Between Love and Overwhelm — Motherhood Honestly Considered

++ Free admission++ Childcare on site++
Motherhood is often portrayed as the greatest fulfillment in life.
Yet many women simultaneously experience exhaustion, overwhelm, doubt, or even regret. These feelings are rarely spoken about – for fear of judgment or shame.
This is exactly the space we are creating. On 09/19/2026 from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM, a workshop "Between Love and Overwhelm – Motherhood Honestly Considered" will take place with Franziska Burkhardt and Pro Choice Leipzig in cooperation with Jugendphase e.V. and Weiterdenken of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

As a speaker on the topic of regret in motherhood,
Franziska Burkhardt has been dealing for years with the taboos surrounding motherhood and
the experiences of women whose reality does not correspond to the societal ideal.
It is important to her to make visible that ambivalent feelings are not an individual failure, but often arise in connection with structural burdens, mental load, care work, and societal expectations.

In the workshop, we will speak openly about:
Ambivalences and regret in motherhood
Mental load and invisible care work
Societal expectations of the "good mother"
Personal influences and beliefs
Self-care and dealing with one's own boundaries.

The term "Regretting Motherhood" was made internationally known by the research of sociologist Orna Donath.