Stay-at-home orders amplify the struggle that mothers already face—a feeling of isolation, the endlessness of parenting, the difficulty of finding an outlet for other parts of ourselves. Over Google Hangouts, Sorgini told me that the pandemic has caused her to lose her editorial and commercial photography work. To compensate, her partner, a landscaper, is working more, leaving her in charge of child care. Her younger son, a seven-month-old, isn’t sleeping; her older son, an “energetic” five-year-old, needs snacks, attention, activities. “I’m not a craft mom,” Sorgini said, laughing. “I see a lot of people baking sourdough or doing crafts, and I’m just not that person.” The baby’s sleeplessness had left Sorgini in tears that morning at 4 A.M. Even over our grainy video chat, as we sat in our respective homes across the world, I could see her eyes grow moist as she spoke. She said that she misses getting outside, seeing friends—the structures that shored her up before. Part of that is the lockdown, she told me. And part of it is motherhood.
