I can really relate to this Meg. As a mother now entering the teenage years all I’ve ever heard about them is that they are hard/terrible etc. But I also know I am more surefooted now than I was 13 years ago. There are still so many things we don’t talk about - this plus perimenopause/menopause/the rage/the complexity. Thanks for voicing these words!
I completely agree. I try to boost people up when they are having babies or entering new phases, to counteract the many “just you wait until... XXX” that I have heard so many times along the way. It just gets better is a great one to add to the parenting vocab - and true!
Hi Meg, perhaps you've presented the two concentric circles - a person not wanting to be reduced to 'just' a parent. And the parent asking for space while they raise their child.
I just found this and thought it summed up what I was trying to say, which is my impression of what you are trying to say - "In 'life', I don't want to be reduced to my work. In 'work', I don't want to be reduced to my life." Susan Sontag, As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks 1964 - 1980 (2012) which is quoted in the front material of Bernadette Brennan's Leaping Into Waterfalls, a biography of Gillians Mears.
Love this Meg -- esp your comments on hesitation about going to see motherhood-centric discussions... I feel weird about them sometimes, unsure whether they fully resonate for me... Not sure why exactly
I can really relate to this Meg. As a mother now entering the teenage years all I’ve ever heard about them is that they are hard/terrible etc. But I also know I am more surefooted now than I was 13 years ago. There are still so many things we don’t talk about - this plus perimenopause/menopause/the rage/the complexity. Thanks for voicing these words!
I completely agree. I try to boost people up when they are having babies or entering new phases, to counteract the many “just you wait until... XXX” that I have heard so many times along the way. It just gets better is a great one to add to the parenting vocab - and true!
Hi Meg, perhaps you've presented the two concentric circles - a person not wanting to be reduced to 'just' a parent. And the parent asking for space while they raise their child.
I just found this and thought it summed up what I was trying to say, which is my impression of what you are trying to say - "In 'life', I don't want to be reduced to my work. In 'work', I don't want to be reduced to my life." Susan Sontag, As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks 1964 - 1980 (2012) which is quoted in the front material of Bernadette Brennan's Leaping Into Waterfalls, a biography of Gillians Mears.
Love this Meg -- esp your comments on hesitation about going to see motherhood-centric discussions... I feel weird about them sometimes, unsure whether they fully resonate for me... Not sure why exactly