One morning last spring, after I dropped my three older sons off at school, I was walking the younger three back home when a woman pulled up beside us and rolled down the window of her truck.
I don?t know what my face looked like; it?s a little disconcerting when someone pulls up beside you in a vehicle while you?re walking, and, also, I have an overactive imagination. But in that moment, my mind went to a dark place. I braced myself to bolt, mentally running through a haphazard survival strategy whereby I would plant my twins on my lower legs for a ?ride? and run for dear life with the baby strapped in the stroller. I opened my mouth to scream.
But the person parked beside me was just the mom of another kindergartener at school. And all she wanted to say was, ?I see you every morning walking your sons to school, and you look so calm and collected. You just, I don?t know, seem like you have it all together.? I almost laughed. Hysterically. But, thinking better of this situationally inappropriate response, I instead said, ?Thank you. I guess I put on a good show.? Which must not have been the response she expected, because she gave a nervous laugh, waved, rolled up her window and sped away.
I swear I don?t try to put on a show. I try to be very transparent about how unarguably hard it is to mother six sons. But we never know what happens behind closed doors, and my doors are often closed (usually because boys are only half-dressed?or not dressed at all). So I want to make a ...