"Beauty" of Motherhood

These are some things we "mothers" get to do.

1. wake up almost the same time every morning without the alarm.

2. clean up a training pants with poop thinking "I wish I could just throw them away..."

3. answer millions of questions coming from preschoolers mouth from "are babies born with clothes on?" to "what is the difference between DNA and RNA?"

4. try to figure out how to sneak vegetables in meals without kids noticing them.

5. eat with one hand while holding a newborn with the other.

6. eat in 5 minutes without tasting anything.

7. "Don't" get to push elevator buttons any more.

8. step on small plastic toys in the dark.

9. have the "pouch" after having kids and being asked by kids' friends "are you having a baby soon?"

10. order/make one serving of meal thinking I could share with my daughter and end up not being enough

AND order/make two servings thinking that would be enough for me and my daughter and she hardly touches her food.

Here are some things that I, "the hybrid mom" get to do.

1. realize my kindergartener's english pronunciation is getting far better than mine.

2. try to balance the exposures to each culture my children have, especially the languages without upsetting neither of grandparents.

3. find reliable information on good sales, restaurants, schools, and events from other hybrid moms. This network information is more suitable for me than other sources.

4. enjoy what Americans do such as having a huge birthday party for your own child.

5. learn to deal with long trips back home with little kids. Going to airplane lavatory with two small children hovering in the tiny space is nothing!

6. and learn to ignore those dirty looks when my child screams on the plane thinking to self "I will never see these people in my life again."

7. get used not to be humiliated when my kindergartener makes some rude but innocent comment in English in US and in Japanese when in Japan.

8. laugh at myself still when I mis-pronounce "l" and "r". I am still a typical Japanese who learn English later in life. "Would you like some peanut butter and Jerry?"

9. Not have to deal Japanese in-laws.

10. cannot answer a question like "how do you say that in your native language?" because I have been here long enough and start use the English word even among the hybrid moms. How do we say "share" in Japanese? I don't know...