Jenny McCarthy was a guest on the Oprah and Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth Online Class. She spoke about her complex emotional reactions in raising her autistic son Evan.

Making the connection

Jenny: You know, I read this book [A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle] when it first came out and that was one of my big wake up calls. Realizing that when I was with Evan, all I needed to do was just be with Evan. And our relationship bloomed like you wouldn’t believe, the love connection was there.

He was getting fulfilled because he knew, even when Evan wasn’t able to speak. This is when Evan still wasn’t able to use words. Energetically he felt that I was with him, that I was being with him. And I’m so grateful, Eckhart, that you taught me that.

3 Kinds of Guilt

I do have a question. Okay. It’s long so bear with me. It’s not spelled on but bear with me. One very common emotion that I have personally experienced and that I have seen in many mothers is this emotion called guilt. Mothers today experience a few different forms of guilt and I’m going to explain three different versions where I’m sure moms listening right now, one of them will say that’s my guilt.

The first one is the 9:00 to 5:00 working mom feels guilty for leaving the baby with the nanny all day. The second one is the stay at home mom feels guilty for getting bored playing with her, you know, her son or daughter all day long.

And sometimes you can only play choo choo so long and you can’t do it anymore and you feel guilty for not wanting to do that.

And the last one being, and this one I can really connect to, the thousands of mothers I’ve met who have children with autism carry a huge amount of guilt with them.

Tolle responded in his article On Guilt and Ego.

Jenny McCarthy is author of Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism
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Jenny McCarthy, motherhood and guilt, autism books, autism and motherhood

  03.31.08   By Douglas Eby   |  
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