an argument against parenthood

don't get me wrong - i love The Girls. they are my best day ... and my hardest moment. but this isn't about them so much as it is about their lives. today, i was "FIELD TRIP MOM". field trip mom rides in a minivan with 4 other moms who talk a lot about how gifted their children are, why they will be applying for a special middle school, not just the plain old middle school around here, what activities their children are in and why they need guitar lessons. they talk about pta and commitees and i get tired just listening to them. (it's not so much that any of these are offensive in and of themselves, more that, taken as a whole, they represent to me a life out of balance, where the parents world revolves around the child and don't even get me started on "competetive parenting"!) then field trip mom is assigned a group of 10 (10!) 4th graders, a map of downtown and a strict intinerary. we have 45 mintues each to visit the legislature, the capital building, lunch and the museum of natural history (which, incidentally, is a 4 story building packed to the gills. 45 min!?!). bear in mind that FTM is navigating around & through approximately 17,000 other school children who have all decided to visit downtown today. i learned that each chandilier in the the sentate weighs 645lb - there are 4 - and that if they want to speak, the senators push a little light button. i did not learn about governmental structure, policy or anything else particularly educating. (oh, except at the museum of natural history, where i learned that the cumulative weight of migrating monarch butterflies can break whole limbs off of trees!) so, i spent from 9am - 2pm engaging in pretty much every activity that makes me crazy, tired and just plain cranky. but my daughter loves it when i am field trip mom. and her sister has asked me to to repeat the process for her in 2 weeks...first graders at the life and science museum. field trip mom may have to smuggle in a flask...