So I went to see a movie this week. Because that's what I do. I fill up on real life from dawn to dusk and once a week I sit in a darkened, preferably cool but not too cool room and watch other people's lives. It's my bliss. Sometimes I'm entertained. Sometimes I get to laugh. Sometimes I think well at least my life's not as bad as all that. Sometimes I don't think at all.
This week I saw Sarah Jessica Parker try to juggle everything in the latest chick lit turned chick flick.
In between wincing at all the ways Hollywood screwed up a perfectly good book and laughing as some of the stay-at-home Nazi Mother references hit just a little too close to home (why on Earth am I the only person laughing in this theater?) and lamenting because let's face it Sarah Jessica Parker and James Bond are just a little too old to be playing these roles... Really? Really? Are we supposed to believe you were 40 when you had your kids? 45? 50?- I'm reminded of one simple fact...the undeniable truth of I see you/raise you.
For those of you who haven't yet seen it, the premise of aptly named I Don't Know How She Does It? is (wait for it) being a working mom is hard. I'll stop here and give you a minute.
Done slapping yourself in the forehead while simultaneously muttering a resonating DUH? Good, we'll continue.
Yes, yes it is. But I'll see you, raise you...one working mother for a Working Single Mother. Being a working single mother is even harder. Do you know why it's so hard? Because there is no one else to blame if you get it wrong. No blaming Dad. (or Mom *head nod to all the single dad's out there) No blaming anyone else when something goes wrong. That's why it's so damned hard. It's you, you did this. You weren't there enough or too much. You didn't cut the crusts off or you did. You gave them space, too much space. You cared too much, you didn't care enough. You, you, you.
How do you keep everything together without losing it? Even more so what happens when everything spins so out of control together seems like a far star in the distance? Is it as simple as the movie would have us believe? *spoiler alert. Tell your boss your boss NO?
No, no it's not.
As a side note...teenagers are generally assholes. Even when you love and cherish the very ground they walk on. Pure, unadulterated, grade A, prime Assholes. Period.
