My children cause me the most exquisite suffering of which I have any …

Adrienne Rich
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My children cause me the most exquisite suffering of which I have any experience. It is the suffering of ambivalence: the murderous alternation between bitter resentment and raw-edged nerves, and blissful gratification and tenderness. Sometimes I seem to myself, in my feelings toward these tiny guiltless beings, a monster of selfishness and intolerance. ✨ Adrienne Rich (1976). Of woman born motherhood as experience and institution
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