“I Took a Time-out. Sometimes You Just Have to Walk Away.” An Exploration of U.S. Mothers’ Navigation Behaviors and Boundaries with Mom Rage

Mom rage refers to the extreme anger (i.e., rage) associated with many women’s mothering experiences. Our study examined the maternal anger experiences of 56 mothers in the U.S. to explore (a) how women navigated mom rage and (b) the barriers they faced in navigating mom rage. Findings demonstrated that women engaged simultaneous and multileveled tactics for navigating mom rage as they approached it personally (i.e., walking away and therapy), relationally (i.e., tagging out, talking to parenting partner, explaining emotions, apologizing, and enforcing consequences) and socially (i.e., talking to friends in deep and surface level ways). Further, mothers experienced barriers such as unhelpful partners and idealized mothering stigma as they worked to navigate their experiences. Findings provide insight into the personal, social, and relational complexities of navigating motherhood in the U.S. Implications and limitations and directions for future research, are discussed.