Perfect Motherhood

I started this post this morning. Then I got unduly wrapped up in saying what I wanted to say, then feeling bad because I could/should have been playing with the kids or refining the grocery list, or any number of other things that may or may not have been more productive. And I realized I was in the trap. So, I'm rewriting IN BRIEF...

On the cover of last week's Newsweek is "The Myth of the Perfect Mother," with a picture of a woman with eight arms juggling eight parts of her life. Claire explained to me that she didn't really have eight arms, there were just three other women with the same shirt sitting behind her. Thanks for clearing that up for me, sweetie.

Sister bloggers, Kim and Christina, both wrote about the article.

I saw the author of the article, Judith Warner, on the Today show today. She was pimping her book, Perfect Madness, which I will not link because I don't want you to buy it. I'm not saying she's wrong and I can't really judge because I haven't read the book. But, I'm sick of the media grabbing any topic that is juicy and inflating it to sell magazines, gain viewership, etc.

I think the real myth is that all mothers are drowning in stress and anxiety. I'm not drowning.

I have good days and bad days. As do my husband and my kids. We are real people. I want us each to become the very very best we can be. Usually we make some progress toward that goal. And even when we don't, we learn from it.

No one really asked us to be the perfect mother. The media draws of picture of her, but we don't answer to the media. We answer to our families. Our spouses and kids don't want us to lose OURSELVES in sacrifice for them. Then everyone loses.

Every one makes their own choices. Some of us have more choices than others. I choose to spend a good bit of time playing with fabric. I also choose chapter books, Happy Meals, puzzles, the My Little Pony board game, and meaningless knock-knock jokes.

I don't like to do laundry. But I choose that too.