the other side of the fence

Whenever the daily grind of being a parents gets to be a bit much several of my friends and I have a running joke about how we want a large, unattractive nanny. We all secretly believe that those who have nannies have it easier. The trick to that is that all the people who I know that have nannies also have jobs. I have a friend who is a specialist physician and I admit that I have looked at her life and been jealous at times. She has a fabulous nanny (who is neither large nor unattractive), a prestigious job and beautiful children. She is incredibly intelligent and well-spoken, she is unfailingly polite and seemingly unflappable. She is kind and funny. She called me the other morning following a playgroup that had gone particularly well to tell me about how after we all left her lovely home her toddler urinated in several inappropriate places and she slipped in cat vomit on her way to stop him. This I can relate to. This I am not intimidated by. Her kids get sick and stay up all night and say naughty words and she never gets to sleep in either. I have decided that it doesn't matter whether we stay home or work- Parenting is really hard sometimes. Sometimes it's wonderful. We just have different complications. There are lots of ways to do it right and there are lots of ways to do it wrong. We all have a little of both every day. And we have each other. The best resource and support I have is my friends, so, thanks everyone. I couldn't do it without you.