Nobody Has to Be Perfect

We have become a generation desperate to be perfect wives, mothers, and professionals — Tiger Moms who prepare organic quinoa each evening after waltzing home from the IPO in our Manolo Blahnik heels. Even worse, we somehow believe that we need to do all of this at once, and without any help. Almost by definition, a woman cannot work a 60-hour-per-week job and be the same kind of parent she would have been without the 60-hour-per-week job. No man can do this; no human can do this. Yet women are repeatedly berating themselves for failing at this kind of balancing act, and (quietly, invidiously) berating others when something inevitably slips. Think of the schadenfreude that erupts every time a high-profile woman hits a bump in either her career or her family life. Poor Condoleezza Rice, left without a boyfriend. Sloppy Hillary, whose hair is wrong again. Bad Marissa Mayer, who dared to announce her pregnancy the same week she was named CEO of Yahoo. She could not pull it off (snicker, snicker). She paid for her success. She Could. Not. Do. It. All.

I think the idea of the obsession with achieving perfection is something that applies to everyone, regardless of gender. I am not perfect. I don’t know anyone who’s perfect. I’m okay with not having it all, because I’m not even sure what having it all even means to me right now. I don’t have it all figured out, and that’s perfectly okay.

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