Two and a half parties later

Sorry not to have written for over a week - although I'm not sure who I'm apologising to as I don't believe anyone is reading this yet. I know that blogging etiquette dictates daily updates but it's not every day that I have something to say. Hard to believe given the fact that I am "Woman with an Opinion", but some days I'm just too tired to care.



So Daughter has been to two parties and a "birthday tea" since I last wrote. Oh the social whirl of a 4 year old! The first of these was the joint princess party of two girls from school. Of course, as the Rules dictate, the entire class was invited so it was in a hall to accommodate. There was the obligatory entertainer and face painter and it all seemed so formulaic and dull. But then I'm not 4...



I tried to speak to a few of the mothers but was pretty much ignored until another "Child Abuser" (aka working mother) arrived and I had someone equally evil to talk to. I had never met this particular mum before (unsurprisingly I guess as we don't spend much time at school) but she was friendly and warm and as bemused as me at the hostility of the "Self-Sacrificers" (aka stay at home mothers).

The next social outing was the birthday tea of a girl whose actual birthday party we would be attending three days later. The tea was for a select group of very close friends and was on the day of the birthday itself, after school. It was very nice. I even managed to get home from work in time for the end. The girls played together and then had supper followed by birthday cake and crisps. The Self-Sacrificing Mother of the birthday girl (a former lawyer in a large City firm) said, with a sigh, how she wished that she could have just done this and not bothered with the big party which was happening on Sunday. I asked her exactly who was insisting on the big party? Certainly not the 5 year old daughter! I was met with a frosty silence. I, being a Child Abuser, clearly didn't understand or appreciate the duties of motherhood.

What amazes me is not that successful women give up work when they have children - I do understand that. Not everyone is as lucky as me. I have a fantastic job which I love and which I can fit around motherhood and so I don't feel like I am abandoning my children or missing out on their childhoods. It is not that easy to achieve this type of balance in a lot of careers and so I can see how for many women who can afford not to work there is simply no choice to make. They don't need the money, they can't fulfil their work ambitions and still have a proper family life and so giving up their jobs is the obvious choice. What I find incredible, however, is that there is such hostility to women like me.

Or maybe it's not women like me - maybe it's just me!