Hello, Housekeepers!
PORTRAIT OF JANE: VICTORIA ADAMSON. JANE’S HAIR: KOTRYNA ZINKEVICIUTE AT GEORGE NORTHWOOD. JANE’S MAKEUP: LINDSEY POOLE. ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: SOPHIA SPRING, TAMSYN MORGAN, KIRSTIE YOUNG
What do you feel when you think of the word ‘motherhood’? Does it leave you with a happy inner glow? Or does it trigger flashbacks to a time when you felt overwhelmed and alienated from your own body (which obviously no longer bears any resemblance to your own body)? Perhaps you’re so busy navigating a difficult relationship with your own mother that the idea of contemplating ‘motherhood’ sends you reaching for the cocktail trolley. Whether you have children or not, you might feel a little bit of all these things, or none of them. Every woman has her own unique experience of mothering – or being mothered – but, as you’ll read on page 52 in the landmark GH Motherhood Survey, a lot of what we feel depends upon the decade in which we were born. A lot of it is also hidden. As Liz Moseley says on page 54, motherhood is brutal, so why can’t we be honest about it? I’d love to hear more of your thoughts – and thank you to the 1,400 readers aged 23 to 97 who’ve already shared their stories. Good Housekeeping has been shining a light on the experiences of women in Britain for 102 years. With your help, we certainly won’t be stopping now.