Earlier in the year, since Father's Day falls outside the school calendar, the class celebrated Donuts for Dads. I self-righteously commented at the time that I bet the mom's questionnaire wouldn't include the "What does Dad (or in this case Mom) do at work" question. Well, how wrong I was. In fact, today's form did include a "When Mom goes to work, she..."
Peanut's answer?
"Nothing."
Wow. Talk about a wake-up call. I've tried to explain to Peanut that when Mommy writes that's her work. He has a hard time understanding the concept since Daddy leaves every day and goes to an office for work at a company. I also don't do a large amount of writing in front of him, so there are fewer opportunities to reinforce the idea of writing as Mommy's work.
What bothers me, I realized, is less that Peanut doesn't think I work, although that is part of it - I do want my son to grow up seeing both his mother and father contributing to the household as well as to society. Rather, the part that bothered me is that if I had to answer that question, I might say that I'm a writer, but am I?
In the past year, I have decided to put more focus on my writing. The problem is that I'm the only person to hold me accountable. When it gets hard or I get busy, it's really easy to put the writing on the back burner. The fact is I have very little to show for my "work" right now. So the "nothing" on Peanut's questionnaire was a bit of a slap in the face. A little too much truth from the mouths of babes.
A friend told me that no matter what, I am still a writer. Being a writer is something you just are, like being a runner (her excellent analogy, not mine). But that doesn't mean that the words write themselves. Looks like it's time to focus more seriously on making sure I have something to fill in that blank.
In the meantime, I am enjoying the fact that Peanut said I was 25 and when it was the hubby's turn? He was 78. Like I said, hilarity ensues.
No comments:
Post a Comment