My son will save the future from bad robots
Yesterday, on the celebrity baby blog (YES I READ THE CELEBRITY BABY BLOG DON’T JUDGE), they asked famous women to name their favorite fictional mothers. The top contenders? Claire Huxtable and Carol Brady, because of how involved they were in their kids lives, how understanding and gracious and blah blah blah.
The first two names that came to MY head were Lindsay Bluth Funke from Arrested Development and Cathy Ames from East of Eden, which is a little disturbing ‘cause they’re both horrible, HORRIBLE mothers: the former as vain and self-centered as can be, and the latter, well, she’s just a homicidal raging bitch, ice-cold and calculating.
But they’re both great fictional characters, with lots of drama and story and intrigue, which are qualities I’m going for when asked to name my favorite fictional characters (Yes I realize the Celebrity Baby Blog wasn't asking ME), though obviously what they mean is, “What fictional mother do you EMULATE.”
In which case, I’d say SARAH CONNOR.
(but I’m probably speaking to the biceps and not so much her mothering).
The fact is, I’ve never paid much attention to the mothers in stories, because I’ve always been busy relating to the kids. I’ve never had CAUSE before. But the other day, Christopher and I were watching Saving Private Ryan on cable, and it’s that scene where the folded flags are being brought home to the families. I looked at Caleb sleeping on my lap and said, “My ASS this child is ever going to war,” and suddenly I realized that while I’ve seen that movie a thousand times I’ve never thought about it from the point-of-view of the mothers. Which made me think, I need to rewatch every movie ever made because now I’m going to understand them all in a totally different way. Which then made me think, Yet another awesome thing my kid has given me: an entirely new pair of eyes.