Why Have Kids? A New Mom Explores the Truth about Parenting and Happiness
Why Have Kids?
because I think it’s adorable that he sleeps with a SeatPets Airheart monster, Baby the penguin, and one glove on a flip chair in the living room floor!!
If you have read anything on my blog, you are probably quite aware that I am totally in love with being Mommy to my boy. I love the little man he is becoming and we have so much fun together. We laugh and play and he even still loves to cuddle with me. He’s quite the little character and he likes to make people laugh. You can tell that he is happy and that makes me happy.
I can’t think of my daughter as a “job.” Raising her is incredibly hard to be sure, but it’s a relationship first and foremost. #WhyHaveKids — Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) September 14, 2012
But, there are times when things are hard. Like when I pick him up every day from daycare and he has had an “accident” because he refuses to go – I get frustrated. Or when I have a blog post due and he wants to play with trains…with me…I feel guilty. I wonder about my childless life before he came along. I crave my quiet time and my little secret this week in particular is that I am totally loving my week alone in a hotel for work.
I think we have lost the “it takes a village” model of parenting&we need it back. I <3 that my daughter has multiple caregivers #WhyHaveKids — Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) September 14, 2012
Why have kids if you aren’t going to stay home and raise them?
Since I began blogging, I have met a lot of women who are stay at home moms or who are blogging to get to that point. I can say that the thought has entered my mind…but then I started thinking straight again!! I am in awe of a stay-at-home mom, but I need my time away and he needs to be around other kids AND adults!!
Why Have Kids? A New Mom Explores the Truth about Parenting and Happiness
by Jessica Valenti
One of the most high-profile young feminists in America, Jessica Valenti takes on the controversial – but necessary – question: Why Have Kids?. If the statistics confirm that parenting is making Americans unhappy, then Valenti’s question is poised to spark an essential and honest conversation about modern parenthood. Through on-the-ground reporting, new scientific studies, and her own burgeoning motherhood, Valenti offers an in-depth exposé of the world of having (and not having) children. She moves beyond the black and white “mommy wars” over natural parenting, discipline, and work-life balance to explore a more nuanced reality: one filled with ambivalence, joy, guilt, and exhaustion.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jessica Valenti is the author of three previous books, including The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women. She is also the founder of Feministing.com, which the Columbia Journalism Review called “head and shoulders above almost any writing on women’s issues in mainstream media.” Jessica – called one of the top 100 inspiring women in the world by the Guardian – speaks at universities and organizations in the U.S. and abroad about feminism, activism, and media. She lives with her family in Boston, but remains a New Yorker at heart.
♦ Jessica Valenti ♦
♦ Jessica Valenti on Facebook ♦ @JessicaValenti on Twitter ♦
Why did you have or not have kids?!!
This post was made possible by Mom Spark Media. Thoughts are my own. I received a copy of Why Have Kids? and compensation for my time investment and work on this campaign.
My friend has a 2 year old. I watch her life how she has to deal with her nonstop. I am glad I don’t have kids. I hope I never have any. My life is stress free & easier.
After a long day of whining and fussing, when I just want to lock myself in my room, my little man crawling up in my lap and cuddling makes it all worth it
Being a Mom is like nothing else! I especially like when your out and a kid will say Mom and of course all most every woman their will turn around! It still makes me laugh,even though my Son is grown up!
I would have loved to have children but financially, I just couldn’t do it.