"I
would think of Midge's little fingers in the middle of a busy workday. I
would tell myself, "Once I have the baby full-time to myself,
everything will be easier." And then it hit me; that day was not coming.
This "work" thing was not going away. There was no prolonged stretch of
time in sight when it would just be the baby and me. And then I sobbed
in my office for ten minutes. The same ten minutes that magazines urge
me to use for sit-ups and triceps dips, I used for sobbing. Of course I'm
not supposed to admit that there is a triannual torrential sobbing in
my office, because it's bad for the feminist cause. It makes it harder
for women to be taken seriously in the workplace. It makes it harder for
other working moms to justify their choice. But I have friends who
stay home with their kids and they also have a triannual sob, so I think
we should call it even. I think we should be kind to one another about
it. I think we should agree to blame the children. Also, my crying three times a year doesn't distract me from my job any more than my male
coworkers get distracted watching March Madness or shooting one another
with Nerf guns, or (to stop generalizing) spending twenty minutes on
the phone booking a doggy hotel for their pit bull before a trip to
Italy with their same-sex partners."
By the way, the rest of her book is just as fantastic :)
No comments:
Post a Comment