Last winter, the New York Times set up an anonymous phone line for the ?parent who?s tired as hell? to vent into. That audio?clips of women confessing in low voices that they?re sick of their kids or maybe not cut out for motherhood, as well as wordless howls of anguish?was the intro to a larger reported series on a pandemic-fuelled crisis among American mothers. Or, more accurately, that this pandemic has exposed. Like many others, I was overwhelmed while listening.
But while I was sympathetic to the voices on that vent line, it was difficult to feel angry or galvanized?even as a mother juggling work and domestic labour and staring down the arrival of a second child at the time. Instead, I just felt sad. I closed my laptop and shoved another load of laundry into the dryer. Not that anyone has the time and energy for such a thing right now, but if you?ll indulge me: Try this little experiment. Pick any one of the news features that have zeroed in on what?s been deemed a parenting crisis in the past year, many of them deeply and excellently reported. Maybe the Times series, or NPR?s package on how the pandemic is breaking women; or even this story, right here on Chatelaine, about the federal Liberals? new task force on women and the economy, and how desperately Canadian moms need relief. Drop any of them into a Facebook or Twitter search bar and take a look at who?s sharing them.
For the most part, it?s moms. That is, almost always. Not the men in hetero households made cons...