These two words came crashing down on my reality late last week when I realized that Ben's preschool (PRESCHOOL for goodness sakes) was taking this week off. What in the world do four year olds need a break from I ask you? So as I am still struggling to accept life at home with one child I am suddenly home with two and going completely bonkers.I am sorry people, but women are being screwed. We are supposed to work at home, work in corporate America AND take care of children. And then the structures we have put in place to help us with the burden of childcare (so we can go WORK) decide they want to take a week off every once in awhile. Meanwhile our clients do not have the week off. Our work does not stop coming. The world does not come to a halt in order for us to drop everything this week. And for all of you out there who are going to say that teachers need a break I say hogwash. I think teaching is the hardest job on the planet so I say treat it like any other profession with much better wages and fair vacation pay. And let's face it, most teachers I know are women with their own children so it is not like they are sitting home eating bon bons this week. This "let's close the world down once a week in the Spring, two weeks in December and all summer long" is ludicrous. Even before I had children I saw my female co-workers go through this hell every year--what to do with the kids over the summer, how to get off work in the Spring. And do 8 year olds REALLY NEED 12 weeks off in the summer from the pressures of third grade? When I speak with my women friends about the pressures of life with work and children and home responsibilities we all roll our eyes as if to say "We are so screwed and we know it". But none of us (and I am definitely including myself in this group) ever does anything to change it. We have so little female representation in our government and what we do have does nothing for us in these areas. As I am typing this I am fending off a toddler who is trying to climb on my laptop. Something tells me this is not a problem that Barbara Boxer faces daily. Sarah Palin, who claims she is "just like us", has a record in Alaska that shows that she has done nothing legislatively for working mothers. These women are so busy trying to show the men that they are just as tough as they are, are playing THEIR game, not ours. We aren't even on the playing field. We are on the sidelines making sandwiches and pacifying children. If we have to give a chunk of time off, I say we do it like the French, where the entire country simply shuts down for one month per year and everyone is on vacation. And while I am on a rant, let's continue to be like the French and make better bread. Is it too much to ask for a decent baguette in Central Texas?