#motherhood.

[divesslow]

read an article about a two headed fawn that came out a stillborn but had signs of grooming which meant the mother had tried to care for it even though it wasn't living :((((

[waternymph92]

[metanarrates]

honestly you all are so annoying because motherhood IS interesting but fandom people are simultaneously obsessed with deciding that every woman has motherly qualities and completely disinterested in actually exploring motherhood as a role that informs a character. I do think exploring a character being a mother can be wildly interesting if they are canonically one, but because of misogyny, people just view motherhood as a totally unremarkable naturalized state that all women must inhabit!

[elainiisms]

[roeroe-world]

there’s just something about black motherhood that just warms my heart. ❤️🌹 sending love to all black mothers.

[i-am-aprl]

Dr. Deborah Harrington recently spent 2 weeks in a Gaza hospital. “I feel ashamed and shocked that we're doing this to fellow humans," she told @camanpour

There are approximately 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, and the suffering they're enduring is beyond words. Due to the blockade on Gaza, 50% are anemic and that was before this war.

This means the majority of these mothers are vulnerable to complications.

Genocide convention reads:

any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such:

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.

[girlgvng]

[feral-ballad]

Andrew McMillan, from Pandemonium; “swan”

[Text ID: “mother don’t eat me / mother I’m trying so hard / to get better”]

[carlyraejepsans]

these should get their own post actually. toriel my dear toriel

[prettyboykatsuki]

there is such a trauma to daughterhood. it comes from the lack of agency - not only from being born as a woman but existing in the world as a child. an oppression on top of an oppression. people make jokes about girls with daddy issues but nothing compares to the kind of trauma you recieve from having a complicated relationship with your mother. people talk about it so often. and it's one thing to have a mother who hates you which is always awful, but often it feels worse to have a mother who doesn't. to have a mother who is simply exhausted by the fact you were born. a mother who doesn't hate you, but loves her men more. a mother who maybe wanted to be a mom, once, and then came to realize what a thankless job it was. and she didn't want to hate you, but it was hard to love you and even harder to like you. a mother who doesn't hate you exactly, but never outgrows her desire to be attractive and beautiful and makes you her enemy in that way. or a mother who has nothing more to her than being a mother and clings to coddling you in a way thats suffocating. so many daughters develop deep empathy for the mothers because they were women, daughters, girls once. everyone deals with it differently. but at the end of it, you still need a mother and that is the most horrible and wretched part of all. the trauma of being alive, of being a woman, and of having a mother but still needing one. such a uniquely miserable feeling

[fyblackwomenart]

RAHANA DARIAH

[forestpixies]

no actually you’re either gentle parenting your child or you’re being emotionally and/or physically abusive to them, whether or not you’re aware of that.

because the term gentle parenting already includes discipline and teaching your kid right from wrong. gentle parenting doesn’t mean you can’t tell your kid no. it means you can tell them no when they do something they shouldn’t, but instead of punishing or yelling at them, you’re explaining and giving them reasons why they can’t do that, you are helping them learn and encouraging them to be better. gentle parenting means you’re using reasons built on mutual respect instead of anger. because yes, no matter how young your child is, they deserve respect too.

I’m sorry but most of the times when someone says they’re a strict parent, what it means is that they give their child childhood trauma that’ll last a lifetime, whether or not they’re aware of it. especially parents who brag to other people about how strict they are and how they punished their children.

and I’m sorry but saying you have a short temper is never an excuse to be emotionally and/or physically abusive towards your kid either.

“I yelled at you because I have a short temper” then why am I the one suffering? if you can’t control your anger, then get help. work on it. do better. be better.

also… your child standing up for themself against you, when you’re being abusive to them, isn’t them being disrespectful towards you. it means they are defending themself because you wouldn’t do that for them and so they had to step in and be their own protector.

if you’re a parent and can defend and stand up for yourself when you feel like you need to, but at the same time punish your kid when they stand up for themself against you, then you are the problem.

I was that child and I’m gonna make it as simple as I can for any parent out there — because no kid deserves to go through what I went through — imagine yourself owning a dog. really. you can either

a.) beat that dog whenever they do something wrong and simply take your anger out on them until they’re fully submissive and are terrified of you

or

b.) train them with love and gentleness and earn their love and loyalty in return

now imagine both A and B dogs on leashes and imagine them no longer being on leashes one day. which dog do you think will run away as far as they can and never look back, and which one do you think will stay because they love and want to be with their owner?

[waternymph92]

[rwsdarw]

idk thinking abt maternity

[beggars-opera]

I have a friend who dislikes her children.

That’s probably unfair, I’m sure she loves them very much, but there is real resentment there. Whether or not she wanted to be a mother is unclear, but her unhappiness sure is. Children are difficult, and if you’re not 100% prepared and enthusiastic about that it is going to be a terrible time for you.

I don’t think she is a bad person. She is frequently overwhelmed by both her family and the stream of idealized social media that makes it sound like everyone else is having a ball. So she goes on Facebook to talk about how miserable she is, how she misses her old life that all her friends seem to still have. It’s probably the only thing keeping her sane, along with her husband who actually loves kids.

This isn’t to shame anyone, but seeing her posts really cements in my mind how I would probably be in the same boat, and how glad I am that I made the decision not to put myself in this position. I would never want to bring another human into this world with the knowledge that they might make me miserable, and that I would likely make them miserable in turn, whether or not I meant to. No innocent child deserves that.

So many people still cling to a mythologized Feminine Instinct that states my uterus gives me more empathy, gives me more patience, gives me a duty that I can’t reject. They say that choosing to be childless is more selfish than having a child that you are unable to care for, that you will dislike. If those people saw the pain of those unsuited for motherhood I hope they would change their minds, but they never will.