Most of us develop more respect and empathy for our mothers and the sacrifices they made for us after we join the ranks of motherhood ourselves. Nevertheless, approximately 82 percent of us believe we are doing as good a job, or a better job with our children than our mothers did with us, according to Parenting magazine. Any way you look at it, parenthood is much harder today than when we were small. Despite having options to work at home or outside the home, to have babies or not we feel we have few real choices. The new world that was supposed to accommodate smart, career-oriented moms and equal partnerships in marriage never materialized en masse. Postpartum Support Meant Neighbors and Casseroles Neighbors, coffee klatches, and church call-chains rallied around new parents of my mother’s generation, making possible time off from Baby and iceboxes stocked with casseroles. Although we have mandated maternity and paternity leaves, support today is not comparable to that which many of our moms received, when a great number of women were still at home and readily chipped in to help one another’s families.
