“Fake Smile. Everything is under Control.”: The Flawless Performance of Motherhood

“I don't let everyone see my struggles”: Mothers' social support and privacy management

“…As such, this participant shines a light on the lack of social support for mothers and their double bind. That is, mothers are expected to do everything—and do it flawlessly (DeGroot & Vik, 2021).…”

“…Subsequently, mothers are unable to receive social support. In an attempt to be flawless in their performance of motherhood (see DeGroot & Vik, 2021), mothers are unable to have selectively permeable boundaries (see Petronio, 2002) with anyone except other mothers. Even with other mothers, our participants indicated (re)constructing rigid privacy boundaries (see Petronio, 2002) surrounding disclosures of challenges in motherhood.…”

“…At this point, the array of initial codes was vast and appeared to represent three distinct theoretical contributions. We divided the categories into three separate studies guided by theoretical sensibilities: the flawless performance of motherhood (DeGroot & Vik, 2021), inequity in invisible work labor (DeGroot & Vik, 2020), societal expectations of mothers (Vik & DeGroot, 2019), and CPM and parenting challenges (the current study).…”

#sendwine: An Analysis of Motherhood, Alcohol Use and #winemom Culture on Instagram

“…In essence, being associated with the #winemom hashtag enabled them to be aligned with the supermom who gets all things done. 2 , 41 …”

“…However, these presentations remain complicated, as they still reinforce women’s participation in domestic roles and responsibilities and provide little challenge to participants in #winemom culture for alcohol consumption as a means to make it happen. Women often report that they feel intense pressure to perform motherhood perfectly, both in online and offline spaces, 41 which may influence the carefully crafted presentations of how wine facilitates succeeding as a modern mother.…”