Episode 59 - Dispelling the Perfect Mother Myth with Sophie Brock

This episode is a deep conversation with Dr Sophie Brock. Sophie is a Motherhood Studies Sociologist and Mother living in Sydney, Australia. She provides analysis of Motherhood in our culture, exploring the ways individual experiences of Mothers are shaped by broader social constructs. Sophie’s work contributes to changing the cultural conversation on Motherhood and the individual experiences of Mothers, to create a world where Mothers feel empowered, supported, and valued. Sophie’s offerings include self-study courses for Mothers and mother-supporting practitioners, mentoring for mother-supporting professionals, The Motherhood Studies Practitioner Certification online training, and her podcast The Good Enough Mother. In this episode, Sophie translates some complex theoretical ideas into accessible information and provides resources and ideas for mothers to understand these concepts, to explore them for their own unique lives and to bring compassion to themselves in the journey to “good enoughness”. She describes how our culture shapes and impacts us as mothers and how we can also shape and impact that world. She describes the concept of patriarchal motherhood and the myth of the perfect mother and how this impacts our experience of motherhood. We talk about what it means to parent our children against patriarchal norms and she shares some reflection exercises that we can use to start to gently explore, unpack and challenge this for ourselves. If you want to learn more about Sophie’s work please visit https://drsophiebrock.com/ and follow her @drsophiebrock on Instagram and Facebook or email info@drsophiebrock.com. If you want to learn more about the Exploring Aware Parenting Community with Danni Willow, please visit my website www.awareparenting.com.au/community/