Althea Peterson: Mother comes with all new excuses
BY ALTHEA PETERSON World Staff Writer
Monday, June 04, 2012
6/04/12 at 4:20 AM
The road to motherhood is paved with good intentions.
With the recent birth of my daughter, I experienced pregnancy, a hospital stay, maternity leave and motherhood, all for the first time, all within the last year. With the new title of "mother" comes some new expectations.
Or perhaps, just some new excuses.
Mother promises to resume working out, especially those daily morning runs, just as soon as the baby is born.
Mother promises to cut back on snacking between meals after the baby arrives and no longer needs those extra calories.
Those thank-you notes for those baby gifts can wait until after the baby comes, so that mother can also send baby pictures with the thank-you notes.
That overnight bag for the hospital will be packed soon but not right now because the baby isn't due for days. No rush.
Well, the baby arrived early, so surely people will understand if phone, email and other messages aren't returned immediately.
Mother will take care of all household chores, just as soon as she can get a few more hours of sleep at night.
Sleep will wait also because mother will be feeding the tiny baby in a few hours anyway.
Mother will sit down and write those thank-you notes soon, when the baby stops crying every time mother tries to sit down.
Mother will resume exercising and eating right, when the baby doesn't need mother's undivided attention.
Shower and clean clothes? Yes, mother is embarrassed to admit this, but since mother is on maternity leave and isn't going to be showing her face in public today ... nobody will know, right? They'll be staring at the baby, not the mother.
Where are the baby pictures? Mother will send them soon, but the baby isn't getting any less baby-looking, so she'll look the same whether I get pictures taken now or in a few days. Or weeks. Or months.
The baby actually smiled while she was awake! Well, everything else is officially on hold while mother smiles back at the baby.
Call mother a procrastinator, but you see, babies have no concept of time, especially when it comes to nighttime sleeping. Surely you don't expect that some of that wouldn't rub off on mother after a while.
If you buy that, mother has just bought herself more time to put everything off.
Original Print Headline: Mother comes with new excuses
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