If Moms had Blogs

My co-worker is a gusher. Mostly a terrific person, she's always full of stories of her delightful little boys, their antics and "children say the darndest things" kind of one-liners. She's so in love with them that it's embarrassing at times to listen to the details she divulges. It's almost unbearable to hear her imitate their toddler voices and lengthy pauses to share their latest cutesy take on life. I cringe for her as I read the body language of her office audience.

We all have children, we all think they are adorable (before they turn 15 - wink), and we all like to talk about them now and then -- it's the human experience. But so enamored of motherhood is she that she can't recognize the fact that she works with an office full of other mothers with children younger and even more adorable than hers.

It doesn't stop her from offering all types of expert advice from breastfeeding to picking out a daycare. When insert boy's name was insert common parenting dilemma, I did blank is how many monologues start when someone else happens to mention their child's recent cute moment. She does it with such an air of confidence, it's hard to believe she doesn't have her own talk show or at the very least, an advice column in Parent's Magazine. She really believes she has the answers, and I really wish she did too.

Only two of us are on the other end of motherhood -- teens and beyond. I came crashing down off my motherhood high a few years ago, and the other mom has just sent her second and last son off to college. She still rides an emotional see-saw every day with one of them. We know for fairly certain that there will be a day when our co-worker will be struck with the harsh truth -- what you put in to them is not always what you get out. Like young celebrities gushing about their forever romance in People magazine only to break-up a short time later, those words will haunt her one day. Her fall from the motherhood pedestal is destined to be even more painful than mine.