Growing up on Chicago’s south side in the ’90s and early 2000s, Black women were always the mothers. Or at least that’s how it seemed. My mother, a gorgeous brown-skinned woman from the west side, with 12 siblings and an MBA, stood at the center. Other mothers were in her orbit as well — neighbors, aunts, cousins, even the mothers I saw on TV.
The Cosby Show’s Clair Huxtable, Moesha’s Dee Mitchell, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s Aunt Viv felt familiar because they resembled the real-life mothers in my life, who all made motherhood seem effortless. They dressed elegantly, easily juggled the demands of their careers with parenting and still seemed to have ample time for themselves. As a result, I assumed mothering was easy. But that’s the thing: So much of what we perceive about motherhood is an illusion. It wasn’t until I was well into my 20s, reflecting back on my childhood that I realized all of the challenges that these women faced.
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