I’ve noticed this thing lately about women and guilt. I consider most of my good gal friends feminists who are educated, accomplished, self-aware professional women. Still, something about motherhood makes them say the damnedest things. For example, four of my friends are mothers. I don’t hang out with them often anymore bc well, parents have a totally different life and all, but I have heard all of them say at various times when interacting with their kids, “I’m a horrible mother.” Sometimes I think it’s in jest or with sarcasm, like my friend had to take away the kid’s toy and he started crying, so “Yes, I know, I’m a horrible mother.” But other times, it’s said with this notion that she’s not good enough. Like, she doesn’t understand what he’s saying or she can’t correctly/accurately anticipate the kid’s needs, so she’s dumb or stupid. And I’ve never heard them talk about themselves that way before.

I mean, as someone who is constantly self-bashing bc I perpetually feel insufficient, this isn’t a foreign concept to me, but to see it in my friends… it’s kind of disturbing. Maybe they felt guilt or inadequacy before and I just wasn’t aware of it, or perhaps motherhood is now what has brought it to the forefront? I don’t know. But what I do know is that I have never EVER heard the fathers utter those words. And so it reminds me of a bunch of things I read the last time I was job hunting: Women consistently lack confidence, have self-esteem issues, and blame themselves for things not going right. From applying for jobs to negotiating terms to getting (or not) new jobs, women often don’t think they’re good enough, don’t think they deserve more, and/or they completely blame themselves for any negative outcome. On the other hand, for men, the culprit is always some external factor: the hiring manager wasn’t clear on what s/he wanted for the role or the fit was bad or whatever, the place was a bunch of yahoos…

Anyway, it’s an interesting observation that only goes to emphasize how fucking hard it is to be a woman. We want to be so many things all at the same time.