Mutha Magazine Articles By Alison May 2026

Alison’s work in Mutha refuses to sentimentalize motherhood. Instead, she leans into the contradictions: the fierce love that coexists with the desire to lock oneself in a bathroom, the joy of a toddler’s laugh that follows a sleepless night of teething-induced wailing. Her prose is sharp, often darkly comic, and unflinchingly vulnerable.

Alison excels at articulating the "mental load"—the endless, invisible checklist of appointments, snack packs, and emotional regulation that falls disproportionately on mothers. In a standout piece, she dissects a single Tuesday afternoon: the forgotten permission slip, the last-minute costume emergency, the negotiation over screen time. By zooming in on the mundane, she reveals the monumental. Her writing validates the exhaustion that isn’t just physical but existential, asking, “When did my brain become a shared drive with no admin privileges?” mutha magazine articles by alison

For anyone who has ever felt alone in the 3 AM feeding or the 3 PM tantrum, Alison’s voice in Mutha is a lifeline. She writes, in one poignant closing line, “We are not failing motherhood. Motherhood is failing us—and that’s the one truth no filter can fix.” Her writing validates the exhaustion that isn’t just