Iris Krasnow
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I am the senior editor of AARP's The Ethel online publication (aarpethel.com) the author of seven books, the mother of four sons.
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Articles by Iris Krasnow
Iris Krasnow: Does mother really know best? I say yes, most of the time | COMMENTARY
Cover image of Iris Krasnow’s first book “Surrendering to Motherhood,” painted by Annapolis artist Moe. (Courtesy) PUBLISHED: May 9, 2026 at 6:00 AM EDT Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Whether we loved them or felt some loathing, we think of our moms every Mother’s Day. I loved Helene Krasnow, who passed away at age 86 in 2006.
Iris Krasnow: This Father’s Day cherish the lessons you learned from dad | COMMENTARY
Iris Krasnow writes: "In fourth grade I clung to him after our president was murdered, blood splattering his wife, a scene we watched on a small black and white TV in our classroom." (AP Photo, file) PUBLISHED: June 14, 2025 at 6:00 AM EDT Every Father’s Day, my dad, who died in February 1986, seems to come back to life.
Iris Krasnow: How to sustain merriment after the holiday euphoria wears off | COMMENTARY
As our world churns and causes us stress, how do we find solace and peace? This is particularly challenging after the prolonged euphoria that tracks the buildup to the winter holidays, a mélange of merriment that begins at Halloween and ends with parties ringing in a new year. Christmas trees that were a vibrant green and dripping with ornaments are now crusty corpses, tossed out at curbs. Blow-ups of Rudolph and his reindeer are no longer prancing across neighborhood lawns.
Iris Krasnow: Family and friends are our safe harbors in a turbulent world | COMMENTARY
It is almost full autumn, when the prism of leaves and the brisk temperatures make us feel grateful for nature’s beauty. It is during this season in the middle, when it is not quite warm and not quite cold, that we are thrust into both reflection and projection, high hopes and fears for what lies ahead. How could 2024 be on its final lap? We lament for January resolutions not yet achieved. We ache for departed loved ones for whom this was their final year.
Iris Krasnow: Amid global chaos, we need soothing summer more than ever | COMMENTARY
As our world churns and spews stressors on all of us, we have never needed the solace of summer more in our lives. We need the waves of the ocean and pristine cold lakes, the magic of the mountains, we need to escape. We need to disconnect from the vein-throbbing talk on TV, the anger and shouting and lies. We need to escape conversations like this: Would you rather vote for a felon with a fuzzy memory of the truth?
Iris Krasnow: Honoring our mothers, the women who gave us life | COMMENTARY
I loved my mother and she loved me. This she knew. This I knew. This is the most important thing to know — and to make happen — while we still have moms within reach. On Mother’s Day we celebrate those still with us, and we grieve for those who are missing. Many of you have lost your mothers. My own formidable mother died in December 2006. Yet do they ever really leave?
As the World Churns, Here’s How to Keep Calm and Carry On
Do you want to make friends? Are you seeking connections? Then join our closed Facebook group for older women, The Ethel Circle, today. Keep calm and carry on? You gotta be kidding. This, while wars are raging, the climate is burning and bigotry abounds. How do we carry on, with hope and resilience, as our world rocks with chaos and uncertainty? I could advise you to do what you hear often. Take long walks, a boost to mind, spirit and longevity.
Iris Krasnow: With cherry blossoms and daffodils, we welcome spring, season of renewal
With the cherry blossoms erupting in shell-pink splendor, we usher in spring, a season of hope and renewal. As Easter melds into the Passover holiday, we celebrate spiritual rebirth and a surge of rising hope. This, while we are poignantly aware of the fleeting beauty of blossoms, and how time and the seasons of our lives spin by in a finger-snap. Savoring the flowers, thickening trees and new life outside our kitchen windows, we are also painfully aware of the wars raging in countries far away.
Iris Krasnow: What is love anyways? It goes far beyond February, the month of hearts and romance | COMMENTARY
As we settle into a post-Valentine’s Day psyche, the holiday originally designed to honor courtly romance in the Middle Ages, I am thinking about this: What is love anyways? It certainly isn’t the commercialism that pumped nearly $26 billion into the U.S. economy last V-Day. I love getting a good piece of jewelry or a dozen red roses as much as any short-term girlfriend or long-term wife. But give me a box of Godivas and I definitely feel courted — and adored.
Iris Krasnow: Your life will improve if you resolve to do these four things in 2024 | COMMENTARY
Teresa Hui, wearing 2024 glasses, poses in front of a sign with the 2024 numerals after an illumination ceremony in Times Square on Dec. 20 in New York City. (David Dee/Getty Images)Growing up, I was given some great parental advice, and most of it came when I was disappointed or sad. From my mother, “Things could always be worse.” From my father, “What was, was. Move onward!” Others offered good advice.
Why You May Be Unhappy — and What You Can Do About it
You love to dance and haven't danced since your son's wedding — 15 years ago. Instead of exercising you have developed an addiction to Pringles, which now come in seductive flavors like Pizza Crisp. Your spouse travels constantly, and your kids live across the country. You are uninspired and blasé and unhappy. Can we train our minds to be happy like we can train a dog to sit on command? Not so easily.
Iris Krasnow: In this season of joy also comes holiday blues; here’s how to beat them | COMMENTARY
The buildup to Christmas is breathless and exhilarating, as our neighborhoods are ablaze with lights and blown-up reindeers prancing across lawns. Then why do so many of us feel wistful, and even blue, as Hanukkah is upon us and Christmas comes next? For me, it is the nostalgia of the season. Six decades later, I remember running to my Patty Play Pal, the giant doll I requested when I sat on Santa’s lap. She was waiting for me by the fireplace when I was 7, as my beaming parents stood nearby.
The 2 Beatles' Hits I Chose as My Wedding Songs
On a snowy night in my hometown of Chicago, on March 12, 1988, I walked slowly to my groom, to an acoustic version of the Beatles’ "Imagine," played by a very cool trio. As I write this in the autumn of 2023, I reflect on the many unimaginable experiences we have shared and how many imagined dreams have come true. When we married, I was 33 and he was 31. I, with long brown hair tucked into my sister’s veil worn four years earlier. He, with wild brown curls and incandescent blue eyes.
Iris Krasnow: Thank you, autumn, for your beauty that gives us light and hope | COMMENTARY
The burst of autumn leaves bring light and hope in the darkness of the days, when wars are raging and the unthinkable is happening. As we cry and pray about the chaos of our times, thank you autumn for showing your beautiful face, year after year, with the predictability of a clock. We need this certainty in a climate of chaos and hate. We need your beauty to counteract the ugly. Your splendor gives us faith.
Iris Krasnow: Jewish New Year can be a new year for all; Lord knows we need it | COMMENTARY
This is my annual Happy New Year column, heralding our Jewish High Holidays that this year usher in the arrival of 5784. For every faith this turning of the seasons and our pledge to be born anew could be a vow for transformation — for all of us. We clearly need this. While we come from different religious backgrounds, the God we collectively worship certainly would want us to create a new year, as this one, so far, is pocked with war, divisiveness and bigotry.
Iris Krasnow: Summer is the season when you believe anything is possible | COMMENTARY
Who doesn’t love summer? It’s the seas and it’s sizzle that makes us feel hopeful and alive. These hot, hazy and lazy days keep us in a bubble, a shield, even an armor of protection from the crazy, churning world. This is the season we retreat to the beaches and oceans and lakes of our childhood for solace and comfort and peace. Summer keeps us connected to our wild-child sides, parts of our personalities that for the rest of the year often get squashed by starchy clothing and starchy people.
How the Ranches of Arizona Made Me and Changed Me
Years ago, I was coaching a son on his college admission essays and one of the prompts was: “Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content.” After a long silence, he chose “a basketball court.” My own answer came instantly: Tucson, Arizona, where my family vacationed from the time I was a toddler until college graduation. I can close my eyes and rusty memories swirl through every layer of me, shiny and clear, of the Double U Ranch.
Iris Krasnow: Why do I still go to summer camp? Life in the woods is always inspiring | COMMENTARY
Readers of this column know I still work at my old summer camp, as this is one of my regular odes to the coming of July. I first came to these woods of towering pines in northern Wisconsin, set on one of the state’s cleanest lakes, at the age of 8 in 1963 and ended as a counselor in 1973. Well, I thought it was the end of my summer camp days.
Iris Krasnow: On Father’s Day, we remember what we still need to learn from dad | COMMENTARY
My father died in February 1986. I was 31, he was 67. I loved him so much, and he knew that. And I always knew how much he loved me. So there were no should-haves or could-haves about our relationship when he passed away. There remains, though, a relentless ache, a longing for his voice, his laugh and that cushion of protection a dad wedges between his daughter and the world.
Iris Krasnow: How to live long and well in Anne Arundel County | COMMENTARY
Researchers studying longevity tell us that people who make it through their 90s and top 100 have these three things going for them: they stay socially connected; they stay mentally engaged; and they keep their bodies moving. One study conducted by the National Institutes of Health found that walking regularly increased creativity in 81% of the participants. Those who scored best did their treks outdoors, as opposed to sweating indoors on treadmills and other fancy equipment.
Iris Krasnow: Cherry trees and holidays soothe us in a churning world | COMMENTARY
Who are we? A country where a former president can promise “death and destruction” if he is indicted for his alleged crimes — and the majority of his party still says “he’s our guy.” Who are we? A country where so far this year there have been 38 mass shootings, and laws rule more in favor of embryos than humans eviscerated by assault weapons. Who are we?
Iris Krasnow: It’s March, when predictable meets unpredictable | COMMENTARY
Let us talk first of the madness that ensues in this third month of the year. Yes, it is March already. So, if you have not started on your January resolutions or put away the boxes of Christmas ornaments — it is time. Though, time for what? Other than the coming of March Madness, the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament that has been played since 1939, who knows what to expect this March?
Iris Krasnow: Take cardiovascular health tips to heart
As January dies and a new month is born, more important than Valentine’s Day is that February is American Heart Month. That designation is meant to focus on the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Here are some health tips you need to know to protect your heart that you have probably heard often, though might need to hear again and again: Get off the couch! Sitting too much, and laying around too much, leads to killer diseases and a shorter life.
Iris Krasnow: What’s in and what’s out, from A to Z | COMMENTARY
I always grab the newspapers that post an annual “What’s In, What’s Out” column at the end of the year. Often, I have not heard of what is supposedly in, and usually I disagree with what is listed as out. In this column, I am only focusing on what I think and feel is in, not pretending to be an influencer who labels something as out. This list is solely based on my own tastes, experiences, relationships and interviews.
Iris Krasnow: December is a roller-coaster month full of magic, joy, sadness | COMMENTARY
It is freezing outside and I pull on my mother’s long black trench coat with the cozy lining that hits me at the ankles. I reach for my gloves in the pockets and pull out a crumpled tissue with a smudge of hot pink lipstick — her color. I smell the tissue that blotted the lips of Helene Krasnow, who died on Dec. 18, 2006, and it still has a slight scent of Shalimar, which she wore every day. It is the season of merriment and magic, and I cry. Grief grips me anew, as if my mom passed away yesterday.
Iris Krasnow: Thanksgiving gratitude today, as tomorrow may change
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, with the convergence of oyster stuffing, buttery yams and the people we love most all in one house, at one table. The December madness has not trampled us yet. We eat the best meal of the year, warm and delicious, yet we get to chill.
Iris Krasow: Autumn reminds us to savor the now | COMMENTARY
As soon as the trees of autumn start turning shades of barn red and curry, my emotions swirl like the crusty leaves falling on the grass. I drink in the beauty of the foliage and feel intense joy. I hear blaring ads the first week of October luring us to shop for Christmas sales, when Halloween pumpkins are not yet propped on our doorsteps — and I feel sad. Like, do not rush me! I am 68. I have lived more of life than I have yet to live.
Iris Krasnow: Shared values across religions on the Jewish New Year | COMMENTARY
As Jews worldwide begin their celebration of the Jewish New Year 5783, I am always reminded that our High Holidays are not just for Jews. During the week between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we engage in deep self-reflection, confront our wrongdoings, ask for forgiveness and vow to become better people — messaging that is universal. These holidays are known as the “Days of Awe.” They are awesome, in many ways.
A Longtime College Professor Reveals How Her Students Have Changed
I have been a journalism professor for more than three decades and am now an emerita, still teaching a couple courses a year. Over the decades I have witnessed depression widen among students coming of age amid mass shootings, climate change, COVID isolation, and bigotry. They are talking about what one student calls the “black cloud” that darkens their college years.
Iris Krasnow: Some favorite haunts for an avowed foodie Original
OK – full disclosure. Over the many years I have been to Chevy’s, sometimes I will tell my waiter that it is my birthday just so the staff will come out in a line, clapping, and singing the “Chevy’s Birthday Song,” then crown me with a big straw sombrero. Beyond the attention and the free hat, Chevy’s was our beloved go-to place with four small sons, who are now young men.
Iris Krasnow: A sweet summer ode to Annapolis | COMMENTARY
I was born and bred in Chicago, the city Frank Sinatra heralded in his hit tune, “This is my kind of town, Chicago is/my kind of town”. After 30 years in Annapolis, however, where we raised four sons and built careers and friend circles and lives, I proudly claim, this is my town. Annapolis is a town where people genuinely care about each others’ lives because we have shared so much, as school parents, neighbors, coaches, and in our houses of worship.
Iris Krasnow: Life lessons I learned at summer camp | COMMENTARY
Readers of this column know I still work at my old summer camp, as this is one of my regular odes to July. I first came to these woods of towering pines in northern Wisconsin, set on one of the state’s cleanest lakes, at the age of 8 in 1963 and ended as a counselor in 1973. Well, I thought it was the end of my summer camp days.
Iris Krasnow: It’s time to celebrate the hope and joy of summer | COMMENTARY
Every morning, on the top of my emails is CNN’s “5 Things” dispatch, a summary of the crucial news toppers. Over the past weeks, the categories have routinely included “Coronavirus,” “Shootings,” “Ukraine.” These are bad things, unthinkable things, that make us shudder in disbelief: How could COVID still be raging? What monster wants to kill kids? Why can’t we exterminate one Putin who has annihilated a whole country?
Iris Krasnow: On Memorial Day, we remember those who we lost and give thanks for what we have | COMMENTARY
On this weekend devoted to our country’s fallen heroes, we of a certain age recall so much more about the many layers of our lives. We are both soothed and stung by memories of our own fallen fathers and mothers who left us weeks or decades ago. We remember with every glance in the mirror that parts of our once taut bodies have also fallen.
Iris Krasnow: My journey to embracing motherhood, without regret | COMMENTARY
Every Mother’s Day, I think of my mom. At the end of her life, at age 86, I remember her asking in a pained whisper, “Where did the time go?” We would be in her Chicago kitchen, and she would be gazing at a photo of my sister, brother and me as toddlers. I think of those words when I see the portrait by artist Moe Delaitre of me and my little boys that graced the cover of my first book, “Surrendering to Motherhood.” Those silky-faced boys are now ages 32, 30 and the twins are 28.
The Older I Get, the More I Am Truly My Mother’s Daughter
I am looking at my tulips aglow with red blossoms and remembering a walk I took with my mother, spring of 2006. I was pushing Helene Krasnow in her wheelchair along the lakefront in Chicago, the city where I was born and where she soon would die. With unrelenting courage, my mom survived the loss of her immediate family to the Holocaust, the loss of her husband, my father, 20 years earlier, and the recent loss of her lower left leg.
Iris Krasnow: Blessings and traditions bind us during Passover, Easter | COMMENTARY
I await the coming of Passover all year, the spring festival commemorating the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, an event that took place thousands of years ago. The meaning of our Jewish holiday is particularly poignant this year, celebrating freedom after persecution, as we witness the desperate flight of refugees from the invasion of Ukraine, seeking more than freedom from tyranny – survival itself.
Iris Krasnow: Cherry trees offer beauty and hope in times of hopelessness | COMMENTARY
Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at The Capital Gazette. As spring is bursting into its Maryland majesty, this is my seasonal ode to the cherry trees in our yard, your yards and in shell-pink splendor all across our region. I only have one cherry tree, and I call her “Fleeting Beauty” because the time she erupts from buds into falling blossoms seems to be over in a finger snap, like life itself.
Iris Krasnow: With Ukraine in crisis, past fears during war rise again | COMMENTARY
Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at The Capital Gazette. I was 5 years old and in kindergarten when our class learned the words of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” We were told to stand up straight, hands over our hearts and turn to the American flag in front of Miss Weber’s desk.
Iris Krasnow: The not-so-secret traits that lead to a long life | COMMENTARY
Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at The Capital Gazette. In the early 1980s, while working as the fashion writer for the Dallas Times Herald, I was awed by the women in their 60s and 70s who stretched next to me in aerobic classes. They were loud, fun and fully alive, smashing my stereotype of what it meant to be “old,” as these were the times that the expected age of retirement was 65.
Iris Krasnow: In the long term, love is all that matters | COMMENTARY
Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at The Capital Gazette. Although it is weeks before Valentine’s Day, the day that celebrates the power of love, I am saturated with that power right now. April is labeled “the cruelest month,” yet January has seemed a pretty cruel month to a whole lot of people. As always, it is love that gets us through the dark pockets of history, wars, bigotry and natural disasters.
Iris Krasnow: In 2022, may we finally accept that truth is truth | COMMENTARY
Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at The Capital Gazette. I just finished watching “Don’t Look Up” on Netflix — for the second time. This dystopian, mind-bending film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as two scientists at Michigan State University who, with sophisticated mapping devices, discover a comet the “size of Mount Everest” hurtling toward Earth.
Beat Any Blues by Walking Through the Seasons of Life
Feeling lousy? Take a walk. As a committed walker since I did the 30-mile Hike for Hunger in high school, I do love what this exercise does for the body. Yet what I love most of all is what it does for the psyche and soul. As we end another year plagued by a pandemic and uncertainty, we all have woes that differ in severity. Walking cannot bring back jobs lost or loved ones passing.
Iris Krasnow: Here’s how to beat the holiday blues | COMMENTARY
Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at The Capital Gazette. The buildup to Christmas is breathless and exhilarating, though once that long-anticipated holiday is here and gone, the letdown can bring on a lingering case of the blues. You have bought, wrapped, cooked, drank, sang and entertained. Then, from that crescendo, comes the crash. Here some ways to shake off the holiday blues: 1.
Iris Krasnow: Why we love Thanksgiving - the food, the family, the anticipation | COMMENTARY
Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at The Capital Gazette. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, as it brings together stuffing, mashed potatoes, charades and the people I love most in one house. If I could be with you now, readers, I know I would hear happy sighs and see smiles, as you, too, recognize the magic of this day. December gets crazy.
Iris Krasnow: Some rules to follow while trying to keep yourself, and others, safe from COVID | COMMENTARY
Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at The Capital Gazette. Rule Number One: You can — and should — ask health care staff if they are vaccinated during visits to physicians’ offices. Do not assume that all your doctors are vaccinated, or their staff.
Eight Great Marriage Tips That Will Greatly Help
It’s tough to listen to your mom’s advice stemming from her own love life when you are in a committed relationship she may not approve of. But now that I am in my 34th year of marriage, I embrace the wisdom of my elders who have managed to stay partnered for a decade or three longer than me. These savvy and resilient wives in your family and friend circles can help you navigate one of the toughest journeys of all — living with one partner, under one roof, until death do you part.
Iris Krasnow: It’s beginning to look a lot like pumpkins, not Santa | COMMENTARY
Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at The Capital Gazette. I am drinking coffee in my kitchen on a late September morning, porch door wide open, flushed by the humid breeze. The temperature is already 82 at 8 a.m., expected to top 90 by 3 p.m., the weather woman on TV tells me, decked in a sleeveless red dress.
Iris Krasnow: COVID, Kabul and wildfires ... this too shall pass | COMMENTARY
In a scene from the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow are clutching each other in fear as they walk through the dark forest chanting, “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” Then, out jumps the lion, who turns out to be kind and caring, not a roaring bad guy.
Iris Krasnow: A love letter to summer - the season of restoration | COMMENTARY
Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at The Capital Gazette. I am wistful that we have bid farewell to July, and that it is time to write my love letter to summer, the season of solace that is fleeting, restorative and a whole lot of fun. On this, the first day of August, I am in my final stretch of summer camp, like many of your kids.
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