Illustration for the New York Times book review of Julie Lyttcott-Haims’ “Mom Genes” about searching for the science behind the maternal instinct.
“The book’s central question therefore is not “What makes a good mother?” but “Am I a good mother?” When the research fails to deliver and the circumstances of her own life become challenging, she pleads rhetorically: How can the science on maternal instinct speak to a woman’s “complex and shifting social milieu?” It can’t. Tucker is forced to study her lived experience for answers to her existential questions.” - Julie Lythcott-Haims