Motherhood remixed?

UNMAKING MARY:
Shattering the Myth of Perfect Motherhood
By Chine Macdonald
Hodder & Stoughton. 309 pages. £16.99
ISBN 978 1 399 814 638

There are days when I feel overwhelmed. As a woman attempting to “have it all” – a family, a functional marriage, serve the church, salvage something of a working life, grab a quiet time – instead, I feel like I am a failure at all of it. Not focused on God enough, not focused on family enough, not focused on work enough – letting everyone down.

The gospel tells me I am saved by grace not works, but those works often seem so appealing. Social media and society show us a modern motherhood that suggests seductively to us that if we try enough or do enough then we can have it all. Unmaking Mary from mum of two Chine Macdonald reminds us that the perfect mother, the one who has it all and is it all, is a myth.