“If there is anything that makes me not want to have another baby, it is this essential conflict, this hatred of being trapped in laundry, bottles, schedules, tiny runny noses. But none of this is about you: I don’t wish… — Andrea J. Buchanan Copy Share Image
“we all just figure this out as we go along. There’s no textbook, there’s no rules, there’s no right way to love her. You… — Andrea J. Buchanan Copy Share Image
“In some ways love is easier as my daughter gets older. For one thing I have more feedback, more proof that my love is reciprocated, in her spontaneous declarations of “Mommy, I love you so much!” or “Mommy, I love your green eyes.” Of course, in some ways, in retrospect, it was easier to love when she was tiny, speechless,… — Andrea J. Buchanan Copy Share
“But I know my real fear about your growing older is not only about the millions of things that could happen. It is about how afraid I am of what I imagine as the inevitable separation that will come between us. I don’t know why I am so convinced it will happen, but I am afraid that it will, and… — Andrea J. Buchanan Copy Share
“motherhood is not a job at all. It is a full-time, all-consuming, life-subsuming career with no pay, no stock options, no social security, and… — Andrea J. Buchanan Copy Share Image
“Consider one study that estimates a mom simultaneously and often single-handedly performs as many as seventeen occupations in the course of raising a child, from child-rearing, cooking, cleaning, chauffeuring, and financial planning to resolving family emotional problems (not to mention often doing part-time paid work in addition to it all). That particular study estimated a mother’s worth at $508,700 a… — Andrea J. Buchanan Copy Share
“So let’s imagine for now that our love for our children and our thankfulness for their existence is a given. Let’s imagine that no one can possibly doubt the depths of our feelings for our sons and daughters. Let’s imagine that everyone in the world knows exactly how much we love all the many things there are to love about… — Andrea J. Buchanan Copy Share
“for the most part, my peers, like me, have embarked on the eternal compromise that is dealing with a toddler. We are no longer inexperienced, we are no longer naively confident that our superb parenting skills will produce the perfectly well-behaved mini-adult, we are willing to admit that for the most part we simply want to get through the day.… — Andrea J. Buchanan Copy Share
“Pre-baby I used to fantasize about winning the lottery, or becoming deliriously famous and rich. Now I fantasize about sleep. I fantasize about slumber… — Andrea J. Buchanan Copy Share Image
“I will feel the pang of separation when she is two, when she is twelve, when she is twenty. My daughter will tackle other… — Andrea J. Buchanan Copy Share Image
“It’s harder than you think to admit your even occasional dissatisfaction as a mother without feeling instant guilt, an immediate sensation of shame for… — Andrea J. Buchanan Copy Share Image
“Our staunch ideals of how we will raise our children get significantly reshaped by those very kids once they’re here in the world running… — Andrea J. Buchanan Copy Share Image
“I swear over everything from being woken up in the middle of the night to realizing I’ve left the wet clothes in the washer… — Andrea J. Buchanan Copy Share Image
