Mother Bashing: Does She Deserve It? - Nancy Estelle Perry

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Résumé :
This is a book inspired by mother blame in the author's life. It is about the causes of mother bashing and relationships between mothers and their adult children. Most mothers are women, but fathers as well as anyone else may also fulfill the role of mother. The book includes theoretical ideas and examples from actual clinical cases from the author's practice as a Clinical Psychologist to illustrate meanings.
The first part of the book defines mother bashing, explains what a good enough mother really is, explores some of the reasons society has blamed mothers and whether that blame was warranted, as well as addressing the normal, healthy aspects of mother blame as related to normal differentiation and individuation.
The second part of the book focuses on exploring the issues in our world today that can cause harm to developing children as well as factors that may cause conflict between mothers and children. Single Parenting, child Abuse, Social Change, and the Technological Revolution can harm children. Children and parents may have different memories, causing great conflict.
The last part of the book recognizes the profound need for mothering at many levels, beginning with our own children and expanding this to the world. It is deigned to help readers assimilate what they learned about mother blame and integrate it with what they learned about themselves..
The last chapter provides concrete suggestions to help readers deal with anger and learn to forgive themselves and others. The end of the book is really only the beginning of the next step forward.
The book is not written to vindicate mothers or to blame them. Blame already exists. It is not a book about how to be a good parent, but it provides good parenting advice. It is a book that sheds a different light on mothering and parenting today and provides information about how to cope with discord in cross generational relationships. It challenges mothers, fathers, and their children to evaluate themselves as they read. It includes a pilot study that interviewed 47 mothers about their experiences.
The author designed a survey to discover more information about the pain mothers and their adult children are experiencing in their relationships with each other. The survey is at the end of the book and may be taken by anyone over the age of 18 on the author's web site. (drnancyperryauthor.com) Information from the survey will be posted on the authors website monthly. Research results may be used in future books.