I'm already imagining the letters we'll get in response to this week's cover story
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n occupational hazard of being a magazine editor, and reading thousands of letters to the editor, is that you start to mentally compose letters you may receive as you read a feature. You imagine potential outrage, envision who will be thrilled and who will be miffed, foresee what feathers may be ruffled.
It doesn’t take much imagination to come up with the types of letters we may get in response to this week’s cover story. Motherhood is the most idealized of roles — there are songs and sonnets, poems and paeans written about it. The warm, loving, always nurturing mother is put on a pedestal.
And in this issue we explore the phenomena of women who aren’t naturally nurturing, women who don’t see motherhood as the ultimate fulfillment of all their deepest desires, who sometimes struggle in their role as mothers.
If you recognize yourself in the description, the features by Miriam Kosman and Elisheva Appel exploring this reality will be a deeply validating read. You’ll realize you’re not alone, learn the Torah perspective on the issue, and discover what other women do to compensate for what doesn’t come naturally.
But if you don’t relate, if you are naturally maternal, and love nothing more than spending every possible moment with your children, you may find these articles disturbing. How can a mother possibly not love babies? Or five-year-olds? Or ten-year-olds? (I suspect when it comes to teens, many people stop asking this question….)
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