Motherhood Quotes - Page 19

• A group of women who valued motherhood, but valued it on their own timetable, began to make a new claim, one that had never surfaced in the abortion debate before this, that abortion was a woman's right. Most significantly, they argued that this right to abortion was essential to their right to equality -- the right to be treated as individuals rather than as potential mothers.

  Kristin Luker

  Mother, Abortion, Groups

  Kristin Luker (1985). “Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood”, p.92, Univ of California Press

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• The central paradox of motherhood is that while our children become the absolute center of our lives, they must also push us backout in the world.... But motherhood that can narrow our lives can also broaden them. It can make us focus intensely on the moment and invest heavily in the future.

  Ellen Goodman

  Children, Focus, World

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• A fierce literary woman with a penchant for married men, Margaret Fuller was ultimately torn between motherhood and her final career as a political reporter.

  Susan Cheever

  Men, Careers, Political

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• Oh, for that remarkable and complex economy of motherhood. Those back and forth generosities-where one day a mom ferries the kids to the swim meet, or a mom takes your kid off to the movies while you're sick with the flu. And the next week after baseball you have all the kids sleep over. Not to mention the friend with whom you freely have the throw-your-hands-in-the-air-I-surrender discussions of how to manage any of it.

  Victoria Redel

  Mom, Baseball, Sleep

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• We've never been in a time where mothers - parenthood, but particularly motherhood - is so fetishized.

  Meghan Daum

  Mother, Parenthood

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• I found motherhood a crash course in existentialism (what is my purpose in life, am I mistress or slave of my destiny, when the hell do I get some sleep?) and [the book] ROOM was the result.

  Emma Donoghue

  Book, Sleep, Destiny

  "Emma Donoghue Chats About "Room". Interview with Macy Halford, www.newyorker.com. January 21, 2011.

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• The world is full of women blindsided by the unceasing demands of motherhood, still flabbergasted by how a job can be terrific andtorturous, involving and utterly tedious, all at the same time. The world is full of women made to feel strange because what everyone assumes comes naturally is so difficult to do--never mind to do well.

  Anna Quindlen

  Jobs, Childhood, Mind

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• In a world where women work three times as hard for half as much, our achievement has been denigrated, both marriage and divorce have turned against us, our motherhood has been used as an obstacle to our success, our passion as a trap, our empathy for others as an excuse to underpay us.

  Erica Jong

  Passion, Divorce, Achievement

  Erica Jong (2006). “Fear of Fifty”, p.15, Penguin

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• Intensive mothering is the ultimate female Olympics: We are all in powerful competition with each other, in constant danger of being trumped by the mom down the street, or in the magazine we're reading. The competition isn't just over who's a good mother--it's over who's the best. We compete with each other; we compete with ourselves. The best mothers always put their kids' needs before their own, period.

  Susan J. Douglas

  Mom, Mother, Powerful

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• pacifists lead a lonely life. Not even gathering together can take the place of that vast, warm sun of approval that is shed on motherhood, on law-abiding, on killing, and on making money. Someday will we come into our own? Well, motherhood may move into the shade. Law-abiding is going through a trauma. But killing and making money are good for a long, long time.

  Josephine Winslow Johnson

  Lonely, War, Moving

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• I've approached so many things in my life with such intensity that I want to approach motherhood with dedication and focus.

  Drew Barrymore

  Dedication, Focus, Want

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• In much the same way, motherhood has become the essential female experience, valued above all others: giving life is where it's at. Give birth in cities where accommodation is precarious, schools have surrendered the fight and children are subject to the most vicious mental assault through advertising, TV, internet, fizzy drink manufacturers and so on. Without children you will never be fulfilled as a woman, but bringing up kids in decent conditions is almost impossible.

  Virginie Despentes

  Children, School, Kids

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• Motherhood goes back in history to a time when a father had no way of knowing his children. Fatherhood only became known when class patriarchal society had established itself and imposed monogamous marriage on women. Motherhood is like sun and rain and plants, a quality and product of nature which does not require laws or systems in order to exist.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Children, Father, Rain

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• Just think: people decided one day that a day should be set aside for motherhood and fatherhood. What a great concept that is.

  Patti Davis

  Thinking, People, Fatherhood

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• All of [motherhood] surprised me. It surprised me from the very first second I saw Jack. I'd believed that my pregnancy was a condition. It never computed. And there he was. Everyone made fun of me because I stared at him for months and months, not being able to believe he was real.

  Meg Ryan

  Fun, Real, Believe

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• Listen carefully to what country people call mother wit. In those homely sayings are couched the collective wisdom of generations.

  Maya Angelou

  Mother, Country, People

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• Like every mother, my wish - every birthday - is for my children to stay healthy (and) for my family to remain healthy.

  Angelina Jolie

  Mother, Children, Healthy

  "Angelina Jolie won't tighten red carpet security despite Pitt getting hit", www.foxnews.com. June 3, 2014.

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• So mothers have God's license to be missed.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Mother, License

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1871). “Poetical Works”, p.322

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• I am the poet of the woman the same as the man, And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man, And I say there is nothing greater than the mother of a man.

  Walt Whitman

  Mother, Men, Poet

  Walt Whitman (1902). “The poems of Walt Whitman”, p.35, Рипол Классик

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• When I woke up this morning, I found I'd turned into my mother.

  Mary Rodgers

  Mother, Morning, Found

  Mary Rodgers (2003). “Freaky Friday”

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• Motherhood so often comes in conflict with women's capacity to express and live their own lives.

  Romola Garai

  Conflict, Capacity

  Source: collider.com

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• No song or poem will bear my mother's name. Yet so many of the stories that I write, that we all write, are my mother's stories.

  Alice Walker

  Mother, Song, Writing

  Alice Walker, Barbara Christian (1994). “Everyday Use”, p.47, Rutgers University Press

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• No one else, ever, will think you're great the way your mother does.

  Mary Matalin

  Inspirational, Mother, Thinking

  Mary Matalin (2007). “Letters to My Daughters”, p.4, Simon and Schuster

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• I just think motherhood made me better, I think it rejuvenates you as a person, mind, body and spirit, and I think every woman is different.

  Nelly Furtado

  Thinking, Mind, Different

  "Nelly Furtado making motherhood sexy". www.today.com. June 23, 2006.

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• When a baby first looks at you...when it laughs that deep, unselfconscious gurgle; or when it cries and you pick it up and it clings sobbing to you...then you are-happy is not the precise word-filled.

  Marilyn French

  Baby, Laughing, Looks

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