Oprah

A few of you are already filled in on my current "crisis." I put that in quotations because, in the grand scheme of things, it's not a huge deal. Well, it is to me, but in the Grand Scheme of Things....you get the idea.

So the "crisis" is this, in a nutshell: It is my mission to get through each day without an emotional meltdown. Most days I am successful. Today was not one of those days. The thing that just gets me about it is that it's usually the tiniest thing that sets me off. One day it was that The Munch had awaken from his nap before I was finished blowing my hair dry. (Meltdown in my closet, where I could not hear him crying. Nice.) One day it was the pile of dirty bottles next to the pile of clean bottles and pump parts that needed to be put away/assembled. Today it was jumpstarted by the cry I heard over the monitor when I had JUST sat down to eat lunch. It was accelerated by the disaster of squash and sweet potatoes on ALL SURFACES of the high chair. And it was topped off by the Constant Whining and Crying sound coming from my seven month old. (It had gone on for almost an hour. Without AND WITH his pacifier.) Are these things really a big deal? Nope, not in the slightest. Just goes to show you what crazy feels like when you're experiencing your life through a magnifying glass.

Wanna know what pushed me away from the (metaphorical) ledge? Oprah. This is odd on several levels. One: I don't particularly care for Oprah or her show. (Could it be because she constantly says, "We'll be right back. We'll be right back." Twice? Why?) Two: I never, ever DVR the show, but a friend mentioned yesterday's episode, so I managed to find the late-night rerun and recorded it. (And then I watched (part of) it while the Constantly Whining and Crying baby played with his blocks on the floor. Bad Mommy. (I watched most of it during the next nap.))

The show was about motherhood. The audience was filled with moms, and the guests were two women who had written a book on how tough it is to be a mom. The book is entitled, "I'd Trade My Husband for a Housekeeper," which I think is hysterical--though utterly untrue, of course. Ahem. Anyway, I suspect that the rest of the world is probably sick to death of listening to moms talk about how difficult motherhood is, yet no one would ever say that because...well, because everyone has or had a mother at one point. Ya don't mess with Texas. But their feelings are probably well-founded. After all, in my case--as is the case for most people I know--I entered into motherhood of my own accord. In other words, no one forced me to have a baby. No one forced me to stop going to work. And yet. Well, frankly, there isn't any solace in that.

Enter Oprah. The beauty of this episode was that it was geared toward other moms, not toward "the rest of the world." She wasn't trying to deliver an earth-shattering message to the masses, but rather was attempting to give us moms a place to rest in the comfort of knowing we are not alone in our feelings about the challenges of motherhood. The women featured on the show spoke from a place of complete and utter honesty, and it was refreshing. In fact, one of the girls made a statement that I carried with me for the rest of the day:

"We're all trying to love motherhood as much as we love our kids."

And that, folks, is the nitty gritty tough part. All the hugs, kisses, giggles, funny sayings, and developmental milestones can't erase the snotty noses, grimy high chairs, public temper tantrums, and missed curfews; but perhaps they can outweigh them.

Tomorrow's mission: Don't even give the bad parts an opportunity to get on the scale.