Ayelet Waldman, the original Bad Mother
I love “Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace,” Ayelet Waldman’s new book. A copy of it showed up in my P.O. box — late Mother’s Day present, heh heh. So. Good. Review to follow; reading now. Hear her husband is a pretty good writer, too. HA! That’s a BOOK JOKE, people. She’s married to Michael Chabon. She’s the one the UrbanMamas and UrbanBaby mommies like to rip apart — in 2005 she wrote a column for the New York Times wherein she admitted to loving her husband more than her children.
Why?
Well, she figured that must be it, cuz she, unlike most of her mom friends, was still having sex with her husband. And enjoying it. WTF? Someone who likes to “F”? The nerve.
“In that essay I wondered about why so many of the women I knew were not having sex with their husbands, while I still was, and I concluded that it might be because they, unlike me, had re-focused their passion from their husbands or partners onto their children. I wrote, ‘Libido, as she once knew it, is gone, and in its place is all-consuming maternal desire.'”
Yep. That was the spark that started the fire.
Here’s her website if you want more. And if you’d like to hear her read the first chapter of the book, here ya go:
, 
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Ooohhh…I’m really curious to read this one. I never viewed it as a choice. I love my husband AND my children. Shocking? No? Didn’t think so. My love for each is different. Isn’t that good? Of course I adore my children, but they will grow up and leave, as they should. I hope we are always close. But then it will be just Donn and I, still together. If I don’t love him as least as much, what will there be for us?
Conclusion: some people are stupid.
May 13th, 2009 | #
That looks really good. I can’t wait to get my turn to read it (there were already 20 holds).
I agree with edj. I love them all (both my daughters and my husband) equally but in different ways. I say to Ali, ‘You’re MY FAVORITE blue-eyed girl IN THE WHOLE WORLD!’ I say/said to Toria, ‘You’re MY FAVORITE brown-eyed girl IN THE WHOLE WORLD!’ And I let Chris know how much I love him in lots of different ways.
The love is so different how would I measure one against the other?
I think this is what is called, in lofty circles, a false dichotomy.
May 13th, 2009 | #