More Mother Myths

A continuation of 4 Mother Myths

Bad Mother Myths

5. Mothers are Inferior to Fathers- dad is just appreciated for trying, mom rarely gets respect for all the unpaid work she does

I have even been guilty of saying “I get along with men better than women” Hello- Lightbulb moment from this quote

If you have a sense of your own worthlessness, then somebody else from your class or race or religion is clearly not to be looked up to. This is one of the bases for the pathology of women saying, “I don’t get along with women. I get along with men; they’re superior, so if I get along with them I’m superior; I’ve left all my class behind.”

6. Mothers Need Experts’ Advice To Raise Healthy Children– Experts say we don’t do enough or we do to much… aka Mothers can not do anything right. Feeds the belief that mother is inadequate/ dependent on others to tell her what to do. If mothers stop doing this we could really change the world….

From The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher – By John Taylor Gatto, New York State Teacher of the Year, 1991

Good people wait for an expert to tell them what to do. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that our entire economy depends upon this lesson being learned. Think of what would fall apart if kids weren’t trained to be dependent: the social-service businesses could hardly survive; they would vanish, I think, into the recent historical limbo out of which they arose. Counselors and therapists would look on in horror as the supply of psychic invalids vanished. Commercial entertainment of all sorts, including television, would wither as people learned again how to make their own fun. Restaurants, prepared-food and a whole host of other assorted food services would be drastically down-sized if people returned to making their own meals rather than depending on strangers to plant, pick, chop, and cook for them. Much of modern law, medicine, and engineering would go too, the clothing business and schoolteaching as well, unless a guaranteed supply of helpless people continued to pour out of our schools each year.

7. Mothers (And Daughters) are Bottomless Pits of Neediness– If believed, then naturally we have to do something when someone is upset. When being there and just listening is often enough.

8. Mother-Daughter Closeness is Unhealthy– or it fosters dependence at the same time dependence on a man is acceptable. The author states it can be unhealthy when a person does not recognize themselves as separate from another. I think this would be much like co-dependency.

9. Women are Dangerous (more dangerous then men) When They’re Powerful– womens power does much to nurture and grow others around us