Xenia - do you mean you live on an island near the Equator or you own one?? I think if I owned an island near the equator, I'd probably like to show it off as well!
I don't think fb profile pics really reflect how people view their identity but I do get the point of the article as being, do women lose their identities on becoming mothers and the answer is - of course not because, as she points out in her article, nearly all women do have other dimensions to their lives. The examples she picks out are a little superficial - dinner parties full of women talking kids? Well, for starters they're at a dinner party without their kids - well done them, many parents don't get that chance for quite a few years! I can remember that stage, when my friends and I DID seem to be talking kids all the time but, as someone else has already said, the toddler stage is all consuming and parenting is not easy and so, naturally, it's a big topic of conversation when a group of parents get together. As the years have gone by, our conversations equally seem to be about our jobs, our social lives, our interests etc. However, even back in the toddler days, I think our conversations were balanced with other things!
Also, this myth that we are now organising our lives solely around our children in a way that previous generations didn't is very grating. For every bored child in 1973 there was probably one attending flute/football/art classes 3 times a week and vice versa today. As for the anecdote about the sneakers - if someone came into my home and rudely implied that I was spoiling my children, I would be tempted to give an equally flippant answer.
It IS OK to find motherhood an extremely important role, one that can take over a large part of your life. Feminism should be about recgonizing the importance of motherhood and giving it due respect. I don't think women who choose motherhood - particularly those who choose not to work on another career at the same time - should be made to feel they have chosen the less worthy route.