The Mother Load

“I’m so sick of my goddamn kids … I just wanted to say…Aaaah! Aaah! … This pandemic has made me realize that maybe I’m not cut out to be a mother … God, every day I think I can’t do this again, but then I do. I get it, I get up and I do it. Because that’s just what parents do, right? … There is just so much talking. Talking all the time. All day long. Words. Words. Words. So much talking. I just, I need no more talking. No more words. I need no more. No more. So much talking. I just need silence. Please. Silence.” Those were some of the comments recorded after the NYT opened a primal scream phone line for mothers. Long story, short: America’s Mothers Are in Crisis. (Early in the pandemic, my wife and I realized that we couldn’t possibly do it all. So we decided to stop parenting.)