{"id":21,"date":"2011-05-23T10:57:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-23T10:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/05\/23\/ode-to-the-zombie-mommy-part-the-first\/"},"modified":"2011-05-23T10:57:00","modified_gmt":"2011-05-23T10:57:00","slug":"ode-to-the-zombie-mommy-part-the-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/05\/ode-to-the-zombie-mommy-part-the-first.html","title":{"rendered":"Ode to the Zombie Mommy &#8211; Part The First"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-wQX_Gsh3Aag\/Tdp0y15R_mI\/AAAAAAAAAIg\/IOzeCnHUZm8\/s1600\/mommy.jpeg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-wQX_Gsh3Aag\/Tdp0y15R_mI\/AAAAAAAAAIg\/IOzeCnHUZm8\/s1600\/mommy.jpeg\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p>The Zombie Mommy\u00a0 <br>You\u2019ve seen her<br>Standing in line at the grocery store<br>Looking into the far distance as the bag boy repeatedly intones \u201cpaper or plastic?\u201d<br>At the park<br>Standing behind a child sitting forlornly on a swing, <br>motionless, as her unfocused eyes see nothing and she is unable to provide momentum for even a modest back-and-forth<br>She\u2019s there<br>Sitting in the drive-thru at Taco Bell, the lady cashier tapping on her car window <br>trying to hand out a meal she doesn\u2019t remember ordering<br>She\u2019s in the yard, halfway to the mailbox and having forgotten the reason she walked out the door<br>She\u2019s at the bus stop, quiet, confused, forgetting that it\u2019s a holiday, not a school day, and the kids are traipsing around the neighborhood in their pajamas and flip flops, hunting bugs<br>She\u2019s in the kitchen, staring at the stove as if to conjure a fully-cooked meal, reaching reflexively for<br>the fast food menus stored in a drawer, but forgetting where she put her phone.<\/p>\n<p>Who is this sad, befuddled creature? What enchantment enfolds her?\u00a0 What dastardly fiend struck her with such a debilitating spell?<\/p>\n<p>It is not magic that caused her haze; it is Mommyhood.<br>Mommyhood, that mystical situation brought about by birthing children<br>Mommyhood, that affects every fiber of her being and changes, well, everything.<br>Mommyhood, that brings about sleepless nights and chaotic days filled with\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>Overflowing diapers, teething, growth spurts, fevers, boo-boos, first steps, rifled purses, projectile vomiting, colic, toy fights, food allergies, Sissy took my crackers, tantrums over princess dresses, clogged toilets, pulled cats\u2019 tails, dogs eating grass and throwing up \u2013 and that was just Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Mommyhood holds her in thrall.\u00a0 It makes her forget her shopping list, her coffee mug on top of the car,<br>where she put her keys, and one time, that one horrible time that she is too ashamed to admit to anyone,<br>it made her forget that she had left her kid in the daycare at the Y while she worked out, and she was five miles down the road before she remembered and swung a frantic U-turn in the middle of the intersection to go back and retrieve her.<\/p>\n<p>The funny thing is, she volunteered for this.<\/p>\n<p>She found a really good man, accepted his token of love, a sparkly ring, married him and vowed and ate<br>the cake and accepted the well-wishes of her friends and family.\u00a0 She agreed that they wanted kids,<br>and she was overjoyed when she saw the two little lines on the stick, cried when the first fuzzy black<br>and white image appeared on the monitor at the doctor\u2019s office, sweated through labor and bore with pride the pains of birth, gazed with rapt attention and love at the purple, wrinkled, squalling little person who was <br>placed in her arms.\u00a0 And so it began.\u00a0 The transition from strong, smart, talented woman to Zombie Mommy began.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">\u2014- end Part one \u2014<\/div>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/8276196425188955527-7436634361909643675?l=muslimahinprogress.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Zombie Mommy\u00a0 You\u2019ve seen herStanding in line at the grocery storeLooking into the far distance as the bag boy repeatedly intones \u201cpaper or plastic?\u201dAt the parkStanding behind a child sitting forlornly on a swing, motionless, as her unfocused eyes see nothing and she is unable to provide momentum for even a modest back-and-forthShe\u2019s thereSitting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ode to the Zombie Mommy - Part The First<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Zombie Mommy&nbsp; You&#039;ve seen herStanding in line at the grocery storeLooking into the far distance as the bag boy repeatedly intones &quot;paper or\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/05\/ode-to-the-zombie-mommy-part-the-first.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ode to the Zombie Mommy - Part The First\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Zombie Mommy&nbsp; You&#039;ve seen herStanding in line at the grocery storeLooking into the far distance as the bag boy repeatedly intones &quot;paper or\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/05\/ode-to-the-zombie-mommy-part-the-first.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Muslimah in Progress\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-23T10:57:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-wQX_Gsh3Aag\/Tdp0y15R_mI\/AAAAAAAAAIg\/IOzeCnHUZm8\/s1600\/mommy.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nancy Qualls-Shehata\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nancy Qualls-Shehata\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/05\/ode-to-the-zombie-mommy-part-the-first.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/2011\/05\/ode-to-the-zombie-mommy-part-the-first.html\",\"name\":\"Ode to the Zombie Mommy - Part The First\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-23T10:57:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-05-23T10:57:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/muslimahinprogress\/#\/schema\/person\/6218cbef696f8f6c933831dfcc2096b9\"},\"description\":\"The Zombie Mommy&nbsp; 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