About a decade ago Ayelet Waldman wrote “Motherlove” – a controversial essay that ignited a firestorm and outraged those in the parenting community. The piece (reprinted in the New York Times column “Modern Love”) explored the nature of intimate spousal relationships and set forth a simple premise, one that was hard for some to digest. Waldman wrote that her children were not the center of her world, that “they were satellites, beloved but tangential.” That was the controversial part. Though Waldman proclaimed her love for her four children, she said “if you focus all of your emotional passion on your children and you neglect the relationship that brought that family into existence... eventually, things can go really, really wrong.”
Now don’t worry, things aren’t dire on this end, but I have been thinking a lot about how to balance life’s demands, which include work, marriage and motherhood. I don’t agree with all of Waldman’s points (Otis and Theo, you’re not satellites to me!), but there are parts of her essay that resonated with me. I agree with the idea that marriages need nurturing, and in our fast-paced world, quality time can be elusive.
Raising children has lots of rewards,
but it can also be exhausting. I love my boys dearly, but by the end of the day
I’m spent and it seems like the only thing I have energy for is scrolling
through Pinterest (or some other activity that doesn’t require a lot of brain
power). Once I pick those little energized bunnies up from school there’s
cooking to do, books to read, baths to take, lots of cleaning (I’m very
particular), laundry to be folded, and
I’ve got to identify and remove the foul and mysterious odors emanating from
the car. By the time everything is done it’s about 10 p.m. and I’ve got very
little gas left in the tank, no pun intended.
Look, this is part of the life I wanted and it’s what I signed up for. However, I have come to recognize the need to reorganize things a bit and shift priorities a little. I definitely need more quality time with my husband. It’s sometimes hard to carve out the hours needed to reconnect and remind us why we decided to couple in the first place. But where’s there’s a will, there’s a way!
With that in mind….
