Today's Mother Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Today's Mother - Essay Example Being a mother in the modern world implies being capable of juggling amid family life and career life. It involves bushel of stress and sometimes results in a lot of guilt especially if the mother cannot meet the dubious societal expectations. The mothers are supposed to bear babies but requests for maternal leaves are sometimes viewed with resentment. Modern women and particularly mothers are overstrained with idealistic expectations of motherly perfection. The unrealistic expectations are inflicted by the society or they impose on themselves. The standards set for the woman to meet are unrealistic and detrimental to the mother’s personal and professional existence. A professional mother is expected to fulfil obligations such as breastfeeding without taking advantage of artificial options available. A mother who chooses to wean their children in less than two years feels guilty and inadequate since the society views such attempts with condescension. The pressure to meet the s ocietal expectations of motherhood and retain their own identity as professionals harries modern mothers. This paper focuses on how the modern demands of motherhood has challenged and undermined the identity and status of women in the society. The working mother has no choice but to act perfect and not grumble on her shortfalls to avoid being perceived as amateurish. They also have to avoid talking of any hitches they may be going through to make the word believe they can effortlessly manage between their career life and family life or else they will be disparaged (Fay, 2012). Mothers are supposed to make sacrifices on their careers, be homemakers, and become dependent on their husbands for financial needs in order to meet the societal expectations and standards. Mothers who choose to employ house helps are branded as incompetent mothers. Any misbehaviour on the children is blamed on the mother. After giving birth, the mother is supposed to ensure she retains her youthful look or el se the husband is free to be unfaithful if they are discontented with their wives. Unlike in the1950s when women did not have to work modern women have to manage both their career life and find time to be with their children as well as husbands. Lack of government policies such as paid family leave make it impossible for most mothers to breast-feed their children since most have to work in order to support their families or supplement their husband’s earnings. However, they still receive great criticism if they choose other options such as taking their children to daycares to create time to meet other obligations. Women face great challenges principally those who chose to engage in politics as they are subjected to chauvinist jokes. A woman who chooses to dedicate her life in politics is labelled a bad mother irrespective of whether she has proved otherwise (Fay, 2012). Modern women have to balance between work, love life, and family. Demand such as taking care of babies part icularly breastfeeding binds women to be homemakers. The women schedules are rigid such that it is almost impossible for them to nurse their babies and work at the same time. Having a proper social life is almost impossible for some mothers. Women have to keep apologizing to their bosses for being mothers especially when their motherhood commitments such as childbearing cannot allow them achieve their obligations at work (Badinter, 2012) Some people like Badinter blame the problem on the aspiration women to be liberal mothers. She claims modern mother can somehow be blamed for the strain they have to undergo as they try to prove to the society that they are capable of being career women and practice traditional motherhood. She claims that contemporary motherhood undermines mother’