"I never understand why people have children and then insist on living as though nothing has shifted"
About this Quote
The bite of Christy Turlington's line is how calmly it refuses the cultural script of effortless parenthood. Coming from a model, it lands with extra charge: fashion has long sold the fantasy of a body, schedule, and identity that can be maintained without friction. Her disbelief punctures that fantasy with a single, almost domestic verb: shifted. Not ruined, not sacrificed to, not redeemed by, just shifted - a word that treats parenthood as an undeniable reorientation rather than a lifestyle accessory.
The intent reads less like judgment of having kids and more like impatience with denial. She is calling out the performative normalcy parents are pressured to stage: returning to work immediately, keeping pre-baby social lives intact, treating exhaustion as a private failure instead of a predictable outcome. The subtext is feminist and pragmatic at once: if society insists nothing should change, it can keep punishing mothers (and, increasingly, fathers) for the visible evidence that it does.
Context matters here. Turlington has been outspoken about maternal health and childbirth risks, and she comes from an industry that rewards seamlessness and punishes need. So the quote doubles as critique of individual stubbornness and of a culture that demands continuity at all costs - careers with no slack, bodies with no history, homes where caregiving is invisible labor. The line works because it names the obvious thing people are trained not to say out loud: children are not a subplot; they're a plot twist.
The intent reads less like judgment of having kids and more like impatience with denial. She is calling out the performative normalcy parents are pressured to stage: returning to work immediately, keeping pre-baby social lives intact, treating exhaustion as a private failure instead of a predictable outcome. The subtext is feminist and pragmatic at once: if society insists nothing should change, it can keep punishing mothers (and, increasingly, fathers) for the visible evidence that it does.
Context matters here. Turlington has been outspoken about maternal health and childbirth risks, and she comes from an industry that rewards seamlessness and punishes need. So the quote doubles as critique of individual stubbornness and of a culture that demands continuity at all costs - careers with no slack, bodies with no history, homes where caregiving is invisible labor. The line works because it names the obvious thing people are trained not to say out loud: children are not a subplot; they're a plot twist.
Quote Details
| Topic | Parenting |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
More Quotes by Christy
Add to List
