Special Issues & Guides

Being a mom isn't easy.
And the life of a college student, while often enjoyable and soaked in spirits for twenty-somethings, ain't no cake walk, especially if you have a family, too.
Looming deadlines, test-anxiety nightmares and the rising cost of tuition are all legitimate stressors.
So why would someone want to take on both duties simultaneously?
We weren't sure, so we talked to San Francisco resident-turned-Bendite Madelyn Driver – mother, student, wife and freelance bookkeeper to find out.
Turns out she's not crazy. But she is a damn sight more driven and motivated than we are.

Meagan Greenough was climbing the corporate ladder as an engineer at Hewlett Packard when she decided to abandon the career quest in favor of a lifestyle that seemed to fly in the face of her upbringing and her education. Rather than ascend another wrung at HP, Greenough quit her job when she had her first and only child, taking up a role that many women abandoned decades ago as a stay-home mom.
Greenough, who now works less than part time as a doula when she is not with her three-year-old son, doesn't regret the decision. She was already feeling like the corporate career world was getting stagnant, and the pregnancy spurred her to take the plunge into a new career in stay-home motherhood.
“It was a little bit planned and it was a little bit serendipity. I was kind of ready to try a change in my career,” Greenough said.

Name: Kristie Zinniker, 22, and Courtland, 2
Town: Redmond, Oregon
Job: Retention Representative at T-Mobile, which means she works with the tough customers.
We met with Kristie and Courtland at the Source offices in Bend to talk about what life is like as a single mother, how she makes it work and her advice for other single moms.
the Source Weekly: So do you have a busy day in town today?
KZ: No, just a busy morning – my Explorer broke down yesterday. My bearings and my differential seized. So, I had to pay a lot to get that fixed.

The running joke in Bend is that best place to find a stay-home mom is not in the kitchen or in the home at all, but rather in the nearest pilates gym or yoga studio. And while that may be the case for some moms, the truth is that the majority of stay-home mothers in America have less education than their counterparts and are home because it makes more economic sense to be there, given the cost of childcare. But as one Democratic strategist recently learned, it's dangerous to make assumptions when it comes to motherhood.
Misty Rupe falls into the broad category of women whose decision to stay home was made easier by the economics of parenting. After their first child, Hayden, was born, Rupe and her husband, Tyler, decided that it made more sense for her to stay home than to continue her career as an office manager where most of her salary would have gone toward childcare.

In 2006, Tarren Thomas suffered a stroke shortly after he was born. Life Flight transported him from Bend to Portland where he was placed in a medically induced coma to prevent brain damage.
After two days, the doctors declared that Thomas would live but would likely suffer from cerebral palsy.
Today Tarren is a happy and healthy five-year-old and his mother, Harmony, 38, has since had another healthy child, Cora, who is now two. The miraculous recovery, however, didn't come without a price.

Bend Moms for Moms is a free social network with more than 750 active members/users connecting and discussing the joys and grievances of motherhood in a very local and relevant context.
Launched in September 2010 by local mother Sarah Daily, Bend Moms for Moms provides a safe and supportive forum for mothers to discuss everything from play dates to potty training, prenatal fitness, learning disabilities, practicing patience, doctor and school recommendations, and free things to do with kids in Bend.