Momfluenced Quotes

“It’s impossible to know if investing time and money in my domestic space is making me happier as a mother, but I’m loath to imagine a world in which my maternal labor is unvalued, unpaid, and disrespected and there’s no reprieve to be found in buying something to soothe the ache of longing.”
― Sara Petersen, Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture

“Hitha’s frustration with the term “momfluencer” mirrors my own irritation when people talk about “mommy writers,” as if my choice to write about motherhood—one of the most dramatic, life-shaking, archetypal journeys of the human experience—is somehow less worthy or important than a [male] writer choosing to write a bildungsroman about a guy going through some shit in his twenties.”
― Sara Petersen, Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture

“Then there are the personal reasons. I love my kids, but I often don’t love being a mother. The other day, in a text thread with friends also sick of nonstop pandemic parenting, I wrote, “I just want to listen to podcasts and keep them alive.” It’s so boring, so hard, and so thankless. I’m often bad at it. Which is why I’m fascinated by the thousands of mothers on Instagram who make it look magical, like the only thing anyone would ever want to be.”
― Sara Petersen, Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture

“I think I missed the fact that maybe my longing for a third baby was also impacted, at least a little bit, by momfluencers like Taza who made pregnancy and motherhood look good. I forgot to credit them for being one of the many fucked-up reasons I craved another baby.”
― Sara Petersen, Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture

“Kristin recounted a recent incident when she overheard a woman in a grocery store checkout line telling a friend that, because Washington State had finally passed paid family medical leave, she could now start the family she had put off for so long. “This woman didn’t know about how many years of work it had taken to get there,” Kristin explained. “They didn’t know about the long fight.”
― Sara Petersen, Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture