One Bad Mother: In Praise of Psycho Housewives, Stage Parents, Momfluencers, and Other Women We Love to Hate

New York magazine writer Dickson debuts with a smart and funny exploration of what it means to be a “bad mom.” In a culture obsessed with criticizing mothers, Dickson explains, moms are constantly shamed for failing to meet ever-evolving (and largely impossible) standards. She unravels how ideals of “good” motherhood have shifted throughout history, from the Victorian era, when mothers were expected to be “Angels in the House,” selflessly nurturing their family, to the 1920s, when some psychologists purported that maternal affection stunted children’s emotional growth. In more recent decades, feminism has failed to make the good/bad mom binary disappear; instead, Dickson asserts, “supplied with more options for how to mother than ever before, we are given more and more opportunities to fail.” Dickson delivers insightful and nuanced appraisals of the bad-mom archetypes prevalent in pop culture today, demonstrating that “stage moms,” like reality star Kris Jenner, are simultaneously vilified for devoting themselves to their children’s success and blamed for their kids’ failures, and that while “MILFs,” like the character Stifler’s mom in American Pie, are shallow manifestations of male fantasies, they’re also aspirational in that they “never, ever apologize for their desires.” This provocative critique will challenge readers’ assumptions about motherhood. (Feb.)