I stood at the school gate and judged my whole motherhood by my child’s face

Dear Delyara, One look at your child coming out — quiet, bright, dragging the bag, running, not running, looking for you or not — and suddenly your whole body is making conclusions about how they are and whether you’ve missed something. Today she looked tired, and I carried that home like I had personally failed the afternoon before it even began. Motherhood can make a single facial expression feel like a diagnosis.