By Rachel Simmons — 2014
The rewards that come with celebrating my girl’s rich character have given me permission to see the fullness of my own.
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CLEAR ALL
Mother-daughter bonds within the Black community can be powerful counters against systemic oppression. We invited four moms to share their wisdom in open letters to their daughters.
For as long as I could remember I wanted to be one of those stay-at-home moms. Damn the two degrees and a promising career. I wanted to raise kids, go to the park, and make cute lunches for us all. Super difficult and thankless job, but I was here for it.
Motherhood is an identity that calls for women to forgo belonging in their romantic relationships, professional aspirations, and even the public sphere in exchange for isolation and disconnection peppered with private praise drowned out by public critique and social exclusion.
I thought motherhood would make me weak and passive but it has filled me with fury and passion instead.
Even though I had spent much of the five years prior to my daughter Annie’s birth delivering babies and marveling at how infinitely varied were the ways in which their mothers responded to them, I was completely unaware of what my own response would be.