I am a 40-somethingwriter and editor living in Thunder Bay, Ontario (pop. 110,000), where the supermarket cashiers talk too much. I moved here (for love and money and shared child-rearing duties) from Toronto in 2004, and I am slowly getting used to the idea of being approximately one of 30-odd Jews in the entire city.

2004 was also the year I: got pregnant the first time, got married, had a baby, and — and this is the kicker — lost my mother to a 20-year, on-and-off battle with breast and ovarian cancer. I believe this is known as one’s Saturn return.

I started this blog as a way to kickstart myself into writing my own stuff in the wake of 2004. It seems to be working. Despite the title, these days it’s not so much about the kids as it is about me, dealing with life, love, writing, grief, joy and sleep deprivation in the post-’04 world.

In 2012, this post was selected as one of the BlogHer’s Voices of the Year. Mama Non Grata has twice been selected by readers of The Walleye as Thunder Bay’s best blog (in 2012 and 2013), and was chosen as top LGBTQ blog in the 2013 Canadian Weblog Awards.

I’m a featured parenting expert on Kids in the House. I’ve spoken at several blogging and social media conferences, including BlogHer (2012, 2013, and 2014) SalonLGBTQ, and the 2014 Mom 2.0 Summit. When I’m not blogging here, you can read me over at Today’sParent.ca, where I blog weekly as “The Other Mother,” or at queer parenting site VillageQ.com. I’ve also guest-blogged for Ms. magazine (on Angelina Jolie’s ovaries, no less), MSN.Canada’s “Embrace the Chaos” parenting column, and for InterfaithFamily.com.