Photo Source: ABC Media
S4 E9 – “Working Girl”
On this weeks episode of Blackish, they deal with something many women have had to contend with: going back to work after having a child. If you’re like me with multiple children, everything is cute and fun with the first and by the 3rd or 4th, you’re running for the door to get away from your darling children. Because now, work is a safe haven, lol. I kid, I kid. I love my children dearly. The apprehension she feels is totally understandable and relate-able. Let’s face it as a mom we get like literally no rest except for when they are sleep.
So, its Bow’s first day back to work and she has to adjust to minor changes in the dynamic of the workplace. Being a little unsure about going back, Dre tells her that she doesn’t have to back to work if she doesn’t want to, but being the superwoman that she is, that is not an option. But, things are a little different now and she has to adjust to being back to work as well as dealing with being a nursing mom and leakage problems. Which, by the way, is extremely embarrassing, not that I speak from experience. OK, I lied, its totally from experience. I died for her. But at least for me, it was around strangers. On top of that, because she has been gone she is not so much a part of the work crew inside jokes and trying to balance all of that. Upon coming home she explains to Dre how she’s had a terrible day at work.
Meanwhile, the twins have grown used to their mother being home and helping them do their homework; and by helping I mean completely doing it for them. Using their mom as a crutch they have a pop quiz coming up which, they are pretty sure they are going to fail due to not doing their homework. They first ask Jr, who refuses, based on a code of ethics he has instilled although no longer attending that school. So, they turn to their grandma, who like me doesn’t understand math. And I completely feel for her, because they are probably learning common core math, or death math as I like to call it because who can understand that crap. As if math isn’t difficult enough to understand let’s throw in 2,000 extra steps for 2+2. Anyway, grandma doesn’t understand and teaches the twins to lie to get out of the pop quiz which doesn’t go so well for them.
So, now Bow is back to work and back in the swing of things and has a handle on it all, including said leakage. Stil, she feels that she is missing out on things at home now. Starting with the changing of Devonte’s nickname from Bubba to Boop Boop. And if its anything like my family every child has at least 30 nicknames before one actually sticks. But it isn’t so much the nickname as the missing out part. And even though she loves her job she is starting to realize that there are more important things, like being there for her children. And although Dre suggests to her that it is ok if she wants to stay home because now she has the option too, she has to come to the decision on her own.
Bow comes home from work one day to help Zoe pack for college and realizes that Zoe has finished all the packing on her own and doesn’t need her mother’s help. I feel that Bow is feeling not needed because her kids are growing up and she feels like she is missing out. She now understands that a doctor is not all she is and it would be ok to take some time to focus on her family for a bit and it doesn’t make her less of a woman or less of a doctor but the time our children are young is so fleeting and she doesn’t want to miss a thing. So she finally decides to take some time off work to be just Bow the mother and not Bow the doctor. The family is ecstatic.
Not to forget the twins scheme of getting out of that pop quiz which did not work. They lied and failed and got caught doing both. So it is punishment time. The twins also dime grandma out and told Dre that she told them to do it. At that point, Jr confronts the grandma and told her he’s coming for her.
Great episode and I can relate on so many levels. Being a mom is not easy and I commend all the mommies out there working and stay at home. We make so many sacrifices as moms but at the end of the day we love our kids even when they drive us batty.
