MamaBlogger365 - Limits of Dreams and Gumption by *Dr Mama* Amber Kinser

I remember sitting in the rocking chair on the front porch of my mother’s mountain home with my infant baby, my second child, in my arms. I had just received a job offer in Tennessee, less than three hours drive from her. We were delighted when we got the news but this day we were there because my partner and I had travelled from Indiana with our infant son and 6 year-old daughter to find a place for our family to live and a job for my partner. Ours was a colicky baby and stress levels were high all around.

I was crying and rocking, myself and the baby, and my mother told me hesitantly that she wished I could get OK about where I was at this juncture because “it gets harder,” she said. It’s a statement that probably reads harshly; it feels a little that way as I type it, but don’t remember being put off by it then. And I certainly now understand the motivation to say it.

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Photo Source: DuBoixMorguefile

MamaBlogger365 - Q&A with a Psychologist: What’s Up With Motherhood? An interview with Jessica Zucker, Ph.D. with Hollee Schwartz Temple, The New Perfect

Jessica Zucker is a L.A.-based psychologist who specializes in women's heath, especially transitions in motherhood. She'll be one of the featured panelists at the Museum of Motherhood's Mindful Mothering conference, Monday, November 7. There's still time to register! Click here for more info.

Why are moms so competitive with each other?

Jessica Zucker, Ph.D.: Culture sets up a troubling dynamic between women – mothers or not. Comparing ourselves to one another is a mainstay embedded in the fabric of cultural confusion and promotes separation rather than connection. Motherhood seems to stir profound insecurities for women as they traverse the simultaneously joyous, daunting, rewarding, and vulnerable journey that is parenthood. Women are often stymied by the overwhelming amount of time and energy parenting requires, leaving little room for pre-motherhood activities. Most people aren’t forthcoming about how anxious they feel, how isolating mothering can be, or how fulfilling it is to love a little person in such an inexplicable way. Competitiveness bubbles below the surface from pre-conception onward. Painfully insecure moments pool in the psyches of mothers as they contemplate a million tiny and meaningful decisions and feelings throughout the day.

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Dr. Jessica Zucker will be a featured speaker at the Museum of Motherhood's Mindful Mothering day conference on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011; visit MOMmuseum.org to register!

Support MamaBlogger365 and help the Museum of Motherhood secure a permanent home in 2011! Your tax-deductible donation in ANY amount will help us make our autumn POP-UP exhibit in NYC a permanent reality - visit our Members page to learn more.

Visit the Museum of Motherhood

NOW OPEN in NYC! Tues-Sun, 10:45-6:30

This interview was originally published by The New Perfect.

Photo credit: alvimann|MorgueFile

MamaBlogger365 - PBS's 'This Emotional Life': The Politics of Postpartum Bodies by Dr. Jessica Zucker, Ph.D.

A close friend of mine from graduate school was in town over the weekend, someone I hadn't seen since I was mid-way through my pregnancy. As we briskly walked toward each other, arms outstretched, brimming with wild enthusiasm about our long overdue rendezvous, Amalia blurts out from across the toddler trafficked park, "Oh my God, look at you, you don't even look like you had a baby! You're smaller than you were before."

I wasn't sure how I felt as we hugged, in the midst of awkwardly digesting her jubilant albeit off the cuff comment about the apparent erasure of my pregnancy. The embrace was cut short as she gently pushed me back to scan every inch of my postpartum body, unable to contain her energized description of how "little" I look, how "tiny" I am -- spilling with words she defines as every woman's dream. Or more to the point, every woman's goal.

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Dr. Jessica Zucker will be a featured speaker at the Museum of Motherhood's Mindful Mothering day conference on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011; visit MOMmuseum.org to register!

Support MamaBlogger365 and help the Museum of Motherhood secure a permanent home in 2011! Your tax-deductible donation in ANY amount will help us make our autumn POP-UP exhibit in NYC a permanent reality - visit our Members page to learn more.

Visit the Museum of Motherhood
NOW OPEN in NYC! Tues-Sun, 10:45-6:30