(no subject)

When I was pregnant with my first kid (who is almost five now, holy shit), I signed up on BabyCenter, since I'm one of those people who has to obsessively research everything when faced with a new situation, and I never bothered to delete my account, so they still send me weekly updates on developmental milestones and shit for my kids. I don't really mind; some of the articles are interesting, and both of my children are what is gently termed 'strong-willed'--basically, a pair of pigheaded energizer bunnies who don't believe in sleep or food or the laws of men, so any suggestions I can get for keeping them alive and myself sane are more than welcome.

....but holy shit, some of the things they post aimed at stay-at-home parents (let's be honest: stay-at-home mothers) make me so incredibly fucking glad that I am not one. It's not just that I'm temperamentally unsuited to it, although I am, and it's not just that I love my job, although I do, it's this whole steaming clusterfuck of compulsory femininity and social isolation and the bizarre phenomenon of 'choice feminism' that blocks us from criticizing how deeply fucked our social support structures for parents, and mothers in particular, are.