The School for Good Mothers
Author: Jessamine Chan
Dates read: June 14 - June 17, 2024
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
“Ms. Russo thinks Frida’s bedtime stories lack depth. ‘You can’t just have the cow jump over the moon, Frida. You need to have the cow consider his place in society…’.”
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Long Story Short: Frida loses custody of her young daughter after having a tough mom moment, or “a bad day” as Frida puts it, when she leaves her toddler home alone while running errands and essentially forgets she has a child to look after. Frida loses custody of her daughter and is given an ultimatum by the court: either permanently lose custody, or attend a new parenting school in a different state for an entire year and “pass” the curriculum.
Frida chooses the latter option and meets a host of other “bad mothers trying to be good” who are guilty of minor to major child abuse/neglect scenarios. Frida and the other mothers have to take care of life-like, full-sized robot children and show that they can learn how to be better mothers and handle the pressures of being a parent to prove they deserve custody of their children again.
At the end of the story, Frida is unable to “pass” and loses custody of her child. She becomes depressed and manages a short visit with her child alone (unbeknownst to her daughter’s father and her ex-husband, who is generally on her side and didn’t want her to lose custody). While Frida is visiting her daughter, she takes her and they flee into the night. The way Frida talks about it, she knows it’s only a matter of time before she is caught, but Frida wants to soak up as much time as she can with her child until she is caught.
Ruth’s Take: As a mother of a young daughter myself, there were times where this was tough to read. I couldn’t imagine leaving my child alone, and also, being a parent is the hardest job on the face of the earth. Everyone makes mistakes, but some of the mistakes outlined in this book made it hard to be on Frida’s (or some of the other mothers’) sides.
It was gripping, very emotional, super creepy with a “big brother” air as the women were often being watched and punished for the slightest transgressions. It was a not-that-far-fetched dystopian society of how mothers can be perceived. I laughed out loud a few times at the lessons that Frida and the other mothers were taught by the childless instructors, particularly the “motherese” that the women were instructed to speak to their children and the advanced level of dialogue that was expected with their toddlers. All in all, I’d read it again and recommend it to others, with the caveat that if there are tense child-rearing feelings as home, it could be triggering.
Reading this for a Book Club?
Here are some questions to entice your readers:
The school allowed the dolls to feel pain and regularly talked about them as if they were human, yet other times would treat them like inanimate objects incapable of feeling or understanding. Were the instructors abusing the dolls? - Can someone abuse a nonliving thing? Did you think of the dolls as living beings? How did their treatment make you feel?
After hearing about why some of the mothers were sent to the school, were you surprised by any of their infractions? Which mothers did not belong there? In Frida’s case, did you feel she was a “bad mother” or a mother “having a bad day?”
How did you feel about how the fathers were treated at the school next door compared to the mothers? Were you surprised by the similarities and differences between how the students were treated?
The school warned Frida multiple times about her relationship with Tucker and its impact on her ability to pass the program. Did you find Frida’s behavior understandable? Excusable? Did you think the instructors were right to attempt to thwart a romance with Tucker?
After the first mother jumped from the bell tower, the school did not barricade it to revent others from doing the same. Was the school responsible for Meryl’s (“Teen Mom”) suicide?
Would a school like this work in the real world? What would it take for this type of program to truly be a success for both the rehabilitated parents and their children?
We learn at the end that Tucker was granted parental rights for his son, while Frida did not receive rights for her daughter. Do you think any of the mothers were granted their parental rights back? And in Frida’s case, were you surprised by the verdict or the severity of the sentencing?
What did you think about the ending of the story, and of Frida’s justification for her behavior?