Motherhood? It's not for me.

In reading this week's articles, I was finally given a sense of normalcy. I cannot think of a time when I was excited to be a mother someday. I have always been terrified of the idea of having to care for another human being. Hearing about the "childfree" movement, I was excited that there are plenty of other people like me out there. I am not alone in my desire to retain my current quality of life as I know it. I realize that I am much too selfish to have a child, especially at this point in my life. I have too many desires and dreams of my own to have to share my life with a kid. Challenging this and other cultural norms is important because there is no clear image of what a family looks like. Normalcy is ambiguous.

One issue that Glubka raised in her article was the problem of women using motherhood as a way to validate their lives, give themselves value. However, there are plenty of other ways to give your life value and many other roles that can be taken on other than "mother." Glubka talks specifically about how she does not like what motherhood entails. This is a socially constructed idea, though. Motherhood is likely different across the board, but we are ingrained with an idea of what motherhood is supposed to be. Glubka said it required total investment in the child. Gerson also reinforced this idea when talking about how mothers are the ones who are supposed to be nurturing and not fathers. Societal expectations of mothers put a lot of pressure on the role because it is supposed to be "natural" for women to want children and to know how to raise them. However, I think that there are plenty of people in the world who, like me, don't feel this "natural" desire.

I also found it interesting that Glubka referred to motherhood as a "job." The articles about family, especially Rubin's article, discussed how many men do not think that their wives work as hard in the home as the husbands work outside of the home. But I believe Glubka is right - motherhood is an extremely demanding and difficult job that doesn't produce money, but something greater: a human being. How men do not view this as a job is likely due to the emphasis that caring for the children and the home are just what women are "supposed" to do. Gerson talked about men who wanted to stay home with their families, but that society does not deem this as acceptable. Challenging societal norms is an important part of modifying the idea of "family." Women not wanting children? Men wanting to be househusbands? Not actually that uncommon, but we choose not to see it.