One Beautiful Dream: The Rollicking Tale of Family Chaos, Personal Passions, and Saying Yes to Them Both

by Jennifer Fulwiler

this idea that the perfect mother would spend hours out of each day on the floor with her young children, gazing into their eyes as she slowly articulated the sound of each letter on the educational wooden alphabet blocks they were building into a tower. She would take her four-monthold baby to Mom ’n’ Me music classes and sit cross-legged on the floor, clapping her infant’s hands to the beats of the nursery songs. Now I suddenly realized that mothers throughout history never did this; they never had time. Children’s primary sources of entertainment were outdoor play and other kids, not their mothers.

it’s hard in other ways. You never get to rest your mind. You’re stuck in a house with the kids. You’re supposed to have your eyes on them all day, every day. Everything’s all a ruckus all the time, even at night. I think maybe you modern girls need things like your blogs and your Facepages or what-have-you to keep from losing your minds.”

But I often thought it was also because we didn’t have big life pressures to keep us from disagreeing over minutia. We almost never got in arguments anymore, for the same reason that people stuck in life boats surrounded by sharks don’t spend much time arguing with one another.