The Juggling Mother

The Juggling Mother upends popular representations of the supermom, showing her to be a cultural construction and the model neoliberal worker.

Amanda D. Watson is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Simon Fraser University. Her work has been published in the International Feminist Journal of Politics, Studies in Social Justice, and Politique de l’image.

Emily Chivers Yochim, co-author of Mothering Through Precarity:

Amanda Watson offers a thought-provoking foray into understanding the mediated trope of the juggling mother, a typically white, middle- to upper-middle-class mom who is continually on the verge of “coming undone” as she manages the constant demands of care work and paid labour.

May Friedman, author of Mommyblogs and the Changing Face of Motherhood:

Who is permitted to “come undone”? In this superbly written book, Amanda Watson frames public, modern motherhood as only available to particular, privileged mothers – but also documents the costs to those same mothers.