ONE BAD MOTHER: In Praise of Psycho Housewives, Stage Parents, Momfluencers, and Other Women We Love to Hate (out Feb. 10, 2026)
By Ej Dickson

OUT NOW:

If Joan Didion grew up on Reddit, she might have written this.  A fearless, darkly funny exploration of the beauty, horror and hype of modern motherhood from New York Magazine’s Ej Dickson.

 What if there was no such thing as a “bad” mother? And what if everything we’ve been told about what makes a “good” woman—or a “good” mom—was a total lie?

That’s the audacious question at the heart of EJ Dickson’s new book, One Bad Mother—a darkly funny, feminist cultural reckoning that exposes how womanhood has been branded, policed, and weaponized for generations. From Medea to Meghan Markle to the American Pie MILF, Dickson traces how pop culture and politics alike have conditioned women to see care, containment, and self-sacrifice as measures of worth—and how those stories keep being repackaged as empowerment.

We’re living through a quiet cultural coup. Women are being pushed back—into the home, into silence, into impossible standards—and it’s all being sold as empowerment. From Elon Musk tweeting about birth rates to trad-wife influencers romanticizing submission, the movement to re-domesticate women isn’t fringe anymore. It’s mainstream. And it’s working.

In One Bad Mother: In Praise of Psycho Housewives, Stage Parents, Momfluencers, and Other Women We Love to Hate(S&S/Simon Element; Feb. 10th), Ej Dickson exposes how we got here re-examining how the “bad mom” trope has evolved over time—from Victorian “angels in the house” to Mommie Dearest to Mormon momfluencers to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

With sharp humor and brutal honesty, One Bad Mother invites moms everywhere to stop chasing impossible standards, reclaim their autonomy, and enjoy motherhood for what it is, not what it’s “supposed” to be. It’s not a parenting book. It’s a book about womanhood: what the world demands of us, what it takes from us, and how, now more than ever, we need to find our way back to ourselves.

Praise for One Bad Mother

“Smart, spiky, and straight-up necessary, One Bad Mother undresses the landmined label ‘bad mom’ with wit and receipts. Ej Dickson turns our favorite moral panics into a clear-eyed invitation to ditch impossible standards and parent like a person.” -Amanda Montell, NYT-bestselling author of Wordslut, Cultish, and The Age of Magical Overthinking

"This provocative critique will challenge readers’ assumptions about motherhood." -Publisher's Weekly, starred review

"Dickson writes with a refreshing absence of personal woebegoneness, and with empathy even for mothers whose practices and preferences differ vastly from her own." -The New Yorker

"One Bad Mother is brilliant, razor-sharp, and hilarious. It will completely transform your views of motherhood. It's deeply researched and insightful, and expertly dismantles the idea of the "perfect mom." Dickson mixes real stories, pop culture, and smart commentary in a way that feels revealing but totally relatable. She writes with heart, wit, and a kind of honesty that feels like talking to your smartest, funniest, most insightful friend. This book is perfect for any mother, father, soon-to-be parent, or reader with an interest in our cultural views on motherhood. I cannot recommend this book highly enough!" -Taylor Lorenz, journalist and bestselling author of Extremely Online

"This laugh-out-loud hilarious and timely book takes its readers on a memorable romp through pop cultural history. Dickson is never less than wildly entertaining, even as she makes a frank, heartfelt and wholly original argument as to why it's nearly impossible to be a "good mom" in America today." -Emily Gould, features writer at New York and author of And The Heart Says Whatever, Friendship, and Perfect Tunes

"In One Bad Mother, Ej Dickson bravely dares to suggest that mothers are . . . people. People who, despite undergoing the identity shift that attends motherhood, do not willingly go gentle into the good night of nonsensical binaries and maternal mandates. The notion that there's such a thing as a Good Mother or a Bad Mother is hilarious indeed, and Dickson underscores her razor sharp critiques of various forms of mommy propaganda with wit, nuance, and vulnerability. I am a Good Bad mom and I loved this book." -Sara Petersen, author of Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture!

"Brilliant, hilarious, and beautifully vulnerable, One Bad Mother will make you rethink your feelings about your own mom, your own mothering, and even your distaste for trad wives and Kris Jenner. I can't count the times I cried, only to crack up a sentence later and wonder how she knows so much about Joan Crawford." -Jessica Machado, author and senior editor at NBC News

"I was never going to be a mom, but thanks to Ej Dickson’s One Bad Mother, even a blissfully childfree guy like me can gain some fresh, hilarious, piercing insight into what it means to fill that role. From the bottomless guilt to the petty rivalries, this is a book that stares down contemporary motherhood, with all its contradictions, and doesn’t break eye contact. You’ll want to thank (or forgive) your own mom as soon as you’re finished." -Miles Klee, culture writer at Rolling Stone and author of True/False and Ivyland

"A humorous and potent takedown of the criticism awaiting mothers at—and between—every extreme." -Kirkus