Many baby boomers were taught that women were stunted in the home, and that the path to power, freedom, and independence was in the world. Iris Krasnow (photo with son Jack) is questioning that role. She finds the act of mothering is profoundly liberating and empowering. "Having it all is like having nothing ... you end up not being able to do anything fully or right, your family or your career," says Krasnow. When she was at the top of her profession, as a feature writer who interviewed celebrities for United Press International, she discovered that a glamorous job was good for only fleeting highs, and that what she craved most of all was to be grounded in family. She married at 33, and by the age of 39, Krasnow and her husband were the parents of four sons under the age of three. With their arrival, she became consumed with the care and feeding of a pack of little boys, and detached, happily, from the grind of daily journalism. She writes about her motherhood voyage eloquently, and offers a fresh slant on a woman's contemporary search for fulfillment. "When you are the mother of young children, there can be no balance. Your children get the best of you, time and time again. So rather than fight it, surrender, then you can enjoy real balance ... having your mind and heart and soul in sync." Krasnow is not advocating that all women should leave their professions and stay home full-time. But she is saying that when we make the choice to become mothers we should be there, physically and emotionally, as much as we possibly can. She tells us that we can always go back to building brilliant careers, we can never go back to building confident and kind children. Read all about this author's experience in her new book "Surrendering to Motherhood".
Photo Credit: Mary Noble Ours
Profile submitted by Lisa Kitei, Miramax Books/Hyperion, New York, NY, USA.
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