The world's oldest mother died last week. She was a Spanish woman who gave birth to twins when she was 67. But cancer took her life just three years after giving birth. This week's family segment will explore the issue of starting a family later in life. Joining The Takeaway is Lisa Belkin, who wrote about the issue in The New York Times blog Motherlode: Adventures in Parenting. Also joining us is journalist Karen Day, a 56-year-old mother of a three-year-old, who also has three other children.

Read an article that Karen Day wrote Why Have a Baby After 50?

Are modern parents adopting the idea of the child as a noble savage? Slow parenting, free-range parenting, I-don't-give-a-darn parenting -- this new approach is gaining popularity in reaction to the hovering of so-called "helicopter" parents. The basic premise is to leave your kids alone and let them develop at their own pace. Are parents taking pride now in being labeled a bad parent? Lisa Belkin is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and she writes about this new trend in parenting in this weekend's issue.

Want to hear more? Listen to our interviews with Ayelet Waldman and Heather B. Armstrong.

Women have long battled with their biological clocks, but with men like Tony Randall cranking out kids in their seventies, many men don't really think about their biological clocks. In the wake of new studies, though, that might change. Lisa Belkin, New York Times Magazine contributing writer, makes the case in this week’s Magazine that there’s now even more evidence that when it comes to making babies, men have a sell by date.

Lisa Belkin's article will be available in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday.

Lisa Belkin, contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and author of the Motherlode blog on nytimes.com, looks at Caroline Kennedy's Senate bid through the lens of women returning to the workforce.

Filling President-elect Barack Obama's vacant senate seat has turned into such an incredible drama that it is easy to forget that there are other empty seats in the U.S. Senate. Vice-president-elect Biden's seat was quickly filled, but more drama is roiling over the soon-to-be vacant senate seat from New York. Caroline Kennedy has made her claim on the seat once held by her father and no one is quite sure whether or not she is qualified. The coverage of that issue has raised quite a few eyebrows, too. Here to discuss all sides of the issue are Nick Confessore a reporter in the Albany bureau of the New York Times, and Lisa Belkin, a writer for the New York Times Magazine whose piece in this Sunday's magazine is called “The Senator Track.”

Read Nick Confessore's article on Ms. Kennedy in today's New York Times. (You'll have to wait for Sunday for Lisa Belkin's!)

"I Kissed A Girl" isn't just for clubbing anymore, lots of parents are using it for putting their baby to sleep. The sound of the lullaby is changing.

Lisa Belkin, New York Times Columnist who writes The Motherlode, talks about why she pays her kids to be good.

Let Us Know: Do you pay your child for good behavior or good grades? And if not, why not?

Andy Hines, futurist and director of consulting at Social Technologies, a DC consulting company, and Lisa Belkin, New York Times "Life's Work" columnist and the author of Life's Work: Confessions of an Unbalanced Mom (Simon & Schuster, 2003), talk about "white spaces" where people find their creativity. Where ...