I Stand Here Ironing By Tillie Olson

In the short story, I stand here Ironing by Tillie Olson a mother is conflicted by the affects her parenting had on her firstborn daughter Emily. The story is an inside look behind the reality and hardships of parenting. This is done by showing a mother’s fight to give her kids the best life but at the cost of losing the chance of having a relationship with them. The story revolves around how this effects the eldest daughter Emily whose upbringing molded her into being an unsure, scared and nervous human being who is cause for concern. The title itself I Stand Here Ironing hints at the mother’s desperate need to iron out the flaws in her relationship with her daughter, because of this the story revolves around the mother’s (the narrator) chronological reflection of Emily’s

To what extent is the outcome of Emily’s life her mother’s fault, and what is the cost of having to be a single mother in any day in age? The narrator however fully blames the effect this had on her child on herself and wallows in the guilt. She says things like “If I knew then what I know now” or “ My wisdom came too late” and clearly marks her guilt (Olsen). Furthermore, Emily grew up during the “terrible war years” she had to learn to use that maturity and responsibility gained from having to raise herself and be raised from people who didn’t fully appreciate her to help raise her siblings. All these factors cause grief in the narrator in realizing the type of childhood her daughter had and what resulted in her. However, the narrator uses this guilt and grief to find a silver lining. She wishes and hopes that something within her child and the circumstances she grew up in helps her in the future and by doing this assuages her own guilt. This is shown when the narrator states that she will, “… help make it so there is cause for her to believe that she is more than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the