Comments on: Floating Down the Mainstream

By: Kittymama

Kittymama — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 00:03:10 +0000

We have a co-worker who once told me something like, “As far as I can tell, just about everybody’s doing the best they can.” And even though I don’t think I’m super-mean or judgmental (outside my own home, at least), I thought, “Oh, my God, you’re right.” How hard do I try to do something someone else might consider half-assed? (You’re lucky — for you, I do the one thing I’m probably best at.)

I realize it sounds treacly and does not make life’s struggles appreciably less oppressive. But “the best you can” is all anybody is expected to do. To give more time and energy to one thing, you HAVE to take it from another. It’s the only way.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 20:51:44 +0000

I guess I wonder how she stacks up with other children like her-of course we’re all individuals but you know what I mean. I’m going to guess, judging from what I’ve heard and read, that she’s a pretty special kid. In fact, I’m sure she is. Hey, we all have our strengths. I see hers in every post that you write. We all worry about our kids (mine are your age and I still worry about them fitting in!) and I realize that you have special concerns but from the outside looking in, you seem to have it under control. So if I were grading you, I’d give you “No improvement needed”.

By: Elaine

Elaine — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 20:38:58 +0000

Oh, Amy. In writing, keeping a sense of perspective, humility, finding a community to sustain you, appreciating the people around you, plate-collecting, and so much more, you should feel you did VERY WELL. Really.

And now you have me thinking, comparing my own self-assessment back in school days (I feel I did very well, and my teachers concurred) to my self-assessment now, when, in so many areas, I, too, am “not as well as I could have done.” And that makes me think that something’s wrong, not with us ourselves but with the impossible expectations that our culture places on mothers.