Mommy Capital? Even more questions.

So, if we can assume that motherhood does not operate in the realm of economic capital, is there a capital relevant to parenthood? Can we, drawing from Pierre Bourdieu's ideas of cultural capital, theorize a mommy capital? Is this what the playground verbal competition between parents is? The smarter or more advanced our children are, the better parents we are? Or perhaps, the fact that one's eight month old is already potty trained signifies that the child is "advanced" and will be a more productive member of society? Are the mommy wars simply a misplacement of economic judgment?

Goodnight Nobody: A Novel by Jennifer Weiner is just one of the many novels that plays with this question. [See also I Don't Know How She Does It or for something a bit different, Baby Boom] While the novel deals with many complicate issues, let's focus on the "playground economy."  For the protagonist, Kate, the other mommies of the wealthy Connecticut suburb are better than her, have more capital, because they have the right clothes and the right snacks for their kids.  They are never late picking up their kids from the $6,000 a semester preschool in town.  But most importantly, they all seem to buy into this economy.  Their conversations center on what schools are best, what foods are best, not on how incredibly boring their suburban lives are.  It is through Kate's questioning, and misery, that we question this economic system, in which cubes of tofu arranged in Cyrillic letters are worth more than than a prepackaged handful of goldfish crackers.

But who has created this economy, and more importantly, who perpetuates it?  Some who have written about the mommy wars say that mothers, women who used to be power brookers and lawyers, but who then quit working and funnel all of their cut throat ways into parenting.  Perhaps, I think.  But this is also simplistic and puts the onus on the mothers themselves, not greater forces.  Yes, women want to be wonderful mothers, yes these women are powerful, smart and even vicious at times.  But who decides what makes a good mother?  Who has decided that micromanaging your child's every second and every bite is what makes a good mother?