The “child that never sleeps” has finally cut his top two teeth which is fantastic. However he is, as his name suggests, still NOT SLEEPING. Driving me a little bit crazy. And so, in the spirit of discontentment which is my life right now, I offer up some links about motherhood and how sometimes it is not fulfilling and how mommies are often not as cool as we want to be.
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December 31st, 1969 at 4:00 pm
February 19th, 2007 at 2:55 am
I thought the “Not Fulfilling” article was very interesting. Interesting that the “child-lead parenting”, “motherhood is total fulfillment”, “parenting is my life”, and “mother’s guilt” is a totally North American thing. Well, I would say an “Oprah et al” thing. It has always been of my opinion that mothers (or anyone) should not be getting their moral code, child rearing, or marriage advice from Oprah and the like. We should be getting advice, choosing our outlook on life and developing guidelines for living from those who are close to us, like friends and family, and frameworks we respect (ie. the church). If we are in close communication with more realistic people, our perspectives will be more realistic — and closer to the truth.
(And Shannon, this is in no way a criticism of your discontentment; it’s just my rant against Oprah! You know I can relate to irrational babies!)
I actually thought the “Mommies are often not as cool as we want to be” post was poorly written. Maybe I just didn’t get it.
However, did you read the link from it to “The Bad Mom the New Good”? Superb article. The “boredom actually means fear” part and how this type of reflection is not evident in desperate people part was a great point.
On a kind of related note to the cool thing, I am reading a book on organic living for child rearing. They also of touch on the issue of being a cool parent. The authors think that sometimes there is pressure to be “all natural” (ie. childbirth, food, etc.), when sometimes we are only “wanna be hippies” or “partial hippies”. Well, the authors are from New York, and I have not really noticed this phenomenon here. I am only reading the book because I am paranoid, not because I want to be cool! (As proof, I am too embarrassed to mention the name of the book or authors…)
-J.B.