My understanding of Sarah's post was entirely different to those above. I understood it to mean that we have become a society of greed and dissatisfaction, for one. And for two, she mentioned more about how mothers can be happy with so little in other cultures more than history of our own culture.
The fact that we are disjointed as a community. We don't know our neighbours, yet our loved ones are miles away. We don't band together like they did in my mother's day. She had neighbours who were all also SAHM and they spent their days together. Not all of our mother's remember it like this, but more do in that era than we do now.
I think it is a case of for every great progression we achieved, we lost a little of the good from past generations. Family seems to be coming second to career now more than ever. My own experience had me going through terrible "me" withdrawals, that my mother said she never had. She never had great career expectations, so she never felt its loss. On the other hand, I loved my career, and will return one day. In the meantime, I work minimally, rely on my husband mostly, and work around my children instead of despite them.
We live minimally, and have had many blessings, so I am never judging of other's circumstances and choices, that is not my point. My point is along the lines of Sarah's and that is that it is a shame our culture has removed itself so far from minimalistic and natural to the point where mothers have NO CHOICE but to be away from their children. No mother should have that choice taken from them. If they want to work, yay. If they want to stay home, yay. But what about if they want to stay home - but can't? No yay there, is there?
Unless your career of choice is plowing a field where you can sling bubs on your back and get on with it, how can we fulfill our AP desires and move on with life as a working mother in this culture? It is very hard. I think her point was brilliant, and in favour of both working moms and stay at home moms, but against society for placing such demands on us.
The fact that we are disjointed as a community. We don't know our neighbours, yet our loved ones are miles away. We don't band together like they did in my mother's day. She had neighbours who were all also SAHM and they spent their days together. Not all of our mother's remember it like this, but more do in that era than we do now.
I think it is a case of for every great progression we achieved, we lost a little of the good from past generations. Family seems to be coming second to career now more than ever. My own experience had me going through terrible "me" withdrawals, that my mother said she never had. She never had great career expectations, so she never felt its loss. On the other hand, I loved my career, and will return one day. In the meantime, I work minimally, rely on my husband mostly, and work around my children instead of despite them.
We live minimally, and have had many blessings, so I am never judging of other's circumstances and choices, that is not my point. My point is along the lines of Sarah's and that is that it is a shame our culture has removed itself so far from minimalistic and natural to the point where mothers have NO CHOICE but to be away from their children. No mother should have that choice taken from them. If they want to work, yay. If they want to stay home, yay. But what about if they want to stay home - but can't? No yay there, is there?
Unless your career of choice is plowing a field where you can sling bubs on your back and get on with it, how can we fulfill our AP desires and move on with life as a working mother in this culture? It is very hard. I think her point was brilliant, and in favour of both working moms and stay at home moms, but against society for placing such demands on us.
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