Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Call me Mommy, Damnit
Yesterday, I took the kids to my friend's private co-op playground. As the kids happily played, I talked to the parents -- all women who put off kids until their late 30s and had another identity before junior came around. I told them that I had been scouting about at militant feminist mommy websites. These sites are pissed that society doesn't value the work of mothers.
None of the playground women liked to call themselves a mommy even though that is what they were doing 98% of the time. One said she freaked out when she had to write down her occupation as mother on on official document.
I can relate. I usually tell people I am an adjunct professor, which is just one notch up on the respect scale. I think the bottom would be homeless-insane man, then mommy, and then adjunct professor. But that little notch is very important to me.
Yesterday, I took the kids to my friend's private co-op playground. As the kids happily played, I talked to the parents -- all women who put off kids until their late 30s and had another identity before junior came around. I told them that I had been scouting about at militant feminist mommy websites. These sites are pissed that society doesn't value the work of mothers.
None of the playground women liked to call themselves a mommy even though that is what they were doing 98% of the time. One said she freaked out when she had to write down her occupation as mother on on official document.
I can relate. I usually tell people I am an adjunct professor, which is just one notch up on the respect scale. I think the bottom would be homeless-insane man, then mommy, and then adjunct professor. But that little notch is very important to me.
