- Hiroshima in the Morning
- Originally posted at Yahoo on |03/04/2011 07:15 pm
Rahna Rizzuto's book "Hiroshima in the morning" struck a cord.
That sensation that one is engulfed/overwhelmed by motherhood.
As someone who has wanted to focus on writing and been inspired by the words of Virginia Woolf in "A Room of One's Own" long ago, it remains a challenge to THINK and tune out 3 rambunctious boys. Most of us moms won't ever even come close to admitting this sense of complete submission to the task of "mothering."
It was one I sought and love (the most important job/mission of my life), but nothing prepares one for the never ending challenges, especially when it came to saving the lives (literally) of two of my three boys from the mysteriously cruel effects of autism while husband deployed with back to back combat tours.
Yet, I could never imagine being a "part time" mom like Rizzuto. BUT I can certainly empathize with her and wish her well. It sounds like her family found a space, a way, that worked for them.
What her dilemma brings to the fore is the reality of modern, atomized/nuclearized, life: women are expected to work, play wife, mom and friend all the while taking caring of the gazillion household chores (yes, yes, men have stepped up to the plate...only now society expects so little from "children"). Amy Chua's book "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom" was the other recent book that caught my attention on parenting.
Yes, Armstead, my first born,gets to experience some of the Tiger Mom as I seemingly berate him on the merits of working hard vice just assuming things will come to him because he is very intelligent. Somehow I believe that constant repetition/reminders on the merits of hard work will sink in and my diatribes will end. These two recent books highlight the reality that parenting isn't for the meek if one is to do it right and well in order to produce decent, functioning, adults. Well, on that note I'll end my first blog entry.
