Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change

We are dependent on our nannies, cleaners, personal Instacart shoppers, Door Dash delivery drivers, parents, co-parents, chosen family, and in-laws. The domestic load is as heavy as ever, but if we have the means, we spread it out among multiple people. This is not real progress.

Caregivers play an essential role in the development of young brains and bodies that do not hold disdain for themselves.

It makes white women uncomfortable to think that they are no different from their hired help.

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.

American society values work in terms of how much we produce, and how efficiently we can do it. It tells us that our output is our worth. Caregiving, conversely, is inefficient. But it pays dividends. If we were to think about work in terms of our humanity—making people feel dignified, valued, and whole—then caregiving is the most important work we

Raising children should not be as lonely, bankrupting, and exhausting as it is.

Reimagining our approach to mothering can birth its transformative potential. Day in and day out, this work can be our most consistent, embodied resistance to patriarchy, white supremacy, ableism, and the exploitation that underlies American capitalism.

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?