Second Thoughts

I just read over my last post and realized that I sound like the worst mother in the world, someone who would allow her child to wail alone, poo-streaked, while she angled for a pay increase in another room.

A word on pantomime mothering:

It takes some skill, you know, to hold a phone in one hand and untie a shoe with the other. To successfully communicate the idea: "Please take your toothbrush out of the toaster" using only squeaks and grimaces. To sign for a Fedex package at the door like a normal person whilst a Spiderman impersonator scales your right leg. To compose a lucid marketing campaign while a pirate takes you hostage and demands Triscuits.

Okay, so maybe it would be great if I didn't actually have to work. But given that I do, is it so wrong that my boy is right there watching what it takes to keep a family going? Maybe if people who worked in offices or classrooms took their kids to work--not just on those cheaty once-a-year event days, but on a lot of real, George, get me Pittsburgh we have a problem in supply days, batter-spattered, bleary-eyed, ill-dressed mothers in home offices would get a few extra vacation days every once in a while.