Yes I Am. And So Are You

You’ve all seen the cover, even if you don’t know what it’s really about. I don’t even need to include a picture of it because I know you know which one I’m talking about. I’ll admit that I haven’t actually read the cover article on the latest issue of TIME Magazine, and I’m not going to. Maybe I would’ve, if only to know what all the fuss is about, because it’s not like I have anything against attachment parenting or a mother who chooses to breastfeed for X amount of time. But why should I bother wasting my time on a magazine that clearly doesn’t respect my role as a mother and the choices I may or may not make by using a condescending headline like “Are You Mom Enough?”

Am I “mom enough” for what? To carry a life inside my stomach for nine months? Yup. To put another human being’s needs ahead of my own every single day? Check.

Does that sufficiently answer your question, TIME? If not, let me try again. Yes, fuck you very much, I am mom enough. You know who else is too? That chick on your cover, but so are all the moms who aren’t on your cover.

We are mom enough whether we breastfeed for three years, three months, or three hours. And we’re mom enough if we use a bottle and formula to feed our children.

We are mom enough whether we choose to stay at home with our kids or go back into the workforce. And we’re mom enough if our social-economic situation has made that choice for us.

We are mom enough whether we shop at Whole Foods or not; whether we let our kids eat McDonalds or not; whether we give our children sweets or not.

We are mom enough whether our children go to preschool or never set foot in a classroom until their fifth birthday (or later. Or never!).

We are mom enough whether our kids sleep in our beds or their own.

We are mom enough whether we gave birth naturally or by C-section, in a hospital or at home, with or without drugs.

We are mom enough whether our children are ours by birth, adoption, surrogacy, or IVF.

We are mom enough whether we’re 25 or 45, are blonde, brunette or somewhere in between, drive an SUV or a sixteen year old clunker, are more like June Cleaver or Roseanne, eat Granny Smith or Red Delicious apples, or were born on Tuesday or a Saturday.

And do you know why? Because no matter what choices we make throughout the day, we wake up every 

morning and go to bed every night loving our children. Because we strive everyday to provide for our kids and to give them the lives they deserve. Because we work tirelessly to teach them the little things, like how to poop in a toilet or that you shouldn’t stick your fingers in a light socket, and the bigger things, like how to read and write or how to be a kind and compassionate member of society.

One last thing, TIME Magazine. Shame on you for pitting women against other women for no good reason other than to drum up publicity for your cover and fuck you for insinuating that some of us aren’t good enough. Because all of us, every single mother in this world that gives a damn, is mom enough.

Happy Mother’s Day, ladies. You are wonderful, and you are doing an amazing job. Now go have a glass of wine and a bubble bath. You deserve it.

-Alice

P.S. I’m willing to bet that the person responsible for that headline either isn’t a parent or has a dick. Regardless, using a title like that makes you a dick.