There’s some infighting a-goin’ on in the world of Mommy Wars!
Mommy Wars, a collection of essays edited by Leslie Morgan Steiner of the Washington Post, was soundly panned last month by Atlantic Monthly book reviewer Sandra Tsing Loh. And that apparently ruffled some feathers — take a look at this month’s Letters to the Editor. Not only did Steiner take issue with the review, but so did one of the book’s contributing essayists! When you write a book, you have to expect that there’s going to be some negative criticism — the reviews aren’t all going to be glowing. But Loh apparently hit a nerve when she questioned the validity of a book that focuses mainly on the experiences of mostly white, upper-middle class mothers.
There are definitelty a lot of struggles to being a mom today — I know because I am one. But I’m one of the lucky ones — my husband has a great job, we have a wonderful daughter who goes to a good school, and I have been able to make a choice to work part-time while my daughter is small. We live in a lovely neighborhood in a nice house, etc., etc. While there are challenges to anyone’s parenting experience, we’re the lucky ones. Moms like me should stop bickering with each other and we should all start focusing on fighting a war for the mothers who don’t have our choices — the ones who must work, sometimes more than one job, to feed their families and make sure their kids have health insurance. How about if we find a way to stop whispering behind the backs of other moms about who brought what to the last class party and think about mothers as a political movement to help other mothers? If we can find time to write about this topic, I say we have time to take it to the next level and become mommy advocates instead of mommy warriors.
Last month, I called for an end to the mommy wars, but I guess no one was listening. What we need is a mommy strategy. If other “special interest” groups can consolidate resources and figure out how to lobby for change, isn’t it time for use to do the same for the mothers who are really waging war every day — the war to keep their families going one day at a time?
Mon, June 12, 2006
Uncategorized