Holly, the idea of “having it all” is definitely fodder for a later post. I actually used that phrase in a college application essay, and regret it now (or at least recognize it as naive).

Kriket, congratulations. I too have been barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, and it was an interesting sensation — pleasureable personally, but a bit disconcerting culturally.

SereneBabe and Rachel, thank you. It’s nice to know people read and got what I was saying.

And I think you just barely scratched the surface of something that I think about a lot:
Despite what some people try to tell us, we *can’t* do it all. We can’t have a time consuming, high profile career, and cook and clean and maintain happiness in our home. We have to choose what we want to focus on, what our priorities are. If one’s priorities are not fancy home cooked meals each day that’s her choice. If one’s priority is not a degree or a career that is her choice. The important thing to remember is that we do have to make those choices. We do have to decide what’s most important to us and then we have to acknowledge that it will cause something else to be bumped lower on our list.

Personally, I’ve chosen to embrace domesticity. I subscribe to the belief that no success can compensate for failure in the home. And as I have chosen to have a family, I’m now responsible to that family and not just to my own wants and aspirations. But heaven help me if I get prideful about my choice and judge women who chose otherwise.