EVERYTHING
FOR YOUR FAMILY
Mother Knows
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I started back to work this month, full time. For the first time in 15 years, I now go into an office every day, arriving at 8:30 a.m., Starbuck’s coffee in one hand, brown bag lunch in the other, and an attaché full of story ideas and editing to do. I wear lipstick and shoes with heels. I attend meetings, interview interesting people and do lots of writing. I shut my computer down somewhere around 4:30 p.m. and join all the other commuters for the trek home, merging onto the 405 south, feeling as though I’ve also merged back into mainstream society. Carly Simon’s song, “Let the river run…” is the perfect soundtrack for the moment. I am one of the lucky writers in this world who has a regular gig with a regular paycheck, and for that I’m grateful to the guy pictured at the front of this magazine, Executive Editor Craig Reem. But to be honest, things have also changed at home. I’m still learning how to do what many women have been doing for years holding down a career and maintaining a household. It’s harder than it looks and sometimes I just fall short. Worse than an editor’s red pen markings on my story is the sinking feeling I get when I hear, “Mom, I’m out of underwear!” shouted from upstairs as my youngest gets ready for school in the morning. If turning in clean copy at work is a measure of a writer’s worth, then a stock of clean underwear at home is the mark of a good mom. An empty underwear drawer at 7:30 a.m. is simply a hopeless situation. There are other changes to our lifestyle. I talk to my kids a lot more on the cell phone than I used to. My crockpot hardly has time to cool down. I buy individually-bagged potato chips for my son’s lunch now, instead of taking an extra 45 seconds to fill a baggie from the big bag of chips. (I don’t have 45 seconds to spare in the morning.) I bank online, use pre-washed bags of lettuce and take more things to the dry cleaner. Our refrigerator door now boasts more take-out restaurant magnets than recipe ideas torn from magazines. So far, trying to do it all seems to be working as I begin to make small trade-offs for convenience. My family doesn’t really seem to notice, except on those rushed mornings when the world screeches to a halt because I forgot to do the laundry. Note to self: Buy everyone more underwear. Kimberly A. Porrazzo is senior writer for OC Family Magazine. |
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