BlogHer, but very happy to be here. I'm 42 with two preschoolers (God help me), so I'm likely to be on my second hip replacement before they're out of the house. But my issues are far different than moms with the same-age children who are a decade younger than me. If I need child-raising support, I can find it. What I'd much rather be chatting about is the state of the world, politics, religion, changing the world, books, tv, music and everything else that sparks my interest. Incidentally, that's much of what my blog, WordHappy, is all about - a celebration of all good writing in any form I find it. You're as likely to find a post about the last Obama speech as you are my current favorite songwriter (Josh Ritter, if you're interested).

So check me out: WordHappy: http://toddiedowns.wordpress.com

and I'll check you all out as well.

I'm looking forward to getting to know you all. Hi, Jill!

Okay - plug - READ TODDIE's BLOG! :)  I love Toddie.

But enough about Toddie.

So - Toddie - embrace BlogHer - because they will so embrace you if you take the time to delve into it.  The threads are thorough, thought out, respectful, give rise to conversations offline and I just had my first meeting with a BlogHer in person on Friday evening! Morra Aarons - who is fantastic.  We hit it off immediately (but Morra - you are sworn to secrecy about that perimenopause stuff, got it? lol)

As I told Morra, it took me almost three years i think to really get into BlogHer but the platform and tools have changed so much since then and has helped a luddite like me (sounds like a book!) really learn about these kinds of communities and how rich they can be in support and community.

I sure sound gushy!

Anyway - be well my friend and everyone, Get Word Happy!  

Jill
Writes Like She Talks

I've got it on my blog, ByJane, but I also put it on the BlogHer group blog.

By Jane

Jane--

Thanks for putting this resource list together.  I linked to it in a post on my blog.

Karen aka Midlife Muse

http://midlifesatrip.com

I know we're on a roll here but I thought this discussion about midlife blogging should have a "home" here on Blogher.  So I just created a forum called "Midlife Bloggers".  I'm a newbie here so if this isn't a good move, just let me know.

Karen

http://midlifesatrip.com