Mara met Sherry at Frank's pool party. Sherry was wearing a boy-cutt, two-piece. Mara wore her infant at her breast while balancing a spoonful of Spanish rice in her left hand, attempting to feed her toddler.
"You never hear men having this conversation." Sherry said. The two women discussed what it meant to be intelligent and capable of conquering the Work Force, yet choosing to stay home to raise children.
"The hardest part of it is that it is not paid. No benefits. No vacations. But I must say the opportunities for growth are richer than any other career."
At home that day, Mara collected the mail from a rusty box that hung on the front of the garage; they'd lived here three months, and Mara still hadn't had time to clean the spider webs. Had she remembered to leave this forwarding address...? Mara shrugged and shuffled through the pile. Amongst the junk and bills and statements, there was an issue of Working Mother magazine. This surprised Mara as she is not a subscriber. She wondered if the mail carrier had made a mistake, but the name on the address label read Robert Kant. Why was Mara's husband receiving such a magazine?
When Mara showed her spouse the magazine, both chuckled. With the late-night hours he pulled at the office, when would he find the time to work on his mothering?
Maybe someone had sent him the magazine as a prank? Maybe someone was suggesting he needed a sex change operation? Maybe the magazine was intended for Mara, to give her a hint that she shouldn't be sitting around at home raising children in her pajamas all day, but should get out and get herself a "real" job.
Then their fooling around lifted to the next level. "Hey, remember that Saturday Night Live sketch with Chris Rock on the 4 am talk show?"
"Yeah. The one where he is being interviewed for leading a group called The Brotherhood of Brothers Who Make Responsible Fathers?"
"Well. Looks like this magazine is for the Sisterhood of Sisters who Make Responsible Mothers."
"Or, for your sake, they should print a magazine and start an organization for The Sisterhood of Sisters Who Do Not Want to Become Working Mothers."
"Ooh. You're too witty!" Mara said to Robert with a mother load of irony in her voice. She pulled him close and kissed him. And their fooling around lifted to the ecstatic level--She'd use sex to distract him from any further discussion about her job hunt.
Unbeknownst to Robert, it was Mara's intention to stay in her pajamas until her children were sixty, if she had to, she'd stay in this very same pair of pajamas. Like hell she was going to hunt for a job! She didn't have much of a wardrobe anyway. With all this baby raising and spouse seducing, who needs a wardrobe? Honestly.
