The Moms Aren’t Getting Awards

I wish I didn’t do a mother volume before I was a mother because I didn’t know just how hard it all is and would continue to be. How all-encompassing. How everything it is. I was getting awards for my professional work, but no one is giving me awards for what is supremely the hardest job I’ve ever had. The moms aren’t getting awards. 

The Mother Volume is a moment in time, like a tattoo I once really felt but now don’t feel so much. Like the Ulysses quote I got on my back when I was 18 and feeling carpe diem and the drowning Ophelia illustration I got when I was 29 and feeling hopeless. Even though those feelings don’t feel so all-encompassing now, I don’t hide those tattoos in shame. And I do really love the mother volume, as many of you do. I just now feel there is a lot more to talk about. I’m glad we now have this online space to do just that.

During the making of The Mother Volume, I last-minute asked people for their birth stories. And holy were they intense. They didn’t make it into the volume, but they will make it onto this website. We need to hear these stories. We need to hear all the stories. We need to prepare our women for all the womanly things. We should do a book. I hear we should do one about menopause, too. I'm only just starting to hear snippets about that fun time. Oh, being a woman.

So, I wish I didn’t do a mother volume before I was a mother because while it’s a great volume, I feel it doesn’t do “mothering” justice. Nothing does mothering justice. Perhaps, maybe, just the love between you and your wee one. Thank god for that.