So I was watching television, and this commercial comes on. And it’s the same type of commercial I grew up watching. Visualize the mom with the young children. She’s looking into the camera with an apologetic smile. “I don’t always have time to cook. That’s why I love running down to the Grocery Guru and picking up something from the deli.”
I’m staring at her, watching her…thinking, she looks like someone I would’ve gone to high school with, but older. She’s got a few lines around the eyes, her expression is tired, and she dresses a little more conservative. Not long ago I used to look at this woman and put her in a certain category. Ages older than me, a woman who probably hadn’t been in a bar since the night she met her future husband there, a soccer mom who has lunch dates for a wild time.
But as I’m watching this commercial tonight, the woman didn’t seem so old. She seemed like me. Only she looked better than me. She’d lost the baby weight (yes, I know she’s just the actress, but work with me here), she wore makeup. She just looked like the perfect mom. I haven’t been in a bar in God knows how long. (I’m not counting Nationals, because that was with a bunch of intoxicated romance writers, and the only men in there quickly disappeared.)I buy dinner for me and the kid at the grocery deli all the time.
The older woman in the commercial isn’t the future me, it is the current me. I just want to know when the hell it happened, and how come it took me so long to realize it. Are there more people like me who still feel five years younger? Whether you have a kid or are married or not. And if you’ve had a kid–and seriously, some days I think ‘Oh yeah, I’m a mom’–somehow it doesn’t always sink in that you’ve become that pre-middle-aged mom standing in line at the deli.
One of your biggest clues? College kids now look like high school kids to you, and high school kids look like they’re still in sixth grade. Seriously…the commercial came on tonight and I literally stopped what I was doing and thought when did I become this woman? Tell me I’m not alone here.
