Like thousands of other mothers, I found myself consumed by Anne-Marie Slaughter’s 13,000 word cover story, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” for the July/August edition of The Atlantic. As a new mom with a Ph.D. and growing career, I have wondered if I can truly “have it all” or if something will eventually have to give in my overloaded schedule. It has been exhausting and near impossible to keep up with my “normal” workload while being a parent and I have constantly been concerned about my daughter getting all she needs from me (and me getting all I need from my daughter!).
I had a long struggle to becoming a mother. After ten years, multiple infertility treatments, many prayers, and even more tears, me and my husband decided to adopt. We’ve been so fortunate to be blessed with our darling daughter, but becoming a mother has been nothing of what I expected. I had fantasized about motherhood, imagined it as my true destiny, a spiritual path, the role God intended me to have. Now that I am a mother, I find myself constantly falling short. The laundry is never done, take out for dinner happens far too often, and some days I forget to pack my daughter’s lunch. I’m late to work, I miss deadlines, I don’t return phone calls or emails, and I wonder if it is possible to get back to being organized and on top of life the way I was before. Continue reading “Having it All or Embracing What We Have? by Gina Messina-Dysert”
Feminism and Religion 