About this item

A bracing, hilarious manifesto for motherhood as it ought to be: spontaneous, loving, and just a little bit selfishPre-chewing toddler food. Flash cards for two-year-olds. Endless hours of school gatherings to sit through in smiling silence. How did motherhood--which even under the best circumstances comes with a million small costs and compromises--become a venue for female martyrdom, verging on a sort of socially approved mass masochism? How did the great natural force of maternal love get channeled into a simpering, slavish adherence to an inflexible social norm, a repressive sentimentality festooned with hideous pastel baby accessories? How did the bar to good motherhood get set so high that it's impossible for modern mothers not to feel like they're failing?It doesn't have to be this way--and Daisy Waugh is here to tell us how to opt out of the masochism cycle.