Peggy Kline is a mom for the masses-a modern-day matriarch and an expert on motherhood who doesn`t come off as clinical as Dr. Joyce Brothers or as off-the-wall as Erma Bombeck.
Kline, an author and educator, has become something of a sensation on the Similac circuit with her video, ”Mom Needs Mothering, Too.”
”Motherhood is the only profession that doesn`t come with training,”
says Kline, a 33-year-old mother of two, with a third child due in April.
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”Yet what profession is more important and prestigious?”
Kline hopes her video, which is part of a public education program sponsored by Gerber Products, will provide some of that training-advance advice in the practical motherly arts of chronic colic, chronic fatigue and chronic guilt over not being able to deal with the first two.
”We women are taking this whole role to extremes,” says Kline, smoothing out the wrinkles in her pink maternity top. ”We`ve become literary maniacs. Women are reading everything they can get their hands on, because they feel they have to know it all in order to be the perfect parent.”
But after a nine-month gestation in which moms-to-be saturate themselves in the latest techno-pregnancy information, they have the baby, then suddenly realize ”this is a real hands-on role and Dr. Spock can`t tell you everything,” Kline says. ”You can`t learn it all by the book.”
One of the most important ways to smooth out the rocking, burping and teething sorority is to learn to mother yourself, Kline says. Happy, healthy moms mean better-adjusted children.
”Moms feel guilty if they take time off for themselves, but you can burn out, just like in any other job,” Kline says. ”I tell moms, `It`s okay to take care of yourself and baby, too. Learn to nuture yourself so that you can nurture the kids.`
”These women are always asking, `Am I normal? Am I doing the right thing?` Just because you become a mother doesn`t mean you stop being a capable person,” she says. ”All that maternal instinct you hear about comes with lots of practice, so just relax.”
”Mom Needs Mothering, Too” costs $9.95 and is available by calling 800- MOM-4435, or writing: Gerber Products Co., 445 State St., Fremont, Mich. 49412.