Mama Byrd

I enjoyed reading this Newsweek article, “Enough with the Mommy wars!” I agree with much of what the author had to say (I do think that most people who don’t have children are baffled by the fact that these parenting things are debated ad nauseum). I also think that the reason most of us mommies come off militantly crazy is that we genuinely care about how we raise our kids, and we’re just insecure enough to be scared to death that we’re messing something up. In my experience, most of the rabid disapproval that we display for someone else’s decision to work (or homeschool or bottle-feed) is born out of a deep-seeded fear that we might be doing it wrong ourselves.

I’ve been on both sides of most of the debates: I breastfed one child for 18 months, and I bottle-fed another beginning at 4 months. I’ve had two drug-free births and one cesearean section. I was a stay-at-home mom for 4 years, and I’ve been a working mom for 4 years. Just about the only thing I haven’t tried is homeschooling (although I mentioned to my husband last week that I wouldn’t be opposed to it under the right circumstances, which is a big step for me!).

You know what? It doesn’t really matter. All three of my kids are pretty normal. None of them have ADHD. None of them have attachment disorders. None of them are geniuses.

Any other moms out there have an opinion on why things that ultimately don’t really matter somehow matter so much?

Filed under: Mommy wars, family, kids on August 8th, 2007