All these things we do bespeak a terrible anxiety: that our children simply will not be able to make it through life if we do not perform totemic acts to keep them on the path toward self-perfection and keep their lives pure and unfettered by distracting emotion, personality foibles, or less-than-ideal experiences.
Judith Warner, Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety
anxiety, judith-warner, motherhood, perfection, personality