At What Point Do Hard-Working Moms Stop Deserving Sympathy?
I wrote two short stories, both about a grandmother who did not want to watch her grandchildren. I wrote the same story from two different perspectives: The mother, and the daughter.
The response was wild. I received an overwhelming number of likes and positive comments when I talked from the daughter’s point of view. She doesn’t have a village to help her raise her kids. She feels alone. She remembers her family being more connected, and wonders why her mother won’t offer her that same support.
Then came the response to the mother/grandmother. The strange thing about this story is that I received personal attacks, as though I personally was a bad grandmother, even though I clearly noted that it was the other perspective of a similar story.
People reacted with hurt and vitriol, even though the mother in the story sacrificed her childhood and her entire life for her siblings and her children. She didn’t get to live a life that she wanted…She never even had a chance to draw in peace and quiet. I was not creating this piece as rage bait, but I was accused of doing so.
And I had to wonder: At what point do hard-working moms stop deserving sympathy? If I had gone back in time and written the story from the mother’s perspective as a young woman unable to go to school or…
