"Me Time": Motherhood, Reading, and Myths of Leisure

abstract:In this micro article, the authors survey the media landscape, including bestseller lists and celebrity book club culture, think pieces and mommy blogs, to examine the discourse around "me time," reading, and motherhood. The article explores how the cultivation of "me time," which is ostensibly about taking time away from mothering, returns mothers to the work of self-improvement, disguised as self-care. The books that mothers are reading (judged by their posts online, book awards, bestseller lists, book club culture, etc.) and the ways they are blogging about "me time" reading suggests that under the conditions of twenty-first-century neoliberalism, reading mothers must use this time to meditate upon and improve their mothering. "Me time" reading is framed as a separation from maternal labor but instead impels mothers to justify their solitary habit and redeem reading as a contribution to—rather than detraction from—family life.