Pilgrim, Mother

The birth of my child, Madeleine left me in an open field, literally wondering where my self had gone. There were many versions of myself I had imagined and worked towards: the professor, the writer, the world traveler. The mother did not fit in any of these versions. But the loss of the sense of

Towards a Manifesto of Feminist Homemaking, Part 1

If you had told me 6 years ago that today I would be writing about the dignity of homemaking, I probably would have spit beer out my nose. Homemaking was the furthest thing from my mind, filled as it was with the dissertation I was writing on war literature and trauma. Homemaking and dignity, in

A Spirituality of Backpacking with Children, or, the Mechanics of Potty-Training in the Woods

    When my husband called at noon, I was just about to pack our backpacks with the gear and food I had divvied up for the two of us. But, when I heard his tone, it was clear he wouldn’t be able to make the trip we’d planned to Lost Maples Natural Area to

What to Say to a Mom

  I’ve had the experience, too, so don’t feel bad. You know, when you’re mingling at some social function, and you ask a woman what she does and she says, “I’m a stay at home mom,” or some variation on that theme, and your mind screeches to a halt.   It’s actually perfectly understandable, when

Working Women and the Work of Women

  Why is that the truth of my work as a mother always feels like it disparages the work of another mother?   Ever since I began staying with my kids full-time, I started calling myself a full-time mother. I used “full-time mother” to describe what I do, because it puts the work I’m doing