The amount of mom-shaming is ‘incredible,’ ‘One Bad Mother’ author says | CNN

Kara Alaimo is a professor of communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University and advises parents, students and teachers on how to manage screen time. Her book “Over the Influence: Why Social Media Is Toxic for Women and Girls — And How We Can Take It Back” was published in 2024. When Ej Dickson was told by her son’s preschool teacher that her son might be struggling, some people told Dickson she wasn’t doing enough to help him. Others told her she was overreacting. Either way, she was a bad mom, Dickson wrote in her new book, “One Bad Mother: In Praise of Psycho Housewives, Stage Parents, Momfluencers, and Other Women We Love to Hate.” Women are constantly told we’re not parenting properly, wrote Dickson, a senior writer at New York Magazine’s site The Cut. Most of the time, that’s not true. But internalizing these ideas is really bad for us, she said, noting her book focuses on pop culture, not parenting advice. I asked her where these ideas came from and how she avoids buying into them. This conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. CNN: What constitutes a bad mother in our culture? Ej Dickson: It’s a really expansive definition, and t