I stroked her back and kissed her soft, stinky cheek. Things used to be easier. Nowadays, we're all trying to find a balance between what is best for ourselves and what is best for our children. Mothers are bombarded with platitudes. Amid the demands of child rearing, we strive to maintain our own identities, meet our own needs, find time for ourselves.
Nobody really knows how much of our time children require.
Children are allowed complete dependence. Mothers must drop everything, forget the platitudes, forget sleep, forget themselves. On the night of Lucy's stomach flu, I had already switched into Me mode. She'd been in bed a half hour, and I thought the night was mine. It had been a long, napless day of cutting crusts off peanut butter sandwiches and building Lego playgrounds that were promptly destroyed.