The Perfect Mother Quotes

“That’s all I wanted to do. Really. Just talk to Joshua. Tell him that being with him is the only thing that’s ever mattered to me. Let him know about the letters I’ve been writing him, maybe offer to read one or two, so he’d know exactly how I feel, and how much I still want him. How sorry I am for anything I may have done wrong.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“bad things happen in heat like this”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“Deep breathing initiates the parasympathetic nervous system, the rest-and-relax state.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“It’s no wonder I eventually started loathing them. Really, who can stand to listen to that level of certainty? To sit through the judgment?”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“Some want it to happen. Some wish it would happen. Some make it happen.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“I didn’t tell them how hard everything was without Joshua. How much I loved him. How I would have given up everything—everything—to be with him again. Even for just one night.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“Joshua’s genes are no better. I would talk to him about this sometimes, asking if it worried him, the DNA he has to work hard to outsmart. His own crazy father: the brilliant doctor, so warm and charming with patients. The violent alcoholic behind closed doors.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“Good genes—that’s what people have always said about me. They’re talking about the fact that I am tall and thin, that I have a nearly symmetrical face. What they are not talking about are the other genes I’ve inherited.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“And finally Nell: British, cool, eschewing the books and the expert advice. So trust-your-instincts. So I-really-shouldn’t. (I really shouldn’t have that chocolate-chip muffin. Those chips. That third gin and tonic.) But there was something else about Nell, something below the salty exterior I spotted from day one: she, like me, was a woman with a secret.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“then Colette, everyone’s girl crush, our trusted friend. One of the pretty ones, with her auburn shampoo-commercial hair, her Colorado-bred effortlessness and unmedicated home birth—the perfect female, topped in powdered sugar.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“First, there was Francie. If our group had a mascot, someone to glue themselves in feathers and lead our team in three cheers for motherhood, it was her. Miss Eager-to-Be-Liked, to not screw anything up, so plump with hope and rich Southern carbs.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“How fast the time goes. That’s what people were always telling us, at least; the strangers’ hands on our bellies, saying how careful we must be to enjoy the time. How it’ll all be over in a blink of an eye. How before we know it, they’ll be walking, talking, leaving us.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“postpartum, and”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“Unii vor ca un lucru sa se intample. Altii isi doresc ca lucrul sa se intample. Iar altii il fac sa se intample.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“None of it matters, these steps to look completely different, to be completely different. She’s still her. She’ll always be her.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“The only thing worse for a woman than making herself dependent on a man—’” Nell finishes her sentence: “‘—is to have a child dependent on her.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“Attention all kitchen utensils, unfinished books, “useless childhood artifacts,” and general household objects: take heed. Colette Yates is nesting. None of you are safe.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“Getting help for yourself can sometimes be the best thing you can do for your baby.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“But she’s too afraid. Afraid that if she begins, she’ll start to cry and never stop, that she’ll be swallowed by her sadness, her fear, how overwhelmed she is, how certain she is that everything she has is slipping away.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“You know what, sweetheart? If you ever feel even slightly inclined to come into my office and seduce me while I’m writing, you should act on it. Immediately. Even if I’m on the phone with my editor. Even if my parents are there. Even if I happen, for whatever reason, to be hosting a meeting with the pope. I will stop the discussion, and I will pleasure you right then and there, in a wholly spectacular fashion.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“She’d stayed after lab and told him, explaining about the morning sickness and the positive pregnancy test. He collected his things, said he had to go, telling her he’d call later that night. The gym teacher was in his place at the front of the classroom the next day. She never saw him again.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“Try a glass of warm milk, a square of cheese, or even a little turkey breast before bed—these foods contain tryptophan, which will help encourage a good night’s sleep”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother

“In fact, the US is the only country besides Papua New Guinea that doesn’t mandate paid leave. The United States. The country of family values.”
― Aimee Molloy, The Perfect Mother