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Why does it seem like there’s a motherhood elite that makes some mothers put others down? with co-host Ryan O’Connor

"Mother's Day is for real mothers. You're not a real mother because you didn't actually give birth to your child, you lost it before it was born."

What constitutes a "real" mother? And why, in this age of supposed equality, careers and life choices, do women (and men!) have to justify their decision not to have children?

I have Opinions about parenting, I suspect most parents do. We (I) feel the need to defend what I did as a parent because, heaven knows I had no clue what I was doing, I just made it up as I went along and mostly managed to justify my actions (though there are more than a few moments I’d much rather forget!).

Ryan, as someone who doesn’t want children and who has to defend that choice on a regular basis, has quite a lot of questions as to why some mothers behave the way they do and what causes them to behave that way in the first place.

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Join us as we consider three questions in this episode: how (and why) some mothers put a lot of effort into gaslighting other mothers, why we might want to bring children into the world (or not), and do mothers forgive – and defend – their children no matter what they do.

"There is that real feeling of elitism that the mother is the only one qualified to take care of her child, she's the expert. She has a little badge that says mother and the rest of the world gets a tiny little badge that says "child"..."

Menopause, Marriage and Motherhood

About Today’s Guest Ryan O'Connor

Award Winning Actor, Director and Playwrite

Co-founder and executive director of Someone New Theatre Company, the winner of the 2019 Grace Marion Wilson Trust Award for Playwriting, and an acclaimed actor and director throughout NSW and Victoria

Ryan J O’Connor is a Geelong-based writer of original, alternative plays and prose.

He also has a thriving business that creates Dungeons and Dragons maps and characters.

He is also an excellent baker, a trained stage-combatist, a terrible gardener, and a moderately talented poker player.

He does his best writing while trying to avoid his responsibilities, but loves to tell ‘alternative’ stories: romantic comedies about Death, coming-of-age stories about old men, and science-fiction tales about mythological creatures, just to name a few.

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