My best friend called me up yesterday and asked if I would be interested in going out to dinner and a movie tonight, a girls’ night out. There were four of us, two married moms of toddlers and two single girls.

I had to tell her I’d have to wait and see how tired I was before giving her an answer. But TJ slept all the way through last night – he had been up from about 2:30-4:00 the night before – and I got a more decent amount of sleep than usual, so I said I’d go.

Aside from highly recommending that all moms do some kind of Girls’ Night Out like this every so often, I have to say that anyone who is a mom (and likes being a mom) should see Juno.

I wasn’t sure what to think about the movie. I mean, my parents loved it. My mom’s best friend told me she’d seen it twice and wouldn’t mind seeing it again. And I know it’s been nominated for an Academy Award. I hadn’t seen an Oscar-nominated movie in years. But with all of the rave reviews I’ve been hearing, I figured it couldn’t be that bad.

I’m not going to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it, not anymore than you would get from the television promos. Juno is a story about a teenage girl who gets pregnant and meets with some prospective adoptive parents.

Sure, a movie about a girl who wants to give up her baby seems an odd choice to recommend to mothers, but I mean it. It’s a very off-beat movie, but it’s very real at the same time. Juno doesn’t candy-coat her pregnancy symptoms. You don’t get your usual cheesy obligatory happy ending. But it is a feel-good movie.

And I cried. But they were not omigod-this-is-so-sad tears. They were the omigod-I-remember-what-that-was-like tears. They were the same kind of tears I get when I see that Gerber commercial – do you know which one I’m talking about? It shows a bunch of women in labor, obviously in pain, not at all glamorous, but then they get to hold their newborn babies at the end. It says something about Gerber being happy to come in second when it comes to working hard for babies. It makes me cry just thinking about when TJ was born.

Like that commercial, Juno is not at all glamorous like most movie moms who give birth. Her hair is not perfect. She curses about the pain, but not in the way that’s meant to get a laugh from the audience like a cheap joke. The birth scene made me cry. And that’s not a spoiler either, because when the movie is about a pregnant girl, you know she’s going to give birth by the end of the movie.

I also like the special brand of vernacular the characters use. It takes a little getting used to, but it’s rather endearing. I think I might try to slip some of the words into my vocabulary and see what my friends and family think.

If you can get out to see Juno before it leaves the movie theaters, do it! If you can get out with your girl friends, great! If not, see if you can drag your hubby along. He might even like it, too. Failing that, it will be hitting DVD eventually. I plan on buying a copy for myself.

You can’t be a good mommy if you don’t take care of yourself as well as you take care of your family. You have to take a little time for yourself – if not every day, at least once every week. Guilty Mommy Pleasures will discuss different ideas on different ways to do this.




 

 

Christina Gleason (976 Posts)

That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.


By Christina Gleason

That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.

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