Why Can't We Have Nice Things?!

Remember when jelly jars had cartoon characters on them and when they were empty you used them for drinking glasses? The comedian Judy Gold does and has childhood memories of her mother using the jars as company glassware. When one of the glasses gets broken by one of the kids, as was not only predictable but inevitable, she laments, “Why can’t we have nice things?!” It’s funny because it’s true. One of the first lessons you learn as a mom is that it is fruitless and depressing to maintain your pre-kid level of attachment to material things. The first time something you used to love gets destroyed by a tiny person you still do love, there’s a massive moment of existential angst pitting maternal devotion against egocentric ire. Mommy wins for the first of endless times and you never get to have “nice things” again. Being a big sister prepared me for this, but there are still a few moments that stand out. One in particular. I had received a strawberry-shaped sugar bowl years before Keilana came along, and I really loved it. One day when she was four, she accidentally knocked it on the floor and it shattered into a million pieces. My heart broke, too, but one look at her stricken face and I had to let it go. In Paeony Lewis’ I’ll Always Love You, Alex finds out mommies love you even when you break their stuff. It’s true, but I only buy plain sugar bowls now.

http://www.amazon.com/Ill-Always-Love-Paeony-Lewis/dp/1589253604

http://www.paeonylewis.com/