With all the efforts made by modern society to nurture and educate the young, how stupid it is to permit the mothers of young chil...dren to spend themselves in the coarser work of the world!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Mothers seem to be in subtle competition with teachers. There is always an underlying fear that teachers will do a better job than... they have done with their child.... But mostly mothers feel that their areas of competence are very much similar to those of the teacher. In fact they feel they know their child better than anyone else and that the teacher doesn't possess any special field of authority or expertise.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Stay-at-home mothers, . . . their self-esteem constantly assaulted, . . . are ever more fervently concerned that their offspring t...urn out better so they won't have to stoop to say "I told you so." Working mothers, . . . their self-esteem corroded by guilt, . . . are praying their kids turn out functional so they can stop being defensive and apologetic and instead assert "See? I did do it all."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Knowing how beleaguered working mothers truly are--knowing because I am one of them--I am still amazed at how one need only say "I... work" to be forgiven all expectation, to be assigned almost a handicapped status that no decent human being would burden further with demands. "I work" has become the universally accepted excuse, invoked as an all-purpose explanation for bowing out, not participating, letting others down, or otherwise behaving inexcusably.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Some days your hat's off to the full-time mothers for being able to endure the relentless routine and incessant policing seven day...s a week instead of two. But on other days, merely the image of this woman crafting a brontosaurus out of sugar paste and sheet cake for her two-year-old's birthday drives a stake through your heart.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Working mothers are just as likely to want to conform to a standard of perfection--and just as likely to suffer from their failure... to meet it--as their stay-at-home counterparts.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The problem of invisibility, the incredible deficit of self- esteem that full-time mothers describe, seems to come with the territ...ory. Day in and day out, the feedback from their spouse and kids suggests they are part of the woodwork, with no intelligence to illuminate a homework question or share any insights on politics. . . . When no one recognizes or applauds their amazing juggling act, they perforce derive their sense of self-worth from being ringmaster--someone not necessarily talented but indisputably in charge.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Most women of [the WW II] generation have but one image of good motherhood--the one their mothers embodied. . . . Anything done "f...or the sake of the children" justified, even ennobled the mother's role. Motherhood was tantamount to martyrdom during that unique era when children were gods. Those who appeared to put their own needs first were castigated and shunned--the ultimate damnation for a gender trained to be wholly dependent on the acceptance and praise of others.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
...I delivered the poor who cried, and the orphan who had no helper. The blessing of the wretched came upon me, and I caused the w...idow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made them drop their prey from their teeth.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »