![]() ![]() Right now, the “Ideal Mother” standard is impossibly out of proportion and far higher than it’s ever been – even as most mothers of children under 18 work in the marketplace. ![]() I did – for years, I was soaked in poisonous guilt that clouded my vision and I made really stupid decisions – like the day my after school babysitter called at the last minute to say she couldn’t take my daughter to ballet and I, without thinking, though I was on a really tight deadline, automatically assumed that I should, that somehow her childhood would be ruined if I didn’t take her to ballet – though I was a stressed out, Blackberry-wielding, cursing harpy the whole way there. Working mothers feel guilty if they work. ![]() Guilt is the default emotion for mothers these days. How do our cultural expectations of motherhood interact with overwhelm? Do they exacerbate it? Do maternal guilt and anxiety play a part? You can refresh your memory of Part One here, if you like, before reading the concluding portion of my interview below. Two weeks ago I posted the first part of my interview with Brigid Schulte, Washington Post reporter and author of Overwhelmed Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time, her just-published study of the effect of living at warp speed and the unrealistic and unnecessary expectations of workers and parents. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |