Almost a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, mothers all around the world are feeling overworked and burnt out but continue to shoulder many of the responsibilities that have been added to family life. Popular cultural narratives about what mothers are currently going through and how they are coping with this current reality tell stories about struggles and resilience.

In this episode, Erin and Judith review pre-pandemic ideologies of motherhood like intensive mothering and attachment parenting and ask how these have changed and further intensified over the course of the pandemic. The hosts discuss what current cultural narratives tell us about what it means to be a “good mom” and how particularly mothers of young children have been impacted by ideological developments. Drawing on their own history of responding to and engaging with various motherhood ideologies, they reflect on the added pressures mothers are currently facing, both from the perspective of day-to-day life and the ideals that circulate our culture.

The podcast refers to the following articles:

New York Times: This is a Primal Scream

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/04/parenting/working-moms-coronavirus.html?campaign_id=118&emc=edit_ptg_20210205&instance_id=26775&nl=nyt-parenting®i_id=92733318&segment_id=51050&te=1&user_id=025aee249190f832df090cdae779c3ff “Uplifting the Rights of Girls and Women in the U.S. and Around the World”: Biden and Harris Announce New White House Gender Policy Council

https://msmagazine.com/2021/01/26/white-house-gender-policy-council-biden-harris-tina-tchen/

The opening and closing song, "Vienna Beat" by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial License and shared through the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Blue_Dot_Sessions/RadioPink/Vienna_Beat