Author Ayelet Waldman Talks About Her New Book "Bad Mother"

Let's face it, when it comes to motherhood if you work, you're neglectful; if you stay home, you're smothering. If you discipline, you're buying them a spot on the shrink's couch; if you let them run wild, they will be into drugs by seventh grade. If you buy organic, you're spending their college fund; if you don't, you're risking all sorts of allergies and illnesses. Is it any wonder so many women refer to themselves at one time or another as a "bad mother"? Ayelet Waldman says it's time for women to get over it and get on with it, in a book that is sure to spark the same level of controversy as her now legendary "Modern Love" piece in which she confessed to loving her husband more than her children. Covering topics as diverse as the hysteria of competitive parenting (Whose toddler can recite the planets in order from the sun?), the relentless pursuits of the Bad Mother police, the balancing of the work-family dynamic, and homework (the bane of every mother's existence), BAD MOTHER illuminates the anxieties that riddle motherhood today while providing women with the encouragement they need to give themselves a break.

May 27, 2009