Thoughts Shared: Why Women Judge Each Other so Harshly

There was a good article shared by Dawn on Facebook form the Boston Globe: Can a mother get a break? Essays wonder why women are so hard on each other.

The whole pretense is something I have been wondering about and have pondered for some time, of course, in pretense of being a birthmother and how society decrees who deserves to be a mother.

I love this quote:

“Bad Mother” is preoccupied with two specters: the Good Mother, whose”single defining characteristic . . . is self-abnegation” (and who is -surprise! – a “creature of fantasy”), and the Bad Mother, who appears to be the rest of us. Waldman’s research sample, “the mothers I know,” is a sad lot,bedeviled by ideals they cannot achieve, disappointed, anxious, unfulfilled,and, worst of all, selfish. The Bad Mother police? They are us, too. To comforto urselves for our failings, Waldman argues, we turn on our peers, wagging our
fingers at the likes of neglectful mother Britney Spears, murderous motherA ndrea Yates, and the woman down the street who feeds her kids Cheetos. We must convince ourselves that someone else is worse than we are, so we can’t be as bad as we fear.”

The Globe article is actual a book revirew, but worth reading.

The book itself: BAD MOTHER: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes,Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace by Ayelet Waldman is being added to my adoption related book list here becasue I do think the message behind this is very relevant to underlying adoption issues ie casue and effect, lack of support for mothers and fmailies in general.

“A mother who doesn’t worry so much about being bad or good, but just recognizes that she’s both, and neither.”

That’s something most moms I know, even non adoption related ones, need to remember to tell ourselves everyday.

 

About the Author

Claudia Corrigan DArcy
Claudia Corrigan D’Arcy has been online and involved in the adoption community since early in 2001. Blogging since 2005, her website Musings of the Lame has become a much needed road map for many mothers who relinquished, adoptees who long to be heard, and adoptive parents who seek understanding. She is also an activist and avid supporter of Adoptee Rights and fights for nationwide birth certificate access for all adoptees with the Adoptee Rights Coalition. Besides here on Musings of the Lame, her writings on adoption issue have been published in The New York Times, BlogHer, Divine Caroline, Adoption Today Magazine, Adoption Constellation Magazine, Adopt-a-tude.com, Lost Mothers, Grown in my Heart, Adoption Voice Magazine, and many others. She has been interviewed by Dan Rather, Montel Williams and appeared on Huffington Post regarding adoption as well as presented at various adoption conferences, other radio and print interviews over the years. She resides in New York’s Hudson Valley with her husband, Rye, children, and various pets.

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