Weiqing Xu ASA 002 A04 Week 9

The reading assigned to us this week is “Mothering is Liberation” by professor Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales. I feel heartbreaking when I saw she said she was guilt when she thought she didn’t spend enough time with her children due to her work as a professor and a scholar. I am a child of a math teacher-mother. She was in charge of the class during the time I grew up(including the whole childhood and puberty), and she usually had little time spending with me because she needed to take care of all the students in her class. I used to blame her for not devoting herself to educating me, her own child, but now I have new understanding. Where is my father? Why doesn’t my father feel guilty? To be honest, my father is a good man. He worked hard and always is being commented considerate by other people. But why being considerate and caring is the responsibility of women and at the same time the virtue of men? The standard of being women and men varies too significant to be ignored. My father always self-evaluated a good man and when he was aked why, he said: “ I can cook and don’t cheat on your mother. I also do chores!” Then I asked him: “ Why are these basic standards of being a normal woman make you a good man?” He couldn’t say anything. I want to say, professor, don’t let these virtues of men become the requirements of being a qualified mother. You are a fabulous woman, in any sense.

References

Valverde, K.-L. C., & Dariotis, W. M. (2020). Fight the Tower: Asian American Women Scholars' Resistance and Renewal in the Academy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press

The image is from: https://www.todaysparent.com/blogs/opinion/the-most-loyal-employees-ever-are-working-moms-with-good-bosses/