Motherhood Quote by Ruby Wax

Ruby Wax lands the joke with the kind of sideways honesty that makes people laugh and then wince in recognition. "Being a mother is hard" is the plainspoken setup; "and it wasn't a subject I ever studied" is the punchline that quietly indicts the myth that motherhood arrives with instincts preinstalled. The line works because it frames parenting as a technical discipline you can, in theory, prepare for - like chemistry or accounting - and then points out the absurdity that we routinely hand people one of the most consequential jobs on earth with little more than folk wisdom and a few pamphlets.

The subtext is rebellion against the sentimental script. Wax, a comedian who’s also been public about mental health, nudges at the cultural expectation that mothers should be naturally competent, endlessly patient, and grateful for the privilege. By calling it a "subject", she swaps the halo for homework. That shift lowers the temperature: struggle becomes evidence of insufficient training, not insufficient love.

There’s also a gendered sting. We rarely talk about fathers as if they should ace the role on intuition alone, yet mothers are often judged as if any difficulty is a personal failing. Wax’s phrasing gives permission to admit confusion without confessing guilt.

Contextually, it reads like stand-up distilled into a single sentence: observational, self-deprecating, and surgical. It’s funny because it’s true; it’s sharper because it suggests the truth is a design flaw in how society prepares - and polices - women.