by Betsy Shaw posted in Parenting

When my mother was much younger, she once looked over the shoulder of her general practitioner and saw this written on her file:
"Joan is a pleasant housewife who lives in her own home with her husband."
Today that housewife is 93. She still lives in her own home, but she outlived her husband. Now she lives with me and my husband and my two daughters. More specifically, we live with her.
Even though she's my mom, she holds a certain mystery about her. Like how on earth could she have given birth to and raised five children in the very house where she still lives, and still be so happy and healthy and gracious and...  normal"
So I asked her a few questions:
What was it like to raise five children during the 60s"  

Me: How did you know you were pregnant the first time and subsequent times"
Mom: I got nauseous. And I couldn't stand watching romantic scenes in movies. It made me feel terrible. It made me feel physically sick, but I didn't know I was pregnant. Finally, I would go to the doctor, Doc Harwood, and Doc would invariably say, 'Yep, you have a little passenger on board.'
Me: What did you do then"
Mom: I guess I went to see Doc Harwood every month, and he really never did much that I can remember. I guess he examined me. I was gaining weight. I asked him what I could to to stop gaining weight and he said, 'try cutting down on the corn on the cob.'
Me: Did they have prenatal supplements back then&qu...