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Silenced, Silence, Silent

Motherhood in the Margins

Griffith University, Queensland, Australia

Helena Austin

Griffith University, Queensland, Australia

This project explores the experiences of women who mother children with ADHD.¹ The authors use the metaphor of the text and the margin. The text is the "motherhood myth" that describes a particular sort of "good" mothering. The margin is the space beyond that text. This marginal space is inhabited by some or all of the mothers they spoke with, some or all of the time, as they fail to be recognized by the text. They explore the many sorts of silence, whether imposed or "strategic choice," that disable these women by segregating and isolating them. They also use the metaphor of trouble. They explore the troubling work these mothers do as they negotiate motherhood on the borders of that myth. The troubling work is itself troubled—as neither strategic silence nor strategic unsilence is without its risk, and both at times reinscribe the very mythology that denies these women.

Key Words: motherhood myth • ADHD • silence

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