#mother

Gilbert put his arm about them. 'Oh, you mothers!' he said. 'You mothers! God knew what He was about when He made you. ↗

— L.M. Montgomery

#dreams

My grandmother was a Jewish juggler: she used to worry about six things at once. ↗

— Richard Lewis

#grandmother #jewish #juggler #once #she

My parents raised me that you never ask people about their reproductive plans. “You don’t know their situation,” my mom would say. I considered it such an impolite question that for years I didn’t even ask myself. Thirty-five turned into forty faster than McDonald’s food turns into cold nonfood. ↗

— Tina Fey

#impolite #kids #mcdonalds #mother #food

Mama Ginger came calling, to set the alarm on my biological clock. Oh, and to remind me that there’s no point to me being a woman if I never have children.” “Well, if that’s true, I wasted a hell of a lot of money on panty hose and lipstick.” Jettie snorted. ↗

— Molly Harper

#humor #motherhood #women #dating

The desires for both a good experience and a healthy baby are very much connected, and there is nothing wrong with wanting both! ↗

— Jennetta Billhimer

#birth #childbirth #health #mother #experience

Vous travaillez pour l'armee, madame?' (You are working for the army?), a Frenchwoman said to me early in the Vietnam war, on hearing I had three sons. ↗

— Adrienne Rich

#childbearing #children #motherhood #right-wing-politics #war

...there is still a kind of unique loneliness to child rearing for women. We so often do it in isolation. Add to the fact that in our competitive, perfectionist culture, in which the price woman are required to pay for freedom still seems to be martyrdom, almost everyone lies about motherhood. Part of that lying is loyalty - I can't let on that my kid is the only one on the playground who can't read or play the piano - and part of it is self-protection, since we've made hyper-motherhood a measure of female success. The preferred answer to the question "How are you?" is always "Fine," and the answer to the question "How are the kids?" is supposed to be "Great!" That's true even if the accurate answers would be "terrible" and "a mess." I think it produces its own kind of desperation, especially for women, who yearn to be emotionally open. ↗

— Anna Quindlen

#freedom