Game for Change

http://www.philome.la/CaitStratton/under-pressure


A problem I see in our society today is the result of conflicting opinions on motherhood. It seems that no how you choose to parent, someone is adamant you are running your children’s lives. Often time this judgment comes from other mothers on the blogosphere. There are a few terms for this such as ‘Mom vs. Mom’ and ‘The Mommy Wars’.
I am not a mother, but as someone who has a mother and the potential to become a mother there are aspects of this that bother me. The fact that so much of this judgment comes from other moms is, to me, a shame. Instead of supporting each other in what is probably one of the hardest jobs, people are attacking each other’s style of parenting.  One issue in particular resonates with me. Some people say a mother cannot work outside the home without neglecting her children. Others, who are working moms, push back saying it is working for them.
My mother is a woman with more than one story, a concept explored by the TED talk we viewed. She is mother, a wife, a teacher, and a working mom since I was 12 years old. Previously a stay at home mom, when my father was laid off she went back to teaching speech therapy at a local elementary school. After this she never again was without a job. It wasn’t that added income, my father found an excellent job not long after; it was that she loved the challenge and helping children. While she was originally worried about the change, it worked for our family.
In this game I focused on showing the issue through a mother who had seen both sides. Having no experience as a mother I drew from my own mother’s experience and some of the stories expressed online. You begin as a stay at home mom heavily involved with her son’s school life with a social circle of similarly occupied moms and end as a working mother dealing with a new set of challenges. I wanted to giver her more than one story and show her emotional conflict over how to move through this transition.  Problems such as judgment from other moms, pressure to put work first, and the guilt over leaving your children with another person are addressed. There are also issues such as the conflicting emotions of enjoying being at work and missing your children.
My aim was to show both sides of the story, with maybe a leaning towards the sympathy for working moms as it provides a basis for crafting a set of choices to incorporate in a game. I also wanted to show some of the judgment stay at home mothers receive by giving them one story and portraying them in a negative light. In this way I hoped to show how both sides are often perceived and help people understand that we should be supporting each other in our individual family choices and not tearing each other down.


Sources

http://nymag.com/nymetro/urban/family/features/n_7837/index3.html

http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/parenting-roles/value-of-stay-at-home-moms/the-value-of-stay-at-home-moms

http://drphil.com/articles/article/284

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/welcome-to-overwhelmia-the-modern-day-madness-of-working-mothers/2014/03/13/1dd71bc8-aabf-11e3-98f6-8e3c562f9996_story.html