“The fact that I’m not convinced I’m going to die of domestic drowning is likely due in large part to my professional experiences.”

Yes that’s right. And exactly my experience: it’s the career skill and the habituation to keeping your head down and working through rough patches that also get you through tough stages with lots of little kids.

My sister and I often remark that in our very trad Catholic community, mothers never working paying jobs is kind of a badge of honor, yet it’s mainly the women who worked before marriage and were pretty competent at their jobs who seem to be thriving in their maternal vocation.

The trad idea of women being at home and separate spheres etc seems to coincide with a glorification or maybe toleration of overwhelm and depression. The bottom line always ends up being something like “you can never handle any of it, no one can do anything without God, anyway, and also you’re more holy in your despair of being competent.”

Idk. Life is hard.