As my classmate astutely describes here, every "mommy blog" that we have encountered has seemed to brush right past the down and dirty (literally) parts of being a mom. And that is not to say that we have not looked for blogs who tell it like it is; we spent a whole class deeply perusing the list of the Top 100 Mommyblogs, only to find that most are covered with ads for products, giveaways, arts/crafts, recipes... instead of the guts of what it is to be a mother. The mothers on the Top 100 are models, writers, wealthy "stay-at-home" moms who seem totally removed from the job of being a mom.
As a class, we've had our share of realistic mother literature. From Beloved,where Toni Morrison describes Sethe's battle with overcoming slavery and the lasting effects the institution has on her mothering skills, to The Fifth Child, where we were shown the hardship and toll on the mother of several babies in a short span of time--especially if one happens to be..well, especially difficult. Most recently, we looked at Margaret Atwood's short story "Giving Birth;" an account of a woman's shift into the role of mother, and the sometimes-scary unknown of the actual act of giving birth. True, at times I found myself squeamish from too much use of my imagination, but this is preferable to the alternative--an idealistic view of what motherhood entails.
It's not that I'm looking for an intense dissection of every gory detail of giving birth, diaper-changing, and spit-up...yet, a little truth, a little realistic education, would go a long way in allowing me to picture what I'm in for when I start that adventure for myself...
It is weird, isn't it, the way we fetishize (spelling?) motherhood -- it's noble, it's glorious, it's the most difficult thing you'll ever do (so we can't give you the details)...
ReplyDeleteIt takes some serious digging to start getting answers.