21st century american culture
A01=Ana Villalobos
american culture
american mothers
Author_Ana Villalobos
Category=JBSF1
Category=JHBK
Category=JHMC
economic anxiety
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
family
gender and women studies
gender studies
good mothering
human condition
insecurity
joy
marital uncertainty
marriage and divorce
mother and child
mother child relationship
motherhood
mothering
parent and child
parenthood
parenting
realistic
realistic expectations of motherhood
security in family
security nets
single mothers
social pressures
stress
terrorism
womanhood
Product details
- ISBN 9780520278103
- Weight: 408g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 05 Sep 2014
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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In a time of economic anxiety, fear of terrorism, and marital uncertainty, insecurity has become a big part of life for many American mothers. With bases of security far from guaranteed, mothers are often seeking something they can count on. In this beautifully written and accessible book, Ana Villalobos shows how mothers frequently rely on the one thing that seems sure to them: the mother-child relationship. Based on over one hundred interviews with and observations of mothers single or married, but all experiencing varying forms of insecurity in their lives Villalobos finds that mothers overwhelmingly expect the mothering relationship to "make it all better" for themselves and their children. But there is a price to pay for loading this single relationship with such high expectations. Using detailed case studies, Villalobos shows how women's Herculean attempts to create various kinds of security through mothering often backfire, thereby exhausting mothers, deflecting their focus from other possible sources of security, and creating more stress.
That stress is further exacerbated by dominant ideals about "good" mothering ideals that are fraught with societal pressures and expectations that reach well beyond what mothers can actually do for their children. Pointing to hopeful alternatives, Villalobos shows how more realistic expectations about motherhood lead remarkably to greater security in families by prompting mothers to cast broader security nets, making conditions less stressful and just as significantly bringing greater joy in mothering.
Ana Villalobos is Assistant Professor of Sociology, Brandeis University.
