Until Nathalie brought it up, I had never given much thought to the selfie. Largely because I don’t see very many, with my kids too young to selfie and me too old to know people who do. In theory, I don’t see much wrong with a selfie, or even a load of them, although in practice wouldn’t it get dull fairly fast?
As for me? No, I don’t selfie. It hadn’t occurred to me to, but because I gave it some thought because of this blog, I can now illustrate more reasons why not.
Remember the foster kittens I mentioned? Well, the last one was finally released from the vet yesterday and he returned to my house. I assumed the reunion with his siblings would be a happy one. Then, as I was about to sit down to dinner with the kids (husband works nights), I heard myself say, “I smell cat poo.”
Frozen, I sniffed again. “I think it’s on you.” I pointed to middle son, seated at the table.
“I don’t have cat poo on me,” he said, as if I were ridiculous.
My eyes scanned down until I saw the blobs and smears on his shirt. I helped him take it off and went upstairs to the toilet to scrape, wash, soak (and silently cuss). I was drying my hands when middle son walked up the stairs, swinging his pants.
“What are you doing?”
“My pants smell like poo, so I took them off.”
“Stop swinging them then! You could be flinging the poo everywhere.”
“They just smell like poo,” he said patiently, “they don’t have poo on them.”
But of course they did, all across the middle section. I scraped, washed and soaked that up too, then searched for the cats. I caught the culprit, and cleaned her up. What could cause such strange behaviour? Perhaps her brother’s return stressed her?
I finally return to stiff risotto and soggy salad but before I sit, the boys point to the couch: “There’s poo there too.” What? I walk tentatively over. It’s everywhere! All over my iPad case, the floor and who knows where else? Stop moving! I cry. The two youngest have stepped in it and trekking it around.
One is sent hobbling on his heels to the bathroom; I carry the other. I run the bath, and quarantine all the kittens in the bathroom. I go back to the kitchen and start cleaning all the disgustingness. My youngest is three; I thought I was done with this nonsense. By now, to avert contamination, my eldest is basically standing on his chair.
The doorbell rings. Seriously? I hate solicitations anyway, but never more than now. I am so going to send the person away, or maybe we can just pretend we’re not here. Except all the lights are on and she can see me through the window in the door.
Arg! It’s the Toronto Environmental Alliance, and I actually want to support them and have done for years. I tell her that I have to clean up cat poo and it’s everywhere and can she please come back in 10 minutes. I go back to cleaning up the cat crap in the kitchen and then notice I am getting dripped on. I look up. O.M.G.
I run upstairs and my youngest is bailing water out of the bathtub onto the floor and the flood is leaking through to the kitchen below. I freak out, just as effectively as I have every other time he’s done it. Only his size prevents me from flushing him down the toilet.
Cut! I could continue, but why bother. You get the picture. There’s not a word of a lie, and it’s only a bit more outrageous than many a night around here.
Why would I selfie this??
And yet…
Anyone who’s into it could tell you that parenthood is equal parts gore and glory, and they trade places with schizophrenic alacrity.
For today I took my youngest to the beach, in search for his brothers who were spending the day there with their school. It should come as a surprise to no one that I could not find them, but all was not lost, not at all. My baby has been asking me for days to go to the beach, and we were finally here. Just us two. Instead of trailing along for his brothers’ events, my youngest took centre stage. We played at the beach, and I gave him the best that I have: my full attention.
It was gorgeous outside and in, and I took quite a few pics of him with my phone to record it.
And then: I took a selfie.
Lopsided pony tail, wisps of hair flying with the wild wind, sporting gold rimmed sunglasses found in the car and almost certainly bought by my husband from the thrift store along with 15 others as a joke three Christmas dinners ago. Retro is in again, and I think I could actually look pretty cool in those shades if only my face were 40% bigger.
I had a sense of what I looked like, but I took the selfie (and some selfies with my little son) anyway. I took it because on that beach I had survived the day before and was still standing there in the sand, in the present – truly, madly, deeply. I took it because there was no one else to take it, and that wasn’t good enough. I took it because when my son looks at pictures of this stunning day, I want him to know that I was there too, that I looked at all the rocks he showed me, that we dug for pirate treasure together, and that I gave him my sweater when the windblown sand stung his skin.
I took the selfie because I was satisfied, and I wanted to remember it.
4 Mothers 
