A01=Nancy Reddy
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Author_Nancy Reddy
bonding with your baby
book club
book for mom
breastfeeding
caregiving
Category=DNC
Category=VFV
Category=VFX
childcare
cultural criticism
cultural history
daycare
division of labor
dr. spock
emotional labor
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_health-lifestyle
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_parenting
equality
families
fathers day
feminism
feminist
for dad
gift for mom
grandma
grandmother
household
kids
margaret mead
memoir
moms
mothers day gift
new mom
new parent
nonfiction
parenting
post-war
social history
spock
the feminine mystique
wwii
Product details
- ISBN 9781250336644
- Weight: 340g
- Dimensions: 135 x 213mm
- Publication Date: 24 Feb 2025
- Publisher: Castle Point Books
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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When Nancy Reddy had her first child, she found herself suddenly confronted with the ideal of a perfect mother-a woman who was constantly available, endlessly patient, and immediately invested in her child to the exclusion of all else. Reddy had been raised by a single working mother, considered herself a feminist, and was well on her way to a PhD. Why did doing motherhood "right" feel so wrong?
For answers, Reddy turned to the mid-20th century social scientists and psychologists whose work still forms the basis of so much of what we believe about parenting. It seems ludicrous to imagine modern moms taking advice from midcentury researchers. Yet, their bad ideas about so-called "good" motherhood have seeped so pervasively into our cultural norms. In The Good Mother Myth, Reddy debunks the flawed lab studies, sloppy research, and straightforward misogyny of researchers from Harry Harlow, who claimed to have discovered love by observing monkeys in his lab, to the famous Dr. Spock, whose bestselling parenting guide included just one (1!) illustration of a father interacting with his child.
This timely and thought-provoking book will make you laugh, cry, and want to scream (sometimes all at once). Blending history of science, cultural criticism, and memoir, The Good Mother Myth pulls back the curtain on the flawed social science behind our contemporary understanding of what makes a good mom.
Nancy Reddy's previous books include the poetry collections Pocket Universe and Double Jinx, a winner of the National Poetry Series. With Emily Pérez, she's co-editor of The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood. Her essays have appeared in Slate, Poets & Writers, Romper, The Millions, and elsewhere. The recipient of grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Sustainable Arts Foundation and a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship from the Sewanee Writers' Conference, she teaches writing at Stockton University and writes the newsletter Write More, Be Less Careful.
