“Welcome to the Mommy Wars, Ladies”: Making Sense of the Ideology of Combative Mothering in Mommy Blogs

Abstract

The mothering ideology that normalizes constant competition between mothers, especially in terms of parenting philosophies, practices, and choices, is termed combative mothering. Combative mothering manifests discursively through the metaphor of the mommy wars, which has previously described antagonisms between working and stay-at-home mothers, but more recently has shifted to describe animus between myriad parenting philosophies and practices. In this article, we engaged in a feminist critique to identify how 30 mommy bloggers make sense of the origins of, and solutions to, the mommy wars. This sensemaking, we contend, lends important critical insight into powerful cultural constructions of individual mothers as responsible for the creating, sustaining, and ultimately resolving the mommy wars.