I was in the bookstore last Friday browsing with my three daughters.  I picked up a newly released paperback bestseller and immediately turned to the author's biography.   There the writer had described herself as "a mother first." 

I was reminded of an article I had recently read about Michelle Obama in which she had described her first job in the White House as getting her children settled into their new schools and routines.  Apparently, she also is a mother first.

When I got home from the bookstore, I looked at the biographical blurb on my soon- to-be released book.  And there it was,  for all the world to see.  I am a criminal defense attorney specializing in appellate litigation who lives in Northern New Jersey with my husband and my three daughters.  I had actually listed my daughters LAST, after my job and my husband.  I wondered if it was too late to call the publisher and fix the blurb, lest I anger the gods through my failure to incant at every opportunity that my highest calling in life is to carpool my children and pack their lunches.

Driving to the grocery store the next day, my nine-year-old in tow listening to her ipod, a question wafts forth from the back seat, a little too loudly since she must throw her voice over the sound of Miley Cyrus's (which reminds me of what an answering machine might sound like if it could be taught to sing): 

"What do moms do for fun?"  my daughter asks.

"Different things," I answer.  "Read, talk with friends, go out to dinner."

"But do they play dodge ball?" she wants to know. 

"Personally, I don't," I respond without hesitation.  "But if you want to, don't let anyone stop you."

Maybe she'll be a dodge ball player first.