Comments on: Holding My Breath: Women, Work, and Parenthood http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/06/03/holding-my-breath-women-work-and-parenthood/ Responses to Media and Culture Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:35:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5 By: Courtney Brannon Donoghue http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/06/03/holding-my-breath-women-work-and-parenthood/comment-page-1/#comment-10999 Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:40:47 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=4327#comment-10999 Thanks for your discussion of Parenthood! I have also found the show to be emotionally engaging and frustrating in a way other serial dramas have not been this season. While it may not be on the must watch list of many of my academic peers, speaking with the few have who do watch talk about their connection to an intense and boundary-less family dynamic.

I found Julia and her contentious relationship with rival mom Raquel manifests many of the popular debates about “good” vs “bad” Mommyhood (Raquel baking fresh cookies without preservatives and dismissing Julia’s tube of cookie dough). One of the most poignant moments in the season was during the school auction when Julia’s dismissal of a rival school Mom is projected via a microphone (“she doesn’t even work”). Julia’s utterance was met and shunned by the other parents. Brutal/vicious honesty traded for a parking spot.

Am curious to know what you think about some of the mother/daughter dynamics. Particularly how the Amber and Haddie meltdown ultimately became an issue of “good” parenting between the two mothers.

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