{"id":2600316,"date":"2026-05-08T09:51:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/stop-telling-women-theyll-only-enjoy-motherhood-when-they-arent-watching-their-kids\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T09:54:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:54:03","slug":"stop-telling-women-theyll-only-enjoy-motherhood-when-they-arent-watching-their-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/stop-telling-women-theyll-only-enjoy-motherhood-when-they-arent-watching-their-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop Painting Motherhood As Miserable. It&#8217;s Not."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fstop-telling-women-theyll-only-enjoy-motherhood-when-they-arent-watching-their-kids%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2600316&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The text argues that pop culture and social media have systematically harmed the public image of motherhood by depicting moms as constantly weary, unstable, and eager to escape their children. It claims that earlier TV portrayals (1950s-60s) treated mothers more positively, and that later cultural shifts-especially the Sexual Revolution, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-exactly-happens-in-chinese-concentration-camps\/\" title=\"What Exactly Happens In Chinese Concentration Camps?\">birth control pill<\/a>, and the legal changes associated with *Roe v. Wade*-helped set the stage for a broader backlash against motherhood.<\/p>\n<p>It also criticizes \u201cmommy wine culture,\u201d arguing that normalized messaging suggests mothers need alcohol to cope and that even sober moms face social pressure and stigma. The author contends that children absorb these attitudes and may internalize the idea that their mothers would prefer to be away from them, which can be emotionally damaging.<\/p>\n<p>the piece rejects both romanticized and shaming portrayals: it says mothers should be supported and allowed to have bad days, but motherhood should not be framed as a burden or treated as something society should move away from<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >-contrasting current anti-motherhood themes<\/a> with pro-family values.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>One of the greatest gifts in life, motherhood, is being smeared daily. It\u2019s impossible to miss, whether you\u2019re watching TV, doomscrolling, or just hanging out in mom groups physically or online. Moms are portrayed as constantly sleep-deprived, barely hanging onto their sanity, and wanting to get away from their kids. <\/p>\n<p>Do you ever just scroll through social media when kids go back to school at the end of the summer? Moms post all the time that they cannot wait to send their kids back to the classroom so they can get back to doing whatever they do without their offspring. Meanwhile, TV sitcoms frequently show moms with a glass of wine and spit up on their shirts because now that\u2019s their reality. <\/p>\n<p>Motherhood was not always the object of a smear campaign. In television shows during the 1950s and \u201960s, mothers were portrayed as beautiful, elegant women, and revered in culture. Moms dressed with elegance, wore heels, and had perfect hair and makeup. Sure, it was an ideal, but motherhood was at least portrayed in a positive light. <\/p>\n<p>Then the Sexual Revolution happened, and the birth control pill was introduced. Women were encouraged to be free from their fertility, to rid themselves of the \u201cburden\u201d of children, and to be more like men with zero responsibilities to potential offspring. Not long after,\u00a0the Supreme Court delivered <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em> and gave every woman the so-called right to an abortion for any reason at any point in pregnancy. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s no surprise the systemic teardown of motherhood followed closely behind. Feminists railed against the patriarchy and demanded to be free from motherhood in every way possible. Instead of the 1990s mantra of abortion as \u201csafe, legal, and rare\u201d from Bill Clinton, we now are faced with the Shout Your Abortion movement and cries that abortion is essential to women\u2019s empowerment.<\/p>\n<p>For those moms who do choose motherhood, they can expect to be bombarded with <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/38066682\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mommy wine culture<\/a>, where moms feel like they have to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SEP3AM-xErY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">drunk to get through motherhood<\/a>. I have friends who are more frustrated by the fact that they have to defend their choice not to drink during playdates than they are with the constant demands of their little ones. One mom even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/lifestyle\/2019\/07\/15\/being-sober-mom-mommy-wine-culture-is-isolating\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a> how isolating it is to be sober, wondering if her kid would get any playdates or if she could make friends without drinking.<\/p>\n<p>Motherhood is an incredible gift. Yes, there are difficult days where sanity hangs by a string, but that\u2019s part of life. I can never quite get over the superpower women have to grow a baby inside them. It\u2019s hard; every mother gets it. But when moms constantly share that they love when their kids are in school or summer camp and out of their hair, or that they need alcohol to get through parenting, their kids are listening. They see their moms always with a drink in hand or complaining of yet another school break. <\/p>\n<p>Children absorb so much more than we think they do. They will remember that their lives were a burden to their moms who always seemed to want to be wherever they were not. That can be devastating to a child. It\u2019s fine to take a break from parenting to get nails done or do something alone for a few hours, but to constantly want time away from kids feels like a slap in the face to children. Yet this is what pop culture encourages when it portrays moms as barely hanging on to what is left of themselves and only wanting to get away from their own kids. <\/p>\n<p>Today, the DINK (Dual Income No Kids) lifestyle is advertised as the ultimate ideal. <em>No kids? Awesome! You can really live your life and do whatever you want without children tying you down<\/em> \u2014 that\u2019s the message women get from today\u2019s culture. Kids hear it too. They see when their very existence is undesired. It\u2019s scary how quickly society has changed from pro-mother and pro-child to anti-motherhood and anti-children.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s OK to have bad days as a mother, to be frustrated and not have it all together. Dealing with whiny, ungrateful children is a part of the self-sacrificial journey of parenthood. Moms have an enormous amount of responsibility, and they absolutely need to be supported. Motherhood doesn\u2019t need to be overly glorified because that, too, would be inaccurate. <\/p>\n<p>But motherhood shouldn\u2019t be trashed everywhere either. We need to overhaul the image of motherhood in our culture. It\u2019s an incredible gift that I celebrate with all the other mothers I\u2019m so privileged to know and love. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Abby Johnson is a former Planned Parenthood manager who now runs And Then There Were None, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scotus-could-stop-medicaid-from-funding-planned-parenthood\/\" title=\"SCOTUS Could Stop Medicaid From Funding Planned Parenthood\">helps abortion workers leave<\/a> their jobs. She is also the author of \u201cUnplanned.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Motherhood is daily smeared in media-moms depicted as drained and wanting escape<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2144,"featured_media":2600317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Woman-in-White-Shirt-Drinking-Wine.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[35390,7355,79325],"class_list":["post-2600316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-mental-health","tag-motherhood","tag-self-compassion"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Woman-in-White-Shirt-Drinking-Wine.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2600316"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2600320,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600316\/revisions\/2600320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2600317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2600316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2600316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2600316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}