Ryan & Brittany

Mother-Hood

February18

I am taking an online course this semester for graduate school. I am studying mothers and mother figures in literature for children. I wondered what the suffix -hood means. I looked it up on m-w.com and found -hood means these things:

1 : state : condition : quality : character

2 : time : period

3 : instance of a (specified) state or quality

4 : individuals sharing a (specified) state or character

The online dictionary didn’t use “motherhood” as an example for any of these. I think that is because motherhood is all of these.

Living in married student housing with so many other LDS people makes me feel that number 2 is the induction to motherhood. Once you have a baby you live in the time of motherhood forever after. Then you move on to number 4 and become part of the club. Move to married student housing and you will see motherhood is a clique. Not that any of this is necessarily bad, only that motherhood is exclusive. Number 1 and 3 are a matter of pride and living up to the ideal mother image.

posted under Lessons Learned, School

6 Comments to

“Mother-Hood”

On February 18th, 2009 at 9:09 am phillyz Says:
clearly there is only one definition of hood- and that’s known for us in da hood
On February 18th, 2009 at 3:49 pm Katie Smith Says:
It is sad that here in Baity Hill, and sometimes even in the church, being a mother in a clique, instant friends. But don’t think all of us mothers are bad, we just need other women to hang out with during the day so our kids don’t drive us crazy.
On February 19th, 2009 at 9:49 am Brittany Says:
It’s not necessarily bad that moms band together. It is inevitable, but not a bad thing. It is the same with other groups like married couples; they are always leaving single people out. So it goes.
On February 19th, 2009 at 5:41 pm Brett Garner Says:
Hey Brittany, I’m glad I was able to track down this blog and hopefully keep up with what you guys are up to.

As for the cliques… are you sure it’s not the other way around? Married people leaving parents out, singles leaving married people out? Some would say that moving from one to the next is less of a natural progression and more of a contagious disease…
On February 20th, 2009 at 1:00 pm Nancy Says:
I lived in married student housing when I had my first child. I remember thinking, “Well, I guess I can go sit by the swingsets with the other moms now.” But then I wasn’t sure if I had to wait until my child was actually old enough to use said swingset. Confusing business, really…
The two books that first came to my head on this topic are:
-The Giving Tree. I can never decide whether I like this book or not.
-The Secret Life of Bees. You actually recommended this one to me, and I just finished it a couple days ago.
On February 22nd, 2009 at 12:09 am celin Says:
Momminess is such a hot topic (especially on blogs – since the stay at homes want to find contact) — there is even a divide between the one child home and the multi-child home. With one — sometimes a couple can still pretend they don’t have any, but as soon as a second is added — they may as well go all the way to 11. So the parents of 1 still can straddle the familial and just married divide.

We also are in a campus community and our hanging out group became significantly depressed (not sad, but worsened) when we had Harrison. Now we are limited to travel only as a family (no longer lugging Calvin along with trips with friends) and always having one child with us — since it is rough with 2 on one (or 3 or 4 or however many children one has). Socializing becomes so complicated.

This is my current hood.