A Losing Game
Recently on Twitter I saw a random post that caught my eye. The original poster started by asking mothers to name the most "mom" thing they've ever done, only to follow it up with a story about driving herself to the ER in excruciating pain because she didn't want to wake her toddler or newborn or even her husband. There were questions about why, and she eventually clarified that she wanted to ensure her husband would stay with the children rather than try to find childcare in the middle of the night. At that point, though, the floodgates had opened. Those that responded to the original tweet shared similar and increasingly more severe examples -- driving to ERs with broken limbs because one of their children needed something first, delaying seeking treatment for illness or injury until after their children were dropped at school/completed a ball game/danced in a recital/etc., and more. It became a bizarre competition where the only prize appeared to be admiration a...