There was a time in my life when I never left the house without wearing lipstick. These days I feel I’m lucky if I get out the door wearing clothes. At the risk of feeling sorry for myself, I can’t help but wonder what it is like to have just two kids who go to one school and live in one house vs. what I do have, which is five kids who go to four schools and commute among three households. Yesterday was a particularly shitty day. I put on my  fat pants (which smelled like mildew because I let them sit in the washer for two days) and they were snug (fuck!), I noticed  weird, long, stray hairs on my chin (Paul’s getting them in his ears. I keep forgetting to tell him.) and Eva’s science grade  plummeted even more. I asked her why she keeps forgetting to turn in her work and she shrugged and said, “Why do people trip?” How do I argue with that kind of logic?

I felt like I couldn’t do anything right. The world felt like it was spinning around me and I knew I needed a breather and some reassurance from someone that I was not a BAD MOTHER.  As if the timing could not have been more perfect, author Ayelet Waldman was doing a reading and book signing for her new book, Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace at our local book store. It was a kid free night so Paul and I had dinner downtown and then headed over to the book signing. Listening to her talk about her own bad mother experiences (her youngest son keeps getting suspended from kindergarten) made me realize that I was not alone.  I now no longer feel guilty that I don’t sew angel wings on costumes or feign interest in my tweener daughter’s stories about the weird kid in her class who eats paper. If you want to hear Ayelet  tell it herself, click here.