Acknowledgements    ix
Introduction   xi

PART ONE
THE REALITY OF BEING A MOTHER

Writings from a Birth Year   Louise Erdich   3
A Crash Course in Vulnerability and Other Lessons   Harriet Lerner   13
Anger and Tenderness   Adrienne Rich   26
Giving Birth to Ambivalence   Andrea J. Buchanan   32
My Daughter at Fourteen   Carolyn Magner Mason   39
The Way I Dreamed It    Ariel Gore   43
One Week Until College   Sandi Kahn Shelton   50

PART TWO
THE INNER WORK OF MOTHERHOOD

Dawn   Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer   59
Children as Spiritual Teachers   Cheryl Dimof   68
Responding to "Bad" Behavior   Wendy Mogel   76
Parenting with Mindful Awareness   Myla and Jon Kabat-Zinn   90
Recognizing Our Hidden Wounds   Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt   99
The Sacred Chaos of Parenting   Carolyn R. Gimian   114
"Exceptional" Mothering in a "Normal" World   Miriam Greenspan   126

PART THREE
WHY IS BEING A MOTHER SO HARD?

Guilt—What It Does to Us    Anne Roiphe    147
The New Momism    Susan J. Douglas and Meredith W. Michaels    157
Power Moms and the Problem of Overparenting    Joan K. Peters    176
Claiming the Joy    Daphne de Marneffe    189

PART FOUR
FINDING BALANCE

Tell Your Secrets   Ariel Gore   203
Simplicity   Katrina Kenison   207
I'm Breathing, Are You?   Nancy Hathaway   214
Good-bye Herd   Muffy Mead-Ferro   225
Time-Out for Parents   Cheri Huber and Melinda Guyol   235
Sitting in Happy   Denise Roy   244

Contributors   247
Credits   253