Self-Made Mom

Who would have thought the people at Apple would care what you did for a living in order to properly register the g-d darn Nano? 

Apparently, recently unemployed SAHM didn’t make the list. Is this what I’m in for?

Last night, my husband suggested that we watch the show Cashmere Mafia again.  I know he’s trying to be supportive about my transition out of the workforce, and truthfully, I’d be the last person to turn down an offer to watch cheesy girlie shows with her very straight husband.

So I obliged, but as the show progressed, I found myself in a worse mood than before it had started. Cashmere Mafia is nothing more than a perpetuation of the worst possible stereotypes of the struggle between working motherhood and SAHM life - one life I’ve known and one that I’ll be privy to in a few short days.

When I watched the show last week I chuckled at the notion that the ”regular working mom,” Zoe, would have the time or the energy to don a neglige and ask her husband “how would you like your steak done?” as they get into bed after hiring and firing a new nanny.  Not only was that line terrible (but one I’ve used jokingly on my husband ever since), but it gives off the impression that not only does this woman have to bust her ass all day in the office, figure out child care (and it appeared her husband did not work) but also come across as a sexy plaything at night. I mean, what working mom has the energy to do that? And don’t get me started on the other working mom caricature, Juliet, who makes Miranda from the Devil Wears Prada look like mother of the year.

But last night’s episode put me over the edge. In the parts of the show that I actually watched, they pitted pitiful Zoe against what appeared to be the SAHM Queen. Decked out in her fancy sweats, making tofu stir fry for her 8 year old, she was the protypical ice princess of the playground.  And when the battle of mommy guilt became too much for our working mom heroine, all she had to do was wave a finger and use her work connections to put the SAHM to shame.  Even blew her off with a fake “conference call.”

Now I’ve pulled the “I’ve got a conference call” line on many a person that I didn’t feel like talking to, but the way it was presented in the show made me uneasy.  It was as if having a conference call to actually attend made her superior to the SAHM cat fight of what moms got to go to the kid’s field trip. Nuh uh, sister.  If a working mom pulled that on me when I become an SAHM I’d slap her BlackBerry silly.

I know Hollywood is a stereotyping machine, and this show wasn’t created to take the moral high ground on such issues of working motherhood, but after suffering through two episodes, I’ve just got to wonder if the television writers of America can’t do better than making women on prime time be such vapid losers.

If not, I’m not so sure I want any of them to come back from being on strike.  I’d rather watch the women duke it out in real life on American Gladiators than deal with the fake mommy wars concoction of Cashmere Mafia.

Tags: cashmere mafia, abc primetime, mommy wars, stereotypes

The cat’s out of the proverbial bag, or I should say, office.

No, I’m not pregnant.

I quit my job.

Last day’s next Thursday.

I don’t have another job. I’m going to test out the waters of being an SAHM for awhile and see how it goes.  I mean, I do have a few things in the fire, of course, but not going to commit to anything quite yet.

I’ve been nervous to tell you because I love my working mom compadres out there, but this is just something I needed to do personally.  The tug ‘o war finally gave in and it gave in the direction of my family.

Feel free to call me ”off-ramped” or “decelerated” or whatever.  Per usual, I won’t stick to the typical labels.

And, I’ll still be here blogging, but with a different point of view.

I hope you’ll all stay with me as I set forth on my new adventure.

Yours truly,

Self-Made Mom (a.k.a. working mom flunkie)

While at the bookstore, to my husband: “Please keep junior occupied so I can find a copy of ‘Everyone Poops.’”

While in the kitchen cleaning up dinner, husband to me: “If you want, I’ll watch ‘Cashmere Mafia‘ with you in bed tonight.”

And they say marriage loses its excitement once you have kids.

1) One part child who’s had a runny nose for two weeks straight

2) One part cranky husband who’s ill as well but still working too much

3) Two parts stressful yet exciting week (more on that soon I swear)

Just writing this list makes my head ache more. Off to bed now.  At least I have some company in my pink eye misery.  I mean, really, who gets pink eye anymore!?

What’s there to say after you’ve been gone from work for 10 days on break?

A lot. 

But if you’re married to a practical, conservative, rational, pragmatic, nervous-husband-of-a-blogger like I am, you have to wait it out to tell your few, loyal readers.

So I’m back, but not fully in blogging action yet.