How You Know You’re Raising Feminists

My daughter is of the age of princesses so asked to watch Cinderella this afternoon and promptly lost interest. A girl who flutters around her bedroom getting dressed by animals? Pfft. She likes her princesses kicking ass and taking names: Merida, Mulan, and yes, she prefers QUEEN Elsa because a queen is the leader and that’s what my girl wants to be.

My son, however, sat transfixed in his Spiderman costume watching the entire movie.

And because I’m also raising critical thinkers, my son and I always talk about what stories were about and what the lesson could be.

After watching Disney Cinderella, my son said, “That movie was about how it’s not fair to make one person do all the work in the house. It’s not fair. Other people should do some work too.”

BOOOOM! You’re WELCOME, society. Do you see the gift I give to you?!?

A few minutes later, he said, “Also, they talked a lot about dreams. People having wishes and dreams and having them come true.”

“What do you think Cinderella’s biggest wish or dream was?” I asked.

“Probably to not have to do all the cleaning anymore. She probably wanted to get away from her stepmother and have a better life.”

“And is marrying someone rich the only way to make that happen?”

“No way, ” he said. And we talked about hard work and problem-solving and not giving up when we really want something.

So. My work here is done.

…. for today, anyway.

Medicate Me

Heeeey, it’s been a month since I’ve posted and WordPress will not let me forget it. But lots have changed in the last month and I have been BUSY.

Raise your hand if you’re tethered to your kid’s virtual school with 0 time to do normal stuff like laundry and pooping instead of constantly being by their side, giving thumbs up to their teacher that YES you understand the instructions and YES you know how to get into the virtual library and YES, GODDAMNIT, you will make sure the child does the homework, thank you, can I please go to the bathroom now?

So no, I haven’t been writing.

What I HAVE been doing is taking anti-depressant medication and only for a few days so it’s not “in my system” enough to “make a difference” according to the experts but according to my experience, I haven’t had a virtual-school-inspired meltdown since Monday which was my first dose. Also, I am very sleepy and yeah, a little paranoid about the mild flu-like symptoms except that they started Monday, exactly two and a half hours after my first dose and happen at intervals throughout the day that have been clockwork all week.

So no, I don’t think I have covid.

I don’t exactly project my spit onto crowds of rabid followers while pretending science is fake news and a global pandemic is a hoax to make me look bad, so much as Stay Home and Wear a Mask so I haven’t been like SUPER worried about it. But I’m an overly cautious *coughparanoid* person, so it crosses my mind.

Another person whose opinion I value has started reading Like Two Opposite Things and likes it! So between that and feeling less like a crazy woman screaming “MUTE YOUR MICROPHONE, YOU JERK! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!?!” I think I might be ready to resume working on Like Two of the Same, the sequel which… needs some serious editing, I know. But I’m of the “write everything/edit later” writing philosophy and it’s easier to cut that create so… stupid plot lines stay until my scissors say otherwise.

Not that I’ve… I mean… it was the kid, obvi.