“We seem to feel as though the life our children have -- that we have built for them -- is just a delicate house of cards, held together by the most intricate balancing of all its carefully selected components, and… — Judith Warner Copy Share Image
“The Mommy Mystique tells us that we are the luckiest women in the world -- the freest, with the most choices, the broadest horizons, the best luck, and the most wealth. It says we have the knowledge and know-how to make "informed decisions" that will guarantee the successful course of our children's lives. It tells us that if we choose… — Judith Warner Copy Share
“We seem to feel as though the life our children have -- that we have built for them -- is just a delicate house… — Judith Warner Copy Share Image
“Too many of us now allow ourselves to be defined by motherhood and direct every ounce of our energy into our children. This sounds noble on the surface but in fact it's doing no one-- not ourselves, or our children -- any good. Because when we lose ourselves in our mommy selves, we experience this loss as depression. When we… — Judith Warner Copy Share
What kind of choice is it, really, when motherhood forces you into a delicate balancing act -- not just between work and family, as… — Judith Warner Copy Share Image
“Something is missing, and it's something not so easy to name as semiabsent husbands, not so easy to point to as a lack of work, or too much work, or a lack of adequate child care. It's the sense that life should have led up to more than it has. A sense that after all the hard work, for all… — Judith Warner Copy Share
“--what's really unique about maternal anxiety today is our belief that if something goes wrong with or for our children, it's a reflection on… — Judith Warner Copy Share Image
The American middle class, it seems to me, is looking to politicians now to satisfy a pretty basic - and urgent - level of… — Judith Warner Copy Share Image
“All these things we do bespeak a terrible anxiety: that our children simply will not be able to make it through life if we… — Judith Warner Copy Share Image
“There’s a general sense now that children’s rights, children’s needs, children’s wants and desires have taken on too prominent a place in our family… — Judith Warner Copy Share Image
“I found that when women were able to act in line with their natural inclinations and ambitions -- whether to work or stay at… — Judith Warner Copy Share Image
“I realized, listening to the silences that fell sometimes in my interview groups, that there are things that are sayable and unsayable about motherhood… — Judith Warner Copy Share Image
“I experienced a devastating loss of self...But in the same moment, I also recognized that a profound commitment had taken root inside me, and… — Judith Warner Copy Share Image
