Update on Bored Mom

Remember the woman who admitted being bored with her children? I blogged about it at the time and stated the following:

I bet this woman will wish she had kept her self-centered thoughts to herself

It turns out I was a little too optimistic about it, the woman is even more entrenched in her position and has had validation from other moms who are bored with their kids as well:

But, for all the furore around its publication, I realised I wasn't alone. Almost from the first school run, mothers came racing over to me to tell me what they found boring about their day.

A barrage of e-mails arrived from mothers worldwide. While some wanted to take my life, others took my view. No wonder I've been asked to address so many conferences.

European women such as Chiara from Italy told me to: 'Keep the flame going girl.' While Tina in New York said she had e-mailed the story as a hint to all her smug mother friends.
[...]
It was refreshing for a German editor to tell me they chose not to write about the story simply because there was no debate. Being a Yummy Mummy, he explained, just isn't fashionable in Germany in the way it is here. 'Every German woman knows kids can be boring,' he said.

In mainland Europe, they use daycare or their own mothers to ease the load. They don't expect women to spend the day alone with children. It is only in the UK and America that mothering has become an exclusive relationship.

And she's become a celebrity:

Then came the phone calls - TV and book offers.
[...]
Meanwhile, Ivan was adamant I should appear on Oprah Winfrey. As my story covered in different newspapers and languages, my age changed (up and down), my children acquired Italian names (Constantino), I owned three houses (news to me), and I (unwittingly) became a professor.

And retained her disdain for motherhood:

Nowadays, mothering here has become a blood sport. Women who have waited until their late 30s and early 40s to have kids idolise them like fine art and focus their attention on them.

No opportunity to hothouse can be missed; no moment left in quiet repose. Motherhood is now a four-lane motorway, and driving the wrong car or taking the wrong exit spells disaster.

[...]
When did the obsessively competitive mothers I call the 'Mama Sharks' take over? In their view, if you don't spend 24 hours a day enjoying breast-feeding, reading Thomas The Tank Engine stories or watching your toddler throw tantrums in public, you aren't fit to have a child at all.

But she did change her tune a little, the woman who originally said this:

My children have got used to my disappearing to the gym when they're doing their prep (how boring to learn something you never wanted to learn in the first place).

They know better than to expect me to sit through a cricket match, and they've completely given up on expecting me to spend school holidays taking them to museums or enjoying the latest cinema block-boster alongside them. (I spent two hours texting friends throughout a screening of Pirates Of The Caribbean the other day).

Is now saying this:

Having worked from home since they were born, I have been present at most activities (boring though most of them were). I never had to chose between an editorial meeting and a school play (although a meeting would have been far more exciting).

I guess it will become popular to hate motherhood since we'll want to be more like the Europeans. Yes, maybe Germany is the nation to emulate. How American to love your kids and want to raise them in an environment of encouragement and love and to make sure they know that they are wanted. We are so backwards and provincial.

Tags: Motherhood, parenting