Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change

We have been trained to view our houses and apartments as private refuges, but they must also be seen for what they are: job sites where millions of dollars of the global economy are directly exchanged.

Domestication moved people away from communal living and removed the social and connective aspects of all labor.

The division between home and work remains paramount to the system we live under.

We extend the American ideals of productivity and efficiency to our off-hours.

Rather than viewing care work as characteristic of the noun “motherhood,” I now see it as the action of mothering, which includes anyone who is engaged in “the practice of creating, nurturing, affirming and supporting life.”

I don’t believe care work has to wreck us. This labor can be shared, social, collective—and transformative.

What if every child believed that being “good” at a sport or activity—football, badminton, or ballet; break dancing, skateboarding, or curling; fencing, jumping rope, or juggling—means that you enjoy doing it?

We are caught between how we were raised and how we really want to live. We should feel free rather than limited.

We will always find ways to take care of one another. When we lean into this natural, unstoppable, and very human urge, the results are expansive. And I want more.

Love is acts of attention,