Guest Blog -- Worst Mother Ever

Welcome to a new feature on On Balance, the Tuesday guest blog. Every Tuesday, I'll feature the views of a guest writer. It could be your neighbor, your boss, your most loved or hated poster from the blog, or you! Send me your entry (300 words or fewer) for consideration. Obviously, the topic should be something related to balancing your life.

Worst Mother Ever
By Lauri Githens Hatch, mother of five and staff writer at The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. We met when she wrote a review of Mommy Wars for her newspaper.

Over most of my ten years of single motherhood, memory conveniently draws a veil.

But, since we're dispensing with all that I-hand-ground-his-food-for-six-months sanctimony, I offer this:

I'd been the single mom of a 2-year-old boy for all of six weeks --- the same amount of time I'd been in my first newspaper reporting job at the Buffalo News. I was so fried I nearly ate his crayons one night, thinking they were carrot sticks.

So, one late fall afternoon, I left early, drove home, went face down on my bed and promptly feel asleep -- right through the end of regular daycare, after-hours daycare and you-parasite-we're-charging-you-triple-for-making-us-stay-this-late daycare.

From the depths of sleep, I heard my father's voice shouting my name. I woke. It was pitch black outside. Bounding up the stairs came my parents, my father clutching my little boy to his chest. "LAURA? LAURA?"

I sat up on my bed, they opened my door, saw me, burst into tears, which made me burst into tears, which made my son follow along for good measure. After six hours, here I was -- not suicidal over a broken marriage, not kidnapped, not in a ditch, not dead -- just dead-tired.

So tired, in fact, I'd gone home and simply forgotten I had a kid.

Worst. Mother. Ever.

By Leslie Morgan Steiner |  May 23, 2006; 6:00 AM ET  | Category:  Guest Blogs
Previous: A Man and His Shed | Next: The Lies Moms Tell

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