"I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen

The story is about a single mother trying to raise her children during the time of the Great Depression. It tells us how difficult was just to get by let alone raise 5 children. The narrator of the story tells us how hard it was to raise her children but her voice seems of regret, as she feels guilty on how her first child, Emily, was brought up. When she looks at Emily she feels a kind of remorse she does not feel for her other children, probably because she didn’t show her the affection and love that she constantly remained herself to show the others. It was her first child and being the first child of a young mother, she did not have the experience or knew anything she knows now. The narrator describes us how she worked for six years of Emily’s young life and how this affected her overall development, this is reassured when she compares her second child, Susan, and Emily, as to being just one year apart in development despite being the two having a five year difference. The story describes the mother-daughter relationship and how difficult were the years to brought up a child in the Great Depression when the economy went downhill, and before World War II. 

Ultimately the narrator indicates that society has to take the responsibility of forcing young mother into a difficult task of raising children in that era and for giving her the horrible guidance they told her when they said to send Emily to a sanatorium. The narrator cannot accept the mistakes she made by not following her own instincts instead of what experts said and this is portrayed when she used book to nurture Emily and when she did not have the necessary will to go against what others were telling her to do. If she so accepts that she was wrong then she would have to face the consequences of her actions but in blaming everyone but herself she is in a way escaping from feeling a lot more than remorse when she looks at Emily, she is trying to escape feeling guilty and mournful of what she made Emily go through by her lack of parenting and this is what she fears the most, to be told that she has failed as a parent.