Ughhh......I need a bit of time to collect my thoughts. In the mean time read these articles:
First:
Next:
Finally:
Let me know what you think!
Friday, March 4, 2011
Let's Chat about Motherhood
I want your opinions. Seriously. I've read these articles (below) and can't stop thinking about their points. I'm mad, disgusted, and shocked. I'm trying to be understanding and think that everyone is different and parents the best way they know how. But I can't even think about these moms long enough before I keep thinking about their KIDS! Hello, you have little people who need you!!
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Okay, I'll bite. :0) I've read a couple of these already. Here's the thing. Now as a mother, I can't imagine leaving GB (it's tough enough going to work), and my heart hurts for anyone who must leave their child for any reason. But with that said, I am intimately famililar with the feeling/fear of being swallowed alive by motherhood. And for me personally, while I'm in a very different situation, I think waiting until I was older to have a baby helped fend off, if you will, feelings of being swallowed whole. Make sense at all?
ReplyDeleteYay, I'm glad someone did. I can't stop thinking about this.
ReplyDeleteYou totally make sense!
I can understand, and know the overwhelmingness of this whole new role is life changing. And sometimes, not in the "everything is perfect" kind of way.
I guess, some of the things that annoying are that she had a supportive family/husband and children, she had a realization while on a "traveling high", and that she backed up her decision by saying that she can compartmentalize her role and be the perfect, cookie-baking mom for her children.
I'm thinking she probably was a good mom! She has got to be very smart, ambitious and no doubt, she loves them. I don't have any beef with her husband being the primary parent.
It is just what I mentioned above, the whole way it happened on a wild hair, in Japan. Of course it is different with kids there! But that doesn't mean you have to re-do your whole life to be able to continue this new job.
Also, the compartmentalizing parenthood is crazy to me. Her children would learn so much from their smart, working mom! ESPECIALLY, when she wasn't baking or playing board games but being who she really was!
Any who, I don't know what got into me and why I cared so much. Ha ha! But if she becomes some Feminist spokeswoman, because she had a mid-life crisis, I'm going to be pissed.
I'm all for women (and men) being able to choose their parenting roles but, I think she just wanted a divorce! Ha ha. I bet she will write a book on parenting, be on all kinds of shows, etc.
Dude! You are sooo right! I totally missed the key to her describing her compartmentalizing her role so she could fulfill a "cookie-baking" role.
ReplyDeleteYou know me Sarah, I'm all about women and men having the freedom to choose their own lives and roles within marriage, family, etc, but I find her perspective on motherhood not only very antiquated but limiting as a mother and a person.
I admit that what seemed to be her "realization" while abroad did trip me up mainly b/c although 6 months is a long time, in the scheme of things, it is not so long. To make such a life-changing decision in 6 months while in a foreign country separate from your family - wow!
And I totally agree with you: I think she just wanted a divorce. This is the same woman who never wanted kids right? or am I thinking of another story that just came out recently? If it is, (here I go getting all preachy), this relationship was doomed from the start - certain things are/can be dealbreakers like having children.
And I highly doubt she'll become a feminist spokeswoman, but if she does, I'm ripping up my NOW card. :0)
Agreed!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd 6 months while in a foreign country is still the honey-moon phase. You are so excited to see a new place and be in a new country. You love every bit of it., until, the second 6 months comes around. Ha ha.
This was the same one who never wanted kids. Funny, though that she ended up toddler-nursing, baby wearing and bed sharing. She was really an all or nothing kind of girl.
Okay, I feel like I'm bashing her. I just think the article should say "Woman Has a Mid-Life Crisis" rather than "Why She Gave up Her Kids" or something like that.
Fingers crossed-no books, or tv shows.
Ha ha! Kidding, kind of!
"if she does, I'm ripping up my NOW card." Ha ha ha. Classic!
Love ya Lauren!!
You're right. I sound like what I despise: judging/bashing other women & mothers. It's tough enough to be a mother with all the other pressures.
ReplyDeleteWhile this story still doesn't sit well with me, I do agree with the woman on one thing: no one would be in an uproar if she were saying the same thing as a man (at least not as much) and more often than not, in a divorce or separation, the father (in a heterosexual coupling) is often the one who is away from their children more. I refuse to use the terms "full-time" and "part-time" as the woman does, b/c ultimately no matter what, we are all parents all the time and I think it devalues mothers (and fathers) who stay home, work from home, work part-time or work full time. Okay, I swear I'm finished now. :0)
And love you too! xoxo