‘Whole in the family’

By Rebecca Leask

Being a mother is hard.        

A delicate balancing act is performed, as yes, it can be a circus at times…      

I’ve struggled with anxieties for most of my life and looking back to the birth of my first-born, I now realise that I most likely had postnatal depression.     

When a mother is feeling physically and mentally challenged, it can be counter-productive to be either consciously or subconsciously bombarded with ‘ideals’ and implied expectations for how she dresses, cooks, educates and looks after her kids and manages relationships to name but a few.    

I’ve taken clippings from a 2023 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine to illustrate how this discourse can be perceived depending on the mental health of an individual at any given time.

Whilst I am drowning in these ‘ideals’ and realities of motherhood in my artwork, I am also gazing out of the window at a cartoon landscape representing life in my twenties, before domestic ties, and at my own ideals before I became ‘The Whole in the Family’.