The School for Good Mothers

Some mothers start romances with each other or guards, even though “fraternizing” jeopardizes their chances of regaining custody. On Easter, there’s an egg hunt for young dolls. Emmanuelle searches Frida’s back for a knob, and Frida explains different types of families and children. An older boy knocks over several toddlers, then tries to steal Emmanuelle’s basket and hits her. Frida demands that the boy and his mother, Tamara, apologize, which lands both mothers in talk circle, where they continue to argue. The first mothers caught kissing, Margaret and Alicia, are interrogated at talk circle as well, where it’s clear that the school sees lesbians as “unmotherly.” Their romance is referred to as “loneliness,” a kind of “narcissism.” According to the institution, mothers are supposed to have all their needs met by their child, and should not require romance.

In class, the mothers practice removing dolls from hot cars while wearing headsets that play distracting images of war, torture, and sex. Frida witnesses a video of Harriet’s birthday party, where Harriet says she doesn’t want her mother but Sue-Sue instead, and Gust’s friend Will is with another woman. This video plays on a loop while Frida ignores Emmanuelle crying in the back seat. The other mothers also neglect their dolls because they are being shown videos of their own children crying, refusing to speak to them, running away, and the like. Everyone wonders how the institution got the videos, and Frida believes Gust would have never agreed to let her video be used this way, had he known. The emergency drills become increasingly complex, involving both houses and cars. Frida hasn’t called Harriet for nine weeks, and is starting to feel “sisterhood” with the other mothers.

Emmanuelle starts requesting kisses on the cheek from Frida. They begin Unit 4, about play. The instructors give the dolls six toys, and the mothers have to explain they can only use one. Nobody understands the purpose of this lesson. Frida asks Emmanuelle if she wants to do a good job like another doll who is playing with one toy. The instructors say that shame-based parenting is not appropriate for American mothers. The mothers’ brains are scanned while they watch videos of themselves and the dolls in class so far. Frida feels almost as bad watching Emmanuelle suffer as she does Harriet.

On Mothers’ Day (a Sunday), the staff announces that phone time is canceled for everybody, and they should write in their journals about their shortcomings instead. Frida’s brain scan supposedly shows that she has limited capacity for maternal attachment, as well as several negative emotions including anger, anxiety, confusion, fear, and guilt, which are not good for children to be around. The counselors also interviewed the dolls, and although Emmanuelle said she loved Frida, she wouldn’t answer if she felt safe with Frida or if Frida meets all her needs. Frida’s chances of getting Harriet back are “fair to poor” (215), which is the case for most mothers, if not simply “poor.”

They begin Unit 5, about advanced play, and Frida starts dreaming of Emmanuelle as a human child, a sister to Harriet, and the two of them bonding. She starts using the Mandarin term of endearment wawa with Emmanuelle; it means “little doll,” and was never used for Harriet. The mothers teach the dolls how to share and not fight over toys. Frida is disappointed that Emmanuelle acts like an Asian stereotype: She doesn’t stand up for herself and allows her toys to be stolen.

The school keeps prolonging Frida’s phone suspension. Margaret, one of the mothers caught kissing, dies by suicide. The other mothers get in trouble for crying afterward, and Margaret’s doll will be erased. Frida also has suicidal thoughts, as well as fantasies about murdering the staff. Linda’s son was finally found, but was shoplifting, so she’s worried he’ll be sent to juvenile detention and, later, real prison. Frida tells Emmanuelle that she loves her galaxies, which she used to say to Harriet, then feels guilty for sharing love reserved for her real daughter.

On July 4th, there’s a picnic so the mothers can meet the bad fathers from the nearby school, with whom they’ll learn Unit 6—socialization. There are three times as many mothers as fathers, but the fathers also wear uniforms and have dolls. Like the mothers, most of them are people of color and in their 20s or 30s, with one teenager and a few white men but no Asians. At the doll food tent, Frida meets a man named Tucker, whose three-year-old doll, Jeremy, plays with Emmanuelle. Tucker is around Frida’s age and white. Most mothers and fathers are segregated, and Frida receives some pointed looks for talking to a man of a different race.

Tucker is pleasant, making Frida feel safe, and they discuss differences between the mothers’ and fathers’ programs. The fathers lack a cleaning crew and talk circle, and haven’t experienced any dead dolls, expulsions, suicides, canceled or revoked phone privileges, or actual romances. However, they have had doll malfunctions, fights, and sexual encounters. The fathers’ mantra is “I am a father learning to be a better man” (226). Tucker was sent to the school because his son fell out of a tree and broke his leg while Tucker was texting. He is a scientist for a pharmaceutical firm and divorced. The following day, class with the fathers begins, and Emmanuelle wants to see Tucker’s doll Jeremy again—an affection she’s never expressed before. However, they’re paired with others instead, and the instructors give each group of three children one laptop, which they fight over.

Once the fathers are introduced, there’s an increase in mothers being sent to talk circle for fraternizing or flirtation. Tucker tries to eat with Frida, hold her hand, and say romantic things to her, but she resists, thinking of Harriet. Frida’s counselor warns her not to get involved. Meanwhile, other couples find places with broken cameras to have sex, but some are caught, with dire consequences. Frida thinks this makes no sense because the school seems to be teaching them to be stay-at-home mothers, never mentioning jobs, babysitters, or daycare.

The mothers and fathers do exercises to make the dolls less vulnerable to child molesters, wherein the dolls, when prompted with inappropriate touching, must recite a complicated sentence that toddlers would never say and the dolls also struggle to say. Next, they teach the dolls “racism and sexism prevention” (237) by programming them to be aggressively racist and sexist. The dolls call each other racist and sexist slurs, resulting in fistfights, dolls being sent out for repairs, and arguments between parents. The parents of female dolls and dolls of color feel the dolls are being traumatized by the unnecessary racist and sexist attacks.

Furthermore, the parents of children using the slurs argue they would never teach their real children to do this. Many parents are reminded of their own childhood memories of being bullied for their race and sex. Frida feels even worse when she realizes she might not be able to shield and prepare Harriet for potential racism as a Chinese American in America. Harriet might be raised solely by Gust and Susanna, who are both white and well-meaning, but not as well-equipped as Frida for this particular aspect of parenting. Although Frida’s suicidal and murderous thoughts have subsided since meeting Tucker, who tells Frida she’s a good mother, the racism lessons make her feel ashamed for liking a white man (in addition to having married Gust, another white man).

At the end of July, the dolls are exhausted and there’s an evaluation for Unit 6 in pairs. Colin’s doll inappropriately touches Emmanuelle, who smacks him. The dolls call each other racial slurs, and the parents lecture them about respect. Colin talks about race but not sex, and Frida clarifies that respecting women is also important, irking Colin further and getting them in trouble.