“I Stand Here Ironing”
The narrator in “I Stand Here Ironing” has a guilty conscience for how her oldest daughter Emily has been raised. “You should smile at Emily more when you look at her” (Olson 284). Emily’s mother was not a happy, loving person towards her daughter and she does not realize it until it is too late. She did not give her the love she deserved. The many mistakes she made as a mother stem from the hard times of the depression and trying to raise her daughter alone.
Emily’s mother felt guilty because she had to sacrifice her time with her first born. Emily’s father abandoned them when she was a baby and her mother struggled to support her. She had to leave her in the care of a neighbor, while she worked to provide for her. “When she saw me she would break into a clogged weeping that could not be comforted, a weeping I can here yet” (284). Her mother thinks that her time away is affecting her baby’s happiness.
I think it was wrong to send her away to that awful convalescent house. The mother was being very selfish and only thinking of what was best for her new baby.
I don’t think she was a good mother to Emily. She should have been there for her emotionally. “Now go to sleep, Emily, there’s nothing to hurt you” (285). Emily needed her mother’s comfort here not typical brush off.