I also remembered Buddy Willard saying in a sinister, knowing way that after Ihad children I would feel differently, I wouldn't want to write poems any more. So I began to think maybe it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed, and afterward you went about numb as a slave in some private, totalitarian state. Sylvia Plath
About This Quote

This quote illustrates how beautifully words can be used to convey an idea, despite the fact it doesn’t seem like that idea was what the writer had in mind. Nelson Mandela’s words about feeling numb after having children were not what he meant. He was not saying that he felt any differently after he had children than before he had children. He was saying that after having children, you don’t feel like you can express yourself or your feelings in the same way.

You are bound by rules and obligations set out by your spouse and this makes it difficult to be yourself once you have children. It is also interesting to note that this quote doesn’t explain what the writer thought it did explain; instead, it pretends to explain what another person said, while leaving out that other person’s context for his belief.

Source: The Bell Jar

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