Here's a radical concept: Most girls are happy, and so are their mothers. Most girls are not destined for depression, eating disorders, low self-esteem, and raging fights with their parents-that's just a very noisy minority. In My Girl, Karen Stabiner tells the story of one girl's journey into adolescence, and of her own efforts to find a way to guide her daughter through life's real thickets-not the scary but rare ones we hear so much about. When Sarah reached sixth grade, horror stories about the coming teenage years began drifting her parents' way. The media reinforced the idea of mothers...

Reclaiming Our Daughters (previously published as My Girl) offers a fresh and long-needed perspective on pre-teen and teen girls, one that finally brings a message of hope and optimism about girls today.
Part memoir, part sociological examination, Karen Stabiner observes her daughter, Sarah, as she navigates her critical pre-teen years, a time when girls become adolescents and are rumored to become increasingly difficult and alienated. However, unlike most writing on the subject, Stabiner presents a well-rounded account of parenting a coming-of-age girl. She writes eloquently about...

A heartwarming, wry, and often surprising collection of essays about the next rite of passage for Baby Boomers: what happens when the kids leave home

As the baby boom generation ages -- the oldest are now turning sixty -- many of them are learning to deal with a whole new way of life, after the last child has finally moved out and they are, once again, alone. It's the same milestone their own parents faced, but as with so many other markers, this generation approaches it in a whole new way.

In this fascinating collection, journalist Karen Stabiner has...

Q: What does a parent need to survive the college application process? A. A sense of humor.
B. A therapist on 24-hour call.
C. A large bank balance.
D. All of the above. Getting In is the roller-coaster story of five very different Los Angeles families united by a single obsession: acceptance at a top college, preferably one that makes their friends and neighbors green with envy. At an elite private school and a nearby public school, families devote themselves to getting their seniors into the perfect school--even if the odds are stacked against them, even if they can't afford the...