Tillie Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing"

Tillie Olsen was a writer representing the everyday person. How many stories have been written about a woman performing the daily task of ironing? Not many! Even though the plot of this story did not center on that task, it was mentioned several times speaking of the necessity and importance of it in a woman’s daily routine as other menial tasks consuming the hours in any given day.

I thought this to be a very touching story from a mother’s point of view. One might look at the mother and think, how could she treat her daughter in such a way. I would have thought that way myself several years ago. However, after working in an elementary school for eleven years and experiencing many different family styles and circumstances, I have come to realize that sometimes all people can do is the best they can do.

As this story begins, it tells of school administration trying to schedule a conference time with the parent. We are faced with this issue quite often, parents not seeming to have the time to deal with their children’s education. It seems negligent to me when the children don’t receive the help at home with practice and assignments they need. But I have had to get past the judgmental feelings I have of them. Sometimes parents aren’t able to find the time or don’t understand the need for it, as the mother in this story seems to feel.

This story represents the more common family. Even though it was written in 1956, it would describe many families today. This single parent family may have been in the minority then, but today it would represent the multitude. Many young mothers are left to raise the children as the father’s find themselves looking for others things and not taking on the responsibility. Many mothers also face having to leave their children in day care situations that are not acceptable. The laws today for child caregivers are more stringent today than in the days of the story, but one always run the risk of having someone who just doesn’t treat their child in an acceptable manner. The description of the child’s time at home alone was the hardest for me. My heart would literally break in two to find my child in the situation described of Emily.

I can’t imagine being in the situation this young mother found herself in. She truly loved her daughter but had to make decisions as to what she felt was best for both of them. The outcome did not seem as if it could be good but, in the end, the daughter seemed to have found her niche.