Not so frequently asked questions

Q: What is this blog about?
A: Pretty much anything I am presently thinking about. That could be motherhood, autism, marriage, religion, baseball, politics, or just about anything else. This is not an overtly political blog, though I have very deeply help political ideas and I probably rage at least once a day about how the Republicans are destroying the country. But many other blogs are much better at discussing and making fun of politics so I simply read those (check my blog roll) and don't try to copy them. This is also not a list of my daily activities. Really who wants to hear about laundry, housework, diaper changes, playground politics, and how to deal with your diva daughter and her numerous temper tantrums.

Q: Do you really think of yourself as a housewife?
A: No, not really. I think of myself as an at home mom who takes care of two little children and tries to keep the house in a semi-neat and clean state. But I think we can't escape from the fact that being an at home mom has this housewife stuff attached to it. There is no way in hell that when DH comes home the house will be spotless and I will be all dressed up with a full dinner on the table and two smiling kids waiting to eat. And yet that was the image of the 50s housewife. It deeply affects how we think of ourselves as moms, both career moms and at home moms. If we acknowledge this housewife heritage maybe we can start to move away from it into a more healthy understanding of women, mothers, and family.

Q: What's the dilemma?
A: How to have a healthy identity as a stay at home mom and how to figure out whether I want to continue to stay at home or go back to some kind of career. Currently I am leaning toward the career option but probably part time after I get another degree. (Why not really because education seems to be never ending for me.) Our culture treats your job as your identity and when you don't have a paying job, your identity comes into question. Part of this blog is my attempt to figure out what that identity is for me.

Q: Your son is on the autism spectrum. Why don't you just blog on what it is like to live with that?
A: Originally when I thought about blogging that was what I was planning to do. Only I realized that I had so much more to say than that. Also to just blog on that would be to say that autism is the overwhelming issue in our house and that is just not true. We live with it. We work on it. We talk about it. But it doesn't rule us and I have no interest in letting it rule us. Q is much bigger than that 1 label. I guess that in some ways I feel like if I let that be the overwhelming issue in our lives then autism would win. So I will often blog about how autism affects my life and my own views on it, but it isn't the main issue for me.

Q: A Yankees and a Nats fan?
A: I was born and raised in NY so the Yankees will always be my hometown team. (And yes I am disgusted and frustrated with their dismal record this year.) But Washington has become my adopted home town and so I am also a Nationals fan. It is hard to live in DC and not get swept into Nationals fever. And it is so nice to go to a game and be rooting for the home team. (Usually we go to a few Orioles games in Baltimore and root for the Yankees.) They are in different leagues so I am not too worried about having to choose who I will be loyal to.

Q: What kind of guilty pleasures?
A: Soap operas are my big sin (ABC soaps in particular) along with romance novels (historical England and Europe). I will admit, with great shame, that I was addicted to the last Bachelorette show. Thank God that is over now.

Q: A liberal Christian?
A: Yes. I am a progressive, a liberal, and a Democrat, but I am also a Christian who has a deep spiritual faith. I do not see these are opposites but most people do. I hate to say I am just a Christian as most people have this right wing view of Christianity. But I also hate to say that I am just a liberal since that ignores that I believe that my faith informs my politics. Liberal, progressive Christianity seems to be hard to define so I decided not to try to define it.

I hope, dear reader, that these answers give you a little better idea of me and what this blog is about. Keep on reading.