A Work in Progress
Blissful Ignorance, and Other Benefits of Motherhood By Shelly Belcher

Someone please call me if the world is about to end. A friend recently relayed to me the story of where she was when the first plane hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 – she was watching Barney and blissfully unaware that our world had just changed forever.This story hit home when I received one of those crazy, yet irresistible e-mails that asked me a series of questions about my political beliefs and then matched me with a potential presidential candidate based on my answers. I’m slightly ashamed to admit that the top three candidates on my list were names that didn’t even so much as ring a bell. And while I’m aware of such hot-button political issues as the war in Iraq, the privatization of social security and abortion, I couldn’t tell you the first thing about the latest discussions of stem-cell research, immigration laws or the line-item veto.

Local elections have always posed a particular problem for me, as I am nowhere near informed enough to cast my vote. Like many of my fellow Americans, I seldom have time to read more than the headlines of the local paper on a website, and when I do take time to read, it’s usually the entertainment section. I certainly have not kept up with local political issues or the characters involved in the debates.

Like many other mothers before me, I have found myself on the hamster wheel of life, in the never-ending cycle of going to work, making dinner, doing laundry, bath-time, bed-time, house cleaning, and then spending the last 30 minutes of my day gearing up to do it all over again. I’m having trouble finding time for a haircut, let alone keeping track of world news and current events. I think it’s a matter of effective time management. I want to be an involved citizen, but unless they run a news ticker on the bottom of the television screen while my daughter watches Dora the Explorer, I am out of luck. If Kate can learn how to count to 10 in Spanish from the cartoon, I could certainly learn something about the state of the union.

The schedule that I keep is far from unique.Moms and dads do this and more every day, and some (God love them) do so without complaint. It’s not the schedule that I mind. After all, I volunteered for it. It’s just that I feel out of the loop. I have mommy tunnel vision. I can’t see, or even think, about much that doesn’t involve my daughters right now. And sometimes I wonder what fun I’m missing in the periphery.

A few months ago, my husband and I went on a date to celebrate our anniversary – dinner and a movie, just like we did before we had kids. I was thrilled at the prospect of having a dinner that didn’t involve me begging anyone to eat their chicken nuggets and two trips to the potty because my three-year-old likes the echo in the stalls.We even ordered drinks with dinner; I could barely contain myself.

And just when I had vowed that we would do this on a more regular basis, I looked at a table across the room and saw a little red-haired boy sitting with his mom -- a red head, just like my Gracie.That mother looked slightly frustrated, but happy as she reached across the table and squeezed his little cheeks. Suddenly, I missed my girls so much my chest hurt.

So again, I would ask – please call me if the world is about to end. I’ll be watching The Little Mermaid and loving every minute of it.

Shelly Belcher resides in McMurray. A woman with strong opinions about a wealth of unrelated issues, Shelly has acquired enough experience to know how to get the most out of life, and then pass it all on to her reluctant children.

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A Vietnam veteran visits Chartiers Valley high school to recount one of the darkest chapters in U.S. military history.

Unlikely Friendships
A trip to one of Africa’s most desperate countries teaches a CV student that people aren’t so different after all.

Officer of the Year
Scott Township’s Police Department unanimously names Alan Ballo its top cop.

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