Friday, May 2, 2008

Who Are These Short People and What the Hell Are They Doing in My House?

Welcome to Motherhood Bytes. Our own small refuge from our partners, our kids, and a society that gasps and forms little O's with their mouths when we express how unsatisfying, unfulfilling, and unpleasant it can be to be a mother.  


Now, stop holding your breath, and pooping your pants. I'm not suggesting we don't love our kids. We do. We love our kids. When they're sleeping. It's just the rest of the time we live in a culture that told us, and continues to tells us, that these little nose-miners, no matter how big or small, should be our all-in-all. We hear, see, and are regularly spoon-fed, the message that we won't be complete until we have a child, and then we can't be complete unless we accept that everything we had, or dreamt of, or needed is now secondary.

We must be the Sun that all these other people orbit around. Well, honey, my gravity is getting a little weak and starting to sag.

Do I sound like I'm whining? Perhaps. And perhaps, some of you want to say, "Oh shut your cake-hole! You made your bed, now lay in it." Well, I'm laying in it. In fact, I'm smothered in it. I just want my clear, small voice to be bellowed into the din--we don't always love being mothers. 

Occasionally, okay, sometimes more than occasionally, motherhood bites. There. I said it. And I didn't spontaneously combust. 

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