"The ideal mother, like the ideal marriage, is a fiction"
- Milton R. Sapirstein
About this Quote
In this quote, Milton R. Sapirstein is recommending that the concept of an "ideal" mother or an "perfect" marital relationship is not based in truth. He is indicating that society's expectations and standards for moms and marital relationships are unrealistic and unattainable. Simply as an imaginary story may have an ideal, flawless mother or marriage, the concept of a perfect mom or marital relationship is likewise a fabricated concept. Sapirstein might be talking about the pressure and expectations put on females to be best moms and have best marriages, and how these expectations can be harmful and unattainable. Eventually, he is challenging the concept of perfection and encouraging approval of flaw in both motherhood and marriage.
"Children that are raised in a home with a married mother and father consistently do better in every measure of well-being than their peers who come from divorced or step-parent, single-parent, cohabiting homes"
"A mother should give her children a superabundance of enthusiasm; that after they have lost all they are sure to lose on mixing with the world, enough may still remain to prompt fated support them through great actions"