Saturday, March 20, 2010

Thoughts on Motherhood, or Lack Thereof

I feel like lately our blog has been kind of drab. I'm not sure if it's just the busyness of mommyhood or maybe the lack of good material, but it just seems boring to me. And if I think my life seems boring, I can only imagine what the rest of you are thinking. (Or maybe you're not because you've given up on me!) So I'm taking a break of my account of Mia's little life for some of my own thoughts. Don't worry, I don't have too many of my own these days.
The other night after we had the little one in bed, I sent Travis to the Blockbuster while I made dinner. Although I would have preferred going myself, I did not want a grilled cheese with macaroni and cheese for dinner (my husband loves starch so much I think he might turn into one someday), so off he went. I braced myself for yet another horror film (he is a horror junkie) or some indie film (which is sometimes a coin toss). He surprised me with a film he thought I could relate to: Motherhood. I wasn't sure if I should be pleased at such thoughtfulness or irritated that he was gone for over an hour on such a small errand. (Turns out he was also having wallets printed for Mia's birthday party at Walgreens.) I decided to choose appeasement.
So we sat down with our sausage and broccoli bow tie pasta and watched Uma Thurman make her way through a day in the life of a New York mother. The first thing I said to Travis after it was over is, "I'm exhausted just by watching her have a family in New York City." I mean, really. Life in the city looks romantic and fun, but try living in a five floor walk-up when your daughter forgets her backpack for school, carrying your elderly dog down 4 times a day to use the restroom with your 2 year old son on your back, or riding your bicycle around while shopping for party supplies (and a cake!) for your daughter's 6th birthday party. No thank you. Life in the suburbs doesn't seem so bad after all...
But more than that, I was struck by Uma's character's struggle with life after motherhood. She's what I would call a power-blogger, blogging multiple times a day about thoughts on her role as a wife and mother, but always feeling trite and glib, and never original or thoughtful (hmmm, sounds familiar). So she decides to enter a contest to win a weekly column at a mom's magazine; all she has to do is write 250 words about what motherhood means to her. The only catch is that she only has about 8 hours to complete the task, and it happens to be the same day as her daughter's birthday party. I won't give too much away in case you happen to see it, so I'll stop my synopsis there.
So here's my take away: I am not alone. Although I happen to read a handful of blogs with mothers that manage to blog nearly every day and have some kind of relevant, thought-provoking post (how? how do they do this and get anything else done?), I am not alone in that between laundry, cooking nutritious meals, playing peek-a-boo, telling Mia for the 100th time not to touch the DVD player, wondering if I've provided her enough stimulation today, remembering to let the dog out, and maybe a shower that all original thoughts that used to occupy my cranium have been crowded out.
Will they return? I hope that one day, they will. One thing is certain; this blog will be more interesting or it will die trying.

3 comments:

Gina said...

I'm with you Sarah! My blog is boring to the max! No time to make it great and keep it updated regularly! My goal is to just update monthly so my family and friends can see how we are doing and see new pictures! I wish I could make it more. :)

Unknown said...

Isn't that movie EXHAUSTING. And it's true...one of the reasons I left the city. I was sometimes to the point of tears trying to do a major grocery shopping trip in NYC! Lol. Mothering is hard, but in New York, ten times harder then it has to be...unless you have a nanny.

IUgirl78 said...

I'm with you, Sarah. In fact, my number of blog posts drastically dropped last year from my first year. I just felt like all of my posts started to sound redundant. Just wait, though--pretty soon Mia is going to start talking and you'll have to write down her first words, then the funny quotes she says. But I always think your blog is interesting. I love seeing the pictures and just catching a glimpse of what your life is like. Keep up the good work!