Bad Mothers | Ayelet Waldman | Talks at Google
45In our mothers day there were good mothers, neglectful mothers, and occasionally great mothers.
Today we have only Bad Mothers.
If you work, youre neglectful; if you stay home, youre smothering. If you discipline, youre buying them a spot on the shrinks couch; if you let them run wild, they will be into drugs by seventh grade. If you buy organic, youre spending their college fund; if you dont, youre risking all sorts of allergies and illnesses.
Is it any wonder so many women refer to themselves at one time or another as a bad mother? Ayelet Waldman says its time for women to get over it and get on with it, in a book that is sure to spark the same level of controversy as her now legendary Modern Love piece, in which she confessed to loving her husband more than her children.
Covering topics as diverse as the hysteria of competitive parenting (Whose toddler can recite the planets in order from the sun?), the relentless pursuits of the Bad Mother police, balancing the work-family dynamic, and the bane of every mothers existence (homework, that is), Bad Mother illuminates the anxieties that riddle motherhood today, while providing women with the encouragement they need to give themselves a break.