“Why don’t you mother your own kids and stop mothering me?”
What?
…
What?!
So if I’m arguing with someone on the internet, it’s no longer just a normal, completely futile argument with someone on the internet, which I’ve been having with people since I was 15 (yes, my life is sad)…it’s now a full fledged attempt on my behalf to parent a stranger? I’ll say it again: WHAT? I feel like I’ve graduated in the ad hominem ranks. I’m no longer a feminazi bitch who overreacts to everything. I’m now just a crazy mom who can’t control her mothering impulses!
I also sort of like that there’s just the vaguest hint in there that I’m not being a good mother. The classic “Don’t you have better things to do with your time?” is taken to all new levels when you’re a mom talking about mom things. I’m not just wasting my time anymore. I am now depriving my children of 100% of my full attention, love and concern, and if I spend even a second not doing something directly in the service of my children, I must be a bad mother whose babies will invariably die from neglect. Because women with children can’t do anything but take care of their children (and within the proscriptions of the patriarchy) without being horrible people, right?
It’s like I get to see an additional facet to every classic derailing tactic now that I’m in this new lady role. I guess at least it spices things up a little?