Mums can have it all - at least, this was what we were sold weren't we? That we could have it all. We could build the career, earn the money, get the house, have the family - the lot. It was ours for the taking, right?
Wrong. Nowadays, ‘having it all’ is an unattainable, cultural fantasy, free from the messiness of matrescence that looks something like this: You’re working as if you don’t have children (hello mum guilt) and parenting as if you don’t have any other responsibilities, all while maintaining a clean, well-stocked home, happy friendships, an empty inbox (because you’ve replied and filed), healthy sex life, and a fully ticked-off to-do list. Oh, and you do it all with a never-fading smile floating around in a pink haze of perpetual gratitude. As a Psychotherapist to parents, and a mother to three, I have been at the mercy of trying to live up to my own motherhood fantasy, and it wasn’t pretty.
