I’ve been thinking a lot today about what it means to be a mother… and, in particular, what our narrow pop-culture narratives tell us being a Good Mother looks like.
Believing in our children, ushering them forth with the tools to be courageous and decent adults, holding them close and finding ways to let them grow into themselves… This is all such delicate and wrenching business.
Those of us who believe in justice and who make decisions about our kids’ lives that align with these values are often working against popular notions of GoodParenting. In many cases, this means not choosing the schools with the highest test scores or fanciest gardens or most well-funded booster clubs. In many cases this means giving up what we are told is “the best” for our kids and writing a new story of “best.”
And this often means walking into the unfamiliar and even uncomfortable, challenging ourselves to reflect deeply about our place in our world and what community means. And making mistakes and making amends when we do.
In a world of constant ‘expert’ advice and competitive parenting, I am grateful to all of you walking here with me. I am grateful for all the mothers and mother-figures and educators and neighbors who have shown me that there are myriad ways to be a GoodMom. And I am so grateful for my children who remind me daily that laundry is never ever done, and that being a part of a big and messy world is a more meaningful than trying to curate a pristine one.
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