A soiled diaper escalates into a scene of body horror; a struggle to collapse a stroller ends with a severed finger. There’s something frustrating about this relentless construction of motherhood as a horror show, and not just because mothers experience the full range of human emotions (some of which are more faithfully explored in a Hallmark movie). These jokes are often accompanied by sincere messages about how negative feelings about motherhood are valid, and that it’s important to speak out. If you can’t relate, perhaps it is because you are so smugly privileged that you can pay other women to perform the drudgery of motherhood for you. We hear each of their internal monologues as they dig in: “Mmm, mac and cheese,” the son thinks.

Source: New York Times May 14, 2022 02:54 UTC