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savvylit's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Essential Labor is an excellent text that rests on Garbes' thesis that mother is an action word. Mother is a verb: we mother, we are mothered. Caring for each other and our children is not gender exclusive; though Garbes does explore the cultural expectations that promote care-work as solely a woman's job. Garbes illustrates how truly essential care-work is to every one of us. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a backdrop for much of her own experience mothering two young children, Garbes demonstrates how modern ideas of nuclear families only isolate people and make us worse at caretaking. Communal care - even if it's as straightforward as sharing childcare duties with another young family in your COVID bubble - genuinely benefits every single person involved.
Beyond Garbes' exceedingly effective call to rethink mothering, Essential Labor is also an intimately personal memoir. Not only does Garbes not shy away from detail when it comes to her and her husband as parents, but she also examines motherhood through the lens of her experience as a child of Filipinx immigrants. Garbes recalls her childhood and her parents through a curious, empathetic, and decolonial lens that was consistently captivating to read.
I am not a literal mother though I have participated in paid care-work throughout quite a lot of my life: babysitting, tutoring, teaching, and nannying. However, you do not have to have had experience as a parent or care-worker to understand Garbes' call for mothering as social change. Essential Labor is absolutely for anyone and everyone interested in making the world a better place for ourselves and future generations.
Final note, I experienced this as an audiobook read by Angela Garbes herself and it was a very delightful way to experience such a personal and powerful text.
Beyond Garbes' exceedingly effective call to rethink mothering, Essential Labor is also an intimately personal memoir. Not only does Garbes not shy away from detail when it comes to her and her husband as parents, but she also examines motherhood through the lens of her experience as a child of Filipinx immigrants. Garbes recalls her childhood and her parents through a curious, empathetic, and decolonial lens that was consistently captivating to read.
I am not a literal mother though I have participated in paid care-work throughout quite a lot of my life: babysitting, tutoring, teaching, and nannying. However, you do not have to have had experience as a parent or care-worker to understand Garbes' call for mothering as social change. Essential Labor is absolutely for anyone and everyone interested in making the world a better place for ourselves and future generations.
Final note, I experienced this as an audiobook read by Angela Garbes herself and it was a very delightful way to experience such a personal and powerful text.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Xenophobia, and Misogyny
Moderate: Pregnancy
bootsmom3's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual content, Abortion, Colonisation, Ableism, Fatphobia, Misogyny, and Death
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