"I Stand Here Ironing"

Motherhood is difficult anyway you look at it; we all have to make decisions with doubt in the backs of our minds. The story “I Stand Here Ironing” has to do with that doubt. A mother tells her story of the decisions she made for her eldest daughter, Emily, during the depression.
Even as a child Emily was withdrawn and had no wanting of human comfort. Her mother not knowing, interpreted Emily sense of solitary as a sign she wasn't needed for emotional security.
Her mother points out that maybe she took Emily's being introvert wrong. Emily does need that mother figure and love just as her sibling recieve it now, "Now when it is to late (as if she would let me hold and comfort her like I do the others"(pg.285).
She starts to depend on Emily to help with the other children. Her mothers sense of regret comes out in the comment "I was working, there were four smaller ones now, there was not time for her. She had to help be a mother, and housekeeper, and shopper"(pg.285).
In the end we all hope that our children are happy, but it sounds as if Emily's mother has given up hope. One of the sentences in the last paragraph "So all that is in her will not bloom..." No mother should give up hope that their child will reach their full potential.
Parents struggle everyday wondering if they have made the right decisions and questioning how their children will end up confident adults. I am a mother of three sons and hope that I have no regrets. I make choices for them but have to be open to there needs and emotions. Listen to your children watch for the unsaid signs that something is wrong and do the best to help them.