April 22, 2014
Challenging the Mommy Wars
When I was in Kingston last week, I sat down with Hollie Pratt Campbell, editor of the Kingston Heritage and Frontenac Gazette, and we had a terrific conversation over a couple cups of coffee. She turned that conversation into a really great article about The M Word that totally gets the book and the power of all its stories together.
When Kerry Clare’s first daughter, Harriet, was born in 2009, she found herself with a new life obsession.
“It was my occupation, but it was also my preoccupation, because it was all I could talk about,” the Toronto-based writer and editor says of her new role as a mother, recalling the many books she read and conversations she had with friends on the topic.
“But I also began to see that my preoccupation was alienating for some people. I had friends who couldn’t relate to these experiences. I had one friend who was having fertility problems. She was having a miserable time and felt so apart from women and mothers and where she wanted to be in her life. I started to think about how [the experiences of women who are not mothers] fit into the motherhood narrative even if it wasn’t in the conventional way.”
You can read the whole thing here. I’m so pleased with it!
