Celebrity Parenting vs Normal Parenting

"I think it's different when you have an office job, because it's routine and, you know, you can do all the stuff in the morning and then you come home in the evening," she said. "When you're shooting a movie, they're like, 'We need you to go to Wisconsin for two weeks,' and then you work 14 hours a day and that part of it is very difficult. I think to have a regular job and be a mom is not as, of course there are challenges, but it's not like being on set." ~ Gwyneth Paltrow

This is all over the news.  Gwyneth Paltrow thinks it is more difficult for her to work and parent than it is for normal moms.  Needless to say Gwyneth is not making any brownie points with “normal moms”.

Let’s think about this.  Celebrity moms have to leave their children (sometimes) to go on tour, make movies, to attend publicity events and charity balls.  While I am sure it is difficult to be absent from your children’s lives for extended periods of time and to shield them from the harshness of public scrutiny and paparazzi, this is a choice you made for your career and your family.  This career affords you luxuries such as a nanny, a house keeper, and heaven knows who else you employ to run the personal side of your life.  When you come home from wherever you are working, you have time off to reconnect with the family and maybe take a quick holiday in Cancun.

The “Normal” moms leave their kids (if they have a full time job outside the home) for 8 – 10 hours a day and usually they do this to put food on the table and a roof over their children’s heads, no because they choose to.  Most of the time they come home, cook dinner, deal with homework, do laundry, clean up after dinner, do more laundry, take care of miscellaneous children’s issues, and get ready to do it all again tomorrow.  If they are lucky there is a significant other to help out and if they are really lucky they get a one week vacation in the summer to a beach or some other family fun location.  All this, and guess what?  For date night, they pay to see one of your movies, Gwyneth.

I have had the experience of being the “normal” mom.  I wouldn’t trade it for anything, although a housekeeper would have been nice….

So, Gwyneth, really which sounds more difficult now?

Accidental Resolutions

It has been a while since I posted.  The holidays and other things have kept me away from writing.  I am planning on posting regularly from now on.

I have been thinking a lot in the last month about resolutions, not only New Year’s resolutions but resolutions in general.  People make New Year’s resolutions because it is easy to remember when you started and because they want better things for themselves for the next year.

I do not normally make New Year’s resolutions.  I have goals for the next year but I don’t formally announce them or write them down, probably because I don’t want to see what I planned to do and failed to do.  I have, however, made accidental resolutions.  What do I mean by this?  Well, you know, one day you are going along living your life and something happens to make you change or stop a habit, without planning or warning.  That is what I call an accidental resolution.

What brings me to the subject of resolutions on February 7^th?  Well, I realized yesterday that it was the nine month anniversary of me quitting smoking.  In May I got sick with bronchitis and a chest x-ray showed something.  My doctor sent me for a cat scan and they decided that it was scar tissue that they saw on my lung.  You would think that would be enough for me to not smoke.  Well, no, I continued to smoke for two more days even though I was coughing like crazy.  Stupid, I know.  Finally, my boyfriend said to me “why are you forcing yourself to smoke?  You can barely breathe.”  And you know what? He was right.  And that was it.  My accidental resolution.  Believe me, I never really planned on quitting smoking.

I have had other accidental resolutions but I will write about them in future posts.  Have you had accidental resolutions?  Feel free to comment and let me know that I am not (or maybe I am) that weird.

Till we meet again…

Susan