Tina Fey has written an essay called “Confessions of a Juggler” in the new issue of The New Yorker (the one with the Scientology article, I think), all about by a working mom who juggles. Now, I unapologetically love Tina Fey – she’s amazingly talented, a wonderful writer and comedic actress, and I love when Tina “gets real”. I love when she just says the truth in her own funny little way, which is what she did in this essay. The New Yorker has this brief snippet of her piece:
ABSTRACT: PERSONAL HISTORY about the writer’s dilemmas as a working mother. The writer’s daughter recently checked out a book from the preschool library called “My Working Mom,” which depicted a witch mother who was very busy and had to fly away to a lot of meetings. The two men who wrote this book probably had the best intentions, but the topic of working moms is a tap-dance recital in a minefield.
What is the rudest question you can ask a woman? “How old are you?’ “What do you weigh?” No, the worst question is: “How do you juggle it all?”
The second-worst question is: “Are you going to have more kids?” Science show that fertility and movie offers drop off steeply for women after forty. The baby-versus-work life questions keep the writer up at night. She has observed that women, at least in comedy, are labeled “crazy” after a certain age. The writer has the suspicion that the definition of “crazy” in show business is a woman who keeps talking even after no one wants to f-ck her anymore.
The fastest remedy for this “women are crazy” situation is for more women to become producers and hire diverse women of various ages. That is why the writer feels obligated to stay in the business, and that is why she can’t possibly take time off for a second baby, unless she does, in which case that is nobody’s business. Does the writer want to have another baby? Or does she just want to turn back time and have her daughter be a baby again?
That night, as she was putting the witch book in her daughter’s backpack to be returned to school, the writer asked her, “Did you pick this book because your mommy works? Did it make you feel better about it?” Her daughter looked at her matter-of-factly and said, “Mommy, I can’t read. I thought it was a Halloween book.”
[From “Confessions of a Juggler,” The New Yorker]
Tina also writes that “It is less dangerous to draw a cartoon of Allah French-kissing Uncle Sam. . . than it is to speak honestly about [working moms].” She also jokes about being asked about her juggling act by nosy people, writing, “Sometimes I just hand them a juicy red apple I’ve poisoned in my working-mother witch cauldron and fly away. There’s another great movie idea! Baby Versus Work: A hard-working baby looking for love (Kate Hudson) falls for a handsome pile of papers (Hugh Grant). I would play the ghost of a Victorian poetess who anachronistically tells Kate to ‘go for it.'”
Tina’s book – part memoir, part comedic essay collection (I think) – called Bossypants comes out in April. You can preorder it now!
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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