Who am I today...?

If you're the mother of young children... do you find yourself wondering what your job title is every day? My daily meditation on the subject usually begins in the shower (about the only private space I have left, if my son is not banging on the door!)

My first thoughts are usually cycling through BOLD NEW ideas:

• Start a movement (lol! Easier said than done, though it doesn't stop me having MANY grand ideas!)
• Start my own massage business (I'm qualified and there's a gaping hole in the Indian market)
• Go back to news and reach those heights I deliberately left behind (at this point I have to patiently remind myself that I was offered a foreign correspondent's post and turned it down for all the right reasons; that I like being with my children full-time; that my body just doesn't handle stress in any constructive manner... and that frankly, no one is banging down my door anymore - if they ever were!) (I might still do it!)
• Become a filmmaker (ditto above).
• Become a GP, family doctor (I did look into this, but would have to start my life all over again, and learn science).
• Is it too late to be an astronaut?
• Become a corporate success story (really?? Ok, I do miss earning money... but I was never one for suits and strategizing).
• Become famous (I'm neither brave nor vain nor clever nor stupid enough).
• Find the fountain of youth or a working time machine... be young again... start over (but would that really solve anything?)

I then mull the options actually on my plate:

• Produce bilingual children's books (an ongoing project which is moving far too slowly.)
• Copy edit manuscripts professionally... (some irons in the fire...I'm good at it; it's flexible.)
• Be a social commentator... (euphemism for unpaid b*******er... a quick look at this blog, and you'll see that I'm already half-way there, though this one-handed typing while breastfeeding thing is pretty limiting.)
• Return to freelance journalism (is there such a thing left? my baby is only three months old, am I ready to leave her behind? Is she ready? Is the family ready? Do we have enough help? Not today...)
• Write short stories (a notebook FULL of brilliant ideas, yet I never have the time nor space to fully concentrate, even with help! Plus I'm a deadline-driven creature and so far, there's no one holding a gun to my head.)

Before I've made a decision, my son usually arrives home from playschool shouting: "Mama juice!" "Mama come here!" "Mama I want markers!"

Maybe someday when the little one is weaned, potty-trained and off to playschool too, I'll finally be a full-time working person again? Maybe in the meantime, I can think of a dignified, effortless way to become a global phenomenon?? Any ideas...?

Comments

[Kristin Schaefer Centofanti]

Well, even though it's unpaid b*******er..., this read has been thought provoking and an excellent summary of a dynamic thinking mother's life, anywhere on the planet, should she ever have the talent and opportunity to analyse it, which you obviously do.

[Ritu Anand]

I love the idea of you writing short stories. I also love this blog. And social commentary. I aspire to write social commentary one day.