One of the darkest, deepest shames so many of us mothers feel nowadays is our fear that we are Bad Mothers, that we are failing our children and falling far short of our own ideals.

Waldman articulates a modern, culturally amplified maternal anxiety: the internalized suspicion that ordinary imperfections amount to moral failure. By naming the feeling as a “darkest, deepest shame,” she suggests it is not merely worry about outcomes but a corrosive self-judgment shaped by idealized standards of parenting. The quote implies that contemporary motherhood is lived under constant comparison—against other parents, expert advice, and one’s own imagined ideal—so that love and effort can still feel inadequate. Its significance lies in validating a commonly private emotion and hinting that the “Bad Mother” fear is socially produced as much as personally felt.