Mary Blakely Quotes

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• Divorce is the psychological equivalent of a triple coronary bypass.

  Mary Blakely

  Divorce, Insightful, Bypass

  Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.125, Simon and Schuster

  40 Copy quote

• A mother is neither cocky, nor proud, because she knows the school principal may call at any minute to report that her child had just driven a motorcycle through the gymnasium.

  Mary Blakely

  Mother, Children, Cocky

  81 Copy quote

• By now, legions of tireless essayists and op-ed columnists have dressed feminists down for making such a fuss about entering the professions and earning equal pay that everyone's attention has been distracted from the important contributions of mothers working at home. This judgment presumes, of course, that prior to the resurgence of feminism in the '70s, housewives and mothers enjoyed wide recognition and honor. This was not exactly the case.

  Mary Blakely

  Mother, Home, Equal Pay

  Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.36, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• A mother can legitimately be said to 'have a baby' - but in a civilization such as ours, she can never claim to own a teenager.

  Mary Blakely

  Mother, Baby, Teenager

  Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.4, Simon and Schuster

  0 Copy quote

• Women aren't trying to do too much. Women have too much to do.

  Mary Blakely

  Trying, Too Much, Busy

  Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.199, Simon and Schuster

  3 Copy quote

• The absolute dependence of a newborn infant inspired many things in me, but it did not activate any magical knowledge about what to do for the next twenty years.

  Mary Blakely

  Years, Twenties, Next

  Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.26, Simon and Schuster

  21 Copy quote

• Mother is the first word that occurs to politicians and columnists and popes when they raise the question, 'Why isn't life turning out the way we want it?

  Mary Blakely

  Mother, Want, Way

  Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.11, Simon and Schuster

  20 Copy quote

• The job description of mother is clearly in need of revision. As it stands, the shifts are 24 hours, for a period of approximately 1,825 consecutive days. The benefits are sorely in need of amendment: no vacations, no sick leave, no lunch hours, no breaks. Moreover, it is the only unpaid position I know of that can result in arrest if you fail to show up for work.

  Mary Blakely

  Mother, Jobs, Vacation

  0 Copy quote

• One year, I'd completely lost my bearings trying to follow potty training instruction from a psychiatric expert. I was stuck on step on, which stated without an atom of irony: "Before you begin, remove all stubbornness from the child." . . . I knew it only could have been written by someone whose suit coat was still spotless at the end of the day, not someone who had any hands-on experience with an actual two-year-old.

  Mary Blakely

  Children, Two, Hands

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• The naive notion that a mother naturally acquires the complex skills of childrearing simply because she has given birth now seemsas absurd to me as enrolling in a nine-month class in composition and imagining that at the end of the course you are now prepared to begin writing War and Peace.

  Mary Blakely

  Mother, War, Writing

  0 Copy quote

• Spooky things happen in houses densely occupied by adolescent boys. When I checked out a four-inch dent in the living room ceilingone afternoon, even the kid still holding the baseball bat looked genuinely baffled about how he possibly could have done it.

  Mary Blakely

  Baseball, Kids, Boys

  0 Copy quote

• Since civilizing children takes the better part of two decades--some twenty years of nonstop thinking, nurturing, teaching, coaxing, rewarding, forgiving, warning, punishing, sympathizing, apologizing, reminding, and repeating, not to mention deciding what to do when--I now understand that one wrong move is invariably followed by hundreds of opportunities to be wrong again.

  Mary Blakely

  Children, Moving, Teaching

  Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.75, Simon and Schuster

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• With two sons born eighteen months apart, I operated mainly on automatic pilot through the ceaseless activity of their early childhood. I remember opening the refrigerator late one night and finding a roll of aluminum foil next to a pair of small red tennies. Certain that I was responsible for the refrigerated shoes, I quickly closed the door and ran upstairs to make sure I had put the babies in their cribs instead of the linen closet.

  Mary Blakely

  Baby, Son, Night

  Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.8, Simon and Schuster

  10 Copy quote

• In the range of things toddlers have to learn and endlessly review--why you can't put bottles with certain labels in your mouth, why you have to sit on the potty, why you can't take whatever you want in the store, why you don't hit your friends--by the time we got to why you can't drop your peas, well, I was dropping a few myself.

  Mary Blakely

  Labels, Bottles, Mouths

  Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.90, Simon and Schuster

  0 Copy quote

• Today, only a fool would offer herself as the singular role model for the Good Mother. Most of us know not to tempt the fates. Themoment I felt sure I had everything under control would invariably be the moment right before the principal called to report that one of my sons had just driven somebody's motorcycle through the high school gymnasium.

  Mary Blakely

  Mother, School, Fate

  0 Copy quote

• In a culture that gives men irresponsible power and women powerless responsibility, the advancement of civilization cannot be a serious goal.

  Mary Blakely

  Responsibility, Men, Civilization

  Mary Kay Blakely (1995). “American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie”, p.152, Simon and Schuster

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• After I discovered the real life of mothers bore little resemblance to the plot outlined in most of the books and articles I'd read, I started relying on the expert advice of other mothers--especially those with sons a few years older than mine. This great body of knowledge is essentially an oral history, because anyone engaged in motherhood on a daily basis has no time to write an advice book about it.

  Mary Blakely

  Mother, Real, Book

  0 Copy quote

• Our humor turns our anger into a fine art.

  Mary Blakely

  Art, Anger, Fine

  3 Copy quote

• If a woman is to know herself, then periods of solitude should be courted, planned, and embraced.

  Mary Blakely

  Solitude, Should, Periods

  0 Copy quote

• What stunned me was the regular assertion that feminists were "anti-family." . . . It was motherhood that got me into the movementin the first place. I became an activist after recognizing how excruciatingly personal the political was to me and my sons. It was the women's movement that put self-esteem back into "just a housewife," rescuing our intelligence from the junk pile of "instinct" and making it human, deliberate, powerful.

  Mary Blakely

  Powerful, Self Esteem, Son

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• Certainly, words can be as abusive as any blow. . . . When a three-year-old yells, "You're so stupid! What a dummy!" it doesn't carry the same weight as when a mother yells those words to a child. . . . Even if you don't physically abuse young children, you can still drive them nuts with your words.

  Mary Blakely

  Mother, Children, Stupid

  0 Copy quote

• Although a firm swat could bring a recalcitrant child swiftly into line, the changes were usually external, lasting only as long as the swatter remained in view....Permanent transformation had to be internal....The habits of self discipline, as laborious and frustrating as they were to achieve, offered the only real possibility of keeping children safe from their own excesses as well as the omnipresent dangers of society.

  Mary Blakely

  Children, Real, Self

  2 Copy quote

• However global I strove to become in my thinking over the past twenty years, my sons kept me rooted to an utterly pedestrian view,intimately involved with the most inspiring and fractious passages in human development. However unconsciously by now, motherhood informs every thought I have, influencing everything I do. More than any other part of my life, being a mother taught me what it means to be human.

  Mary Blakely

  Mother, Mean, Son

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• Divorce is the psychological equivalent of a triple coronary by pass. After such a monumental assault on the heart, it takes years to amend all the habits and attitudes that led up to it.

  Mary Blakely

  Attitude, Heart, Divorce

  8 Copy quote

• One life stamps and influences another, which in turn stamps and influences another, on and on, until the soul of human experience breathes on in generations we'll never meet.

  Mary Blakely

  Inspiring, Children, Soul

  Mary Kay Blakely (1989). “Wake Me when It's Over: A Journey to the Edge and Back”, Crown

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