American Mom

Blakely's raising of her two sons exactly coincided with the women's movement - a time in which the idea of what a mother should be was being challenged. In a world that was increasingly violent and chaotic - ravaged by AIDS, drug use, anorexia, and teenage suicide - she began to notice that just about all the commonly held notions of child-raising had to be rethought. Learning to question the advice of experts was just the beginning. After twenty years of raising boys, after years of teaching and writing about family and women's issues, Blakely clearly sees the connection between the personal and the political. If motherhood kept her occupied with the most humbling details of life, it also delivered profound insights. "It is being someone's mother that makes us personalize every issue from sexual harassment to toxic waste," a friend reminded her. For so many years women have been dismissed for taking things personally - but maybe that's exactly how things should be taken, she concludes. In American Mom, Mary Kay Blakely begins to reconcile the apron-clad, cookie-baking myth of motherhood with the realities of women's lives. The personal stories, from someone who has been in the trenches of motherhood herself, also chronicle the tumultuous social and political events of our times. With insight and irreverence, Blakely makes clear why she chose to break the rules when the rules no longer fit.