This Job is Not for Wimps!

So last Saturday I dashed into Borders to get a gift for a baby shower. As I was wandering around trying to find the book I had in mind, an older gentleman started talking to me. I don't know what it is...men over 60 adore me. Can I say that without being cocky? Anyhoosers, after a little small talk he asked me if I was by any chance looking for a job. I told him I already had one. He asked me what I did.



My mom brought this book with her when she came to help me after I had Matthew. I would read it when I was up at night nursing him - it's a wonder I remember anything about it given the state of mind I was in. But it is a wonderful book and she tells of turning down a lucrative contract - pretty much fame and fortune - to stay home and be a mother. Some time after having her two children, she ran into a former colleague. He asked her what she was doing these days, looked at the children and said, "Just a mom, huh?" (OK I know I am butchering the telling of this story, but hang in there) and she told him proudly, "No. I am a mother." She said she could tell he got her point.

So when this man asked me what I did, I drew myself up proudly, gave him a big smile, and told him, "I am a mother!" Well, I saw the confusion in his eyes and he kind of scrunched up his forehead for a second and then said, "Oh, so you don't do anything. You just stay home with the kids." I told him that I thought being a mother was one of the most difficult jobs there was and that an 8-5 job seemed like a breeze compared to being a mother. He just sat there for a second and replied, "Oh. Well, I've never had any kids, so I wouldn't know anything about that." Obviously.

It turns out that he cuts Clint Eastwood's hair and Clint told him (Chez-he's in the hair biz...his pun, not mine)to look for good looking girls to be hostesses and cocktail waitressess at Clint's Mission Ranch. Chez just could not believe that, even after assuring me that I would make good money and meet lots of 'celebs', I would not hire a babysitter and take the job. It was, to say the least, an interesting conversation. It is a conversation that I have been grateful for in the last week, when I feel like my children have entered into a conspiracy with one another to tear away every last shred of sanity that I possess. So if you need to find me, I'll be here. Not doing anything. Just staying home with the kids.