Zeno's Bar & Grill

The March issue of Elle has two interesting articles for moms. The first is a really honest account of how one mother uses alcohol (not abuses, she does not talk about getting totally sloshed) to mellow out. She likens her glass of wine after a long day to the valium prescribed to mothers in the 50’s and 60’s. I know from my own experience that a glass of merlot can really help smooth out the jangled nerves caused by a colicky infant.

The second article is an interview with author Ayelet Waldman. Of course it covers the turf of her infamous New York Times piece Truly, Madly, Guiltily, where she said that she loves her husband, author Michael Chabon, more than her children. More interesting to me was how she puts herself (and her children) out there on view for the whole world to see. In fact her children have asked her to stop writing about them. This got me thinking about my own writing. How much of myself do I want to expose, and is it fair for me to use family, friends, and acquaintances as fodder?

Both of these articles share the common thread of mothers talking very (almost painfully) honestly about their lives, but Waldman seems to cross a line into an almost exhibitionist realm, for example when she wrote about her suicidal thoughts in her blog (even her own husband heard it there first). I don’t think I would ever want to expose that depth of feeling publicly, and if my writing suffers as a result, so be it.

--Kelly