Happy Mother’s Day

“A mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnecessary.”

–Dorothy Canfield Fisher (who, coincidentally, has a dorm at Goddard College named after her).

Isn’t it strange?

Comments on my article on The Huffington Post yesterday featured many protests to my suggestion that, if we really think single motherhood is bad for women and children, then maybe we, as a caring society, should think about how we can help.  Essentially (paraphrasing here):

“Why should I give up my hard earned money to someone else?”

Meanwhile, comments on my tribute to my mother on Salon, which also ran yesterday, seemed to indicate a belief that mothers should sacrifice themselves for the greater good of their children and families, in the heartbreaking and difficult cases where those two are at odds.  I did not leave my children, and I am so grateful to have found an unorthodox way to balance my needs and my children’s needs so that both are met.  So sad, though, and so ironic when placed next to the comments on the other article, to read that quite a few people think:

“My mother left us and found her happiness, but she should have stayed because one person’s happiness is less important that the happiness of several (her children and family).”

One or several?  Me or them?  Is it just mothers who we require to be selfless, when the rest of us clearly don’t want to be?

The choices, and the solutions, cannot be so black and white.  We are human, after all.  Love and compassion are part of what we are.  There has to be a way to empower us to help ourselves and enable us to support and serve others so that no one is ruined, abandoned, or lost.