Deborah Burns Unravels the Magic of the Mother-Child Bond
Ellie Newman speaks with Deborah Burns, Media Industry Leader and author of Saturdays’ Child: A Daughter’s Memoir, in this episode of “That Got Me Thinking” a thoughtful and thought-provoking podcast. Listen as the conversation turns to the complexities of a fascinating mother-daughter relationship and the universal truths revealed.
The question Deborah has struggled with the majority of her life is, “Am I enough, because I’m not that?” “So if I’m not that, and that’s what I’m supposed to be, she must be disappointed in me and that’s why she’s so elusive and if only I looked more like her, then she would really love me?” Realizing those are the kinds of things that get tangled up because of the unrelenting power of the word enough.
Looking through the window of the relationship with her mother and the intertwined stories of her family members, Deborah unravels the myths of her unconventional, glamorous, bigger than life mother. Asking, “Is it me? Is it her? Is this normal? Is it right?”
As a child, Deborah would sit on the long orange Chesterfield sofa in her living room, positioned so she had a sight line straight to her mother’s bedroom and when the door finally opened, so did her world. Deborah tells us, “My naturally intuitive nature honed razor sharp at her feet helped me to thrive in the grey uncertainty of her love.” Now, as a successful mother, career woman and author, the question on which Deborah has honed her razor sharp attention is, “Do you make your child feel like a priority and fully loved regardless of how much time you are able to spend with them?”