Motherhood Books

Part memoir, part self-help, part comprehensive cultural analysis, this book gets to the crux of the paradoxes, tensions and difficulties so common to the experience of modern motherhood.

With total honesty and openness, and without resorting to slapstick humor or analytical shortcuts, Maschka takes us through her rocky journey of adjusting to motherhood ~ of figuring out how to be a mother yet still be herself, of how to integrate the different parts of her life and identity, and how, along the way, she had to remodel her own view of motherhood, parenting, and modern family life.

Maschka’s experiences and the questions she asks will almost certainly resonate with new mothers everywhere. Her questions and struggles are things that confront us all, as they are central features of modern motherhood.

And even more importantly, she gets to the heart of problems we rarely dare to speak about out loud. Questions like:

• Why, when household duties and responsibly used to be fairly shared, am I suddenly to be the one responsible for all the housework as well as all the baby care? Why are my husband and I suddenly functioning like a 1950s family?
• Who am I now? How can I feel like a good mother, without totally losing myself in motherhood? Why do I feel like I’ve lost something truly important and central, when I’ve just gained something so special?
• Why do I feel angry at my husband because his life is carrying on as it always has while mine seems to have changed so dramatically?
• Why am I so obsessed with saving time? Why do I feel so busy and tired all the time?
• Is what I do all day really work? It feels and looks like work, so why don’t other people seem see it as work?
• Am I imagining things, or have I suddenly become invisible at social functions?
• Why do I feel like there’s been a shift in the power balance of my relationship? Why do I suddenly feel so financially vulnerable?

• Why does it seem so difficult to make employment "fit" and integrate with my new life and responsibilities?

The excellence of this motherhood book lies in the fact that it is more than a memoir, more than just a cultural analysis of modern motherhood, and more than just a self help book. It is all three of these things blended together.

In reading Maschka’s motherhood book, you feel connected and comforted (because we can all identify with her experiences), you feel enlightened and informed (Maschka ’s done an amazing amount of research), and you come away with actual strategies, tips and tools for how to make your life better (including websites to check out, mothers groups to look into, other motherhood books and resources, and a whole bunch of helpful suggestions, ideas and strategies).

Of all the motherhood books I've read over the years, this one's a definite favorite.

Go to Kristin Maschka's website to learn more
about Remodeling Motherhood