I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron. (…)

Source: Olsen, Tillie “I Stand Here Ironing.” In: Tell me a Riddle. Dell, 1961.

Available at [🔗]

current affairs

There has been much discussion about how much time parents, and especially mothers, should spend with their children. The Washington Post article “Making time for kids? Study says quality trumps quantity“ reports on a study by Melissa Milkie et al. in which they investigate the long term effects on children of the time that mothers spend with their children.

links

Brigid Schulte “Making time for kids? Study says quality trumps quantity.“ Washington Post, 28 March 2015. [🔗]

questions

1. The protagonist reflects on having raised a daughter as a single and poor mother. How does she look back on the experience? Does she feel guilty? Does she feel helpless? Or, does she feel that she did the best she could in the circumstances and all and all little harm has been done?

2. How do you read the line in the last paragraph: “Let her be. So all that is in her will not bloom—but in how many does it? There is still enough left to live by.”?

3. What kind of message about the plight of mothers does Olson want to convey to her readers?

4. The Washington Post article “Making time for kids? Study says quality trumps quantity” takes a stand against the demands that society imposes on mothers for parenting. How much and what kind of parental attention do you think is needed to secure the well-being of the next generation?