I'm an Idiot. Count Me In!

You know how Pat Benatar says: "Love is a battlefield"? Well, I'm here to say that motherhood is a minefield. Every day, you have to step carefully around one issue or another. You have to open up your bag of maternal tricks and pull out an emotional balm for something. You have to be sensitive about personal esteem. You have to be enthusiastic about little victories along the way. You have to be kind about the friends that you're sometimes not feeling very kind about. And sometimes, just to keep you on your toes, you have to shut the bag and do nothing. Like when there's a project due in two days and they haven't started making their model of a bee and it's Sunday night and no stores are open and they want to yell at someone. (You know it's gonna be you.)

Who needs politics? Motherhood is where the real diplomacy is taking place. It's where you're trying to be nice to the other moms and teachers that totally annoy you. It's getting the family together for a summit when they hate each other, and you. It's dodging questions about where favorite/inappropriate clothing went. ("Read my lips: I did not hide your faded jeans.") It's making policies that are often unpopular. ("What do you mean we can't instant message while we're doing homework?!") It's all of the blame and none of the credit. When you "win" the job, you're suddenly thrust into a no-win situation. Ironic, isn't it?

Still, there's something about it that not only compels women to run for office, but to run for re-election, as if there were more fun waiting just around the corner. Politicians and mothers - sisters in arms.

And since motherhood is akin to extreme politics, I have just one question: Where is MY Camp David?