Anybody read the cover feature in this week's Newsweek yet? Mommy Madness. Main article: The Myth of the Perfect Mother: Why it drives real women crazy. Secondary article: Moms Shouldn't Be Martyrs / The Good Enough Mother (by Anna Quindlen, whom I love and yet I quibble with some of what she says).
I'll just say that the statements and illustrations about "mad," "crazy", and "martyr" moms seem to be upper-middle-class and upper-class women trying to be perfect, high-achieving moms bringing up perfect, high-achieving children, especially in what sounds like high-powered environments such as higher-income suburbs of big cities.
Arrgh. That is so NOT the route I've taken, nor that of many of my friends and acquaintances. Maybe we're all just a century behind the power-mom thing here in Flyover Nation? I don't think so; there are simply Other Choices Available. Obviously I'm already mentally composing letters to the editor.
UPDATE: I'd read the print edition of Newsweek this evening after it arrived in our postal mail. There's an additional article in the Web edition that make this feature more balanced. Meet the Slacker Mommy. Whew.
Go read the feature and tell me what you think!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Hi, Barbara - Thanks for pointing out those articles. I've been saving my magazines for reading material while I sit through my daughter's three 2.5 hour sessions doing gymnastics weekly. Personally, I think I'm somewhere inbetween the two articles (Warner's and the "Slacker Mom" piece). I do agree with Warner (and have often voiced the same sentiments) about what I perceive as doublespeak from our government, which claims to support families yet does nothing to help make health care affordable, cuts education, and makes decisions that always seems to make it harder on the middle class. So I'm glad she's starting a conversation on this. But I'm not hopeful -- it's a "woman's issue" so the powers that be probably won't even pay attention. In fact, I'll bet my own husband won't even bother to read that article because it's a girl thing.
I have no kids and I'm well past it so I have no vote, but I agree with the slacker mom article in every respect but one: isn't "Slacker" a pejorative term? So sanity is bad?
Post a Comment