More Random Stuff

1. Saw 11 clients today. For you non-therapists, that's a lot. Exchange of the day:

Me: So you disagreed with your mother?
Client: It's not that, I just thought she was wrong.

2. G. took care of A. for 12 hours AND had dinner ready for me when I got home. My hubby - I think I'll keep him. (Anyone remember the old Geritol commercial? Which reminds me, see #5)

3. A. finally figured out the whole "Bye" thing. He'd say it if we prompted him, but I don't think he totally understood what it was about until now. Last night we were walking to bed, and he suddenly turned and said, "Bye, cahs!" and waved to the toy cars. I guess you'd have to be his mother, but it was really cute.

4. Haven't watched American Idol yet. Had to tape it because it was on at the same time as the West Wing finale. But I forgot to give my public service announcement: "STATE OF HAWAII, STEP AWAY FROM THE PHONES!"

5. I'm reading "Bitch in the House." Good collection of essays about marriage, motherhood and women's roles that is way overdue at the library because by the time I get to bed I'm exhausted and can only read 3 pages at a time. OK, so anyway, it's got me thinking that the first feminist I knew was my mother. She didn't work outside the house and as far as I know never had any ambition except being a wife and mother. But I know she was a feminist by the way she'd yell at the commercials on TV. Remember the old Wisk commercials where someone would notice the grimy collar on some dude and he'd glare at his wife and she'd look embarrassed by his "Ring Around the Collar?" My mom, while folding laundry, would yell at the TV: "Tell him to wash his goddamned neck!" She hated the Geritol commercial too, where the dude would say condescendingly, "My wife - I think I'll keep her!" (later immortalized in that great Mary Chapin Carpenter song). And she said once that she admired my sister's husband for pitching in and helping around the house (he still keeps a lovely house, I must say). The more I think abot it, the more I realize how trapped she felt and how unsatisfied she was with her role, and frankly, it explains a lot. Can't ask her about it because she died when I was 21, but I'm grateful for the message she sent about not just buying into the fantasy that women were supposed to be happy that they had a husband and children, and really couldn't expect anything more in life. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband and little leprechaun, but I'm glad I have more options. And because I have more options, I don't resent the role of wife and mother, because I really feel I've chosen them. I don't think my mother thought she had a choice.