Tuesday, March 25, 2008

the midde place

I have just finished reading a beautiful book titled, the middle place, by Kelly Corrigan. It is a memoir beginning when she is diagnosed with breast cancer, but mainly it is a love letter to her family. It will make you remember that just because your a mom doesn't mean aren't someone's baby girl. I wanted to put an excerpt here because her writing is so much fun to read, it was hard to choose because I loved every word she wrote, but the following made me laugh, as I too want to be the mother of four children. Enjoy
The way I see it, if you have four kids, you don't really have to do anything else, ever. Three kids is a handful, but one that many people manage to hold. If you're a mother of four, you definitely don't have to have a career or volunteer for the school fund-raiser or even bring an appetizer to the dinner party. In fact people give you a lot of credit for wearing both earrings and knowing how to spell chaos and antidepressant. Four kids gives you a pass for every forgotten birthday, overlooked appointment, and missing form. Plus, you can be late for everything the rest of your life and never return phone calls. Who's gonna blame you?...
It could be that I just want to make it clear that I really love motherhood and I still like having sex with my husband and that I am generally an optimist. You know, the plucky gal who hums along, no matter what, wearing children on her hip in the same casual way other women wear low belts or handbags. Deliberately having four kids implies that you've got the three-kid-thing sussed out, like there are big check marks next to each name, and so what the hell, let's add another one. It's AP Parenting...
Maybe it's because I want to raise a boy, who will love me all out, like I love my dad, who will love me even when my girls, in pitiless unison, turn their reprobate teenage hearts against me....
Probably, though, more than all of that, it's because I am a Corrigan and want to feel like one every day. Corrigans don't stop until they are told to. Corrigans don't sweat the details like college tuition. Corrigans don't measure first, they don't read manuals, they don't buy insurance. Corrigans believe.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks! I needed a good laugh because with the 4th added now I feel as though NOTHING gets done buy eating and wiping bottoms! So good to know I'm not alone and will survive!
angie d