As a working mother I always try my best to balance between work and family life. It has always been my absolute goal. Year after year it comes on top of my resolution.
Unconsciously I want to find a role model: a successful working mother whom I can look up to. I seek everywhere, from news paper, from my environment in a hope that I can find secret recipes that I can apply to myself.
Back in October 2012, I happened to watch three different movies about three famous women. The first one is the Oscar winning movie “The Iron Lady”. While I admire Merryl Streep transformation into the role of Dame Thatcher, it was the story itself, which I am more interested. Dame Thatcher was one of the most influential politicians in our century. I remembered as a little girl reading headlines of the news about the Iron Lady almost every single day. Later on, one of my colleague at Nottingham University told me that she was a really clever and brave politicians. He went on to say that Dame Thatcher was the one who made Great Britain emerged as one of the economic leader at the turn of the nineteenth century.
So, despite all the politics, and criticisms she was really successful in her own right. I am interested to know, how she managed to do so while also being a wife and a mother. The movie showed how from the early on in their marriage, she has told her husband that she did not want to end up washing tea pots. Her husband appear to me as someone who always stood by her. But, the most touching scene for me was when she must leave her kids to pursue her political career. She just went into the cabs and her kids cry to stop her and even ran after the moving cab. It must have been really hard. But she made her choice and the rest is history.
Then not long after I watched Thatcher, I stumbled upon Enid, a TV movie about the famous writer Enid Blyton. She was one of my favorite writer. How could I not. I grew up reading famous five. My siblings and I bought all of the books. But, I knew very little about her personal life. So, watching the movie really surprise and even shocked me. I missed the first half of the movie 😦 In the movie, she was portrayed as a cold, scheming mother who try to distant her self from her daughters. I could not believe it. I don’t want to be judgmental, but I really could not imagine how a writer for children’s books could be as cold.
The final movie is about Marylin Monroe, titled Norma Jean and Marylin. Check it out at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117201/
It was a TV Movie. Again I did not watch from the start. But, from where I picked up, the movie has shown Marylin Monroe struggling with her double personality: the famous Marylin Monroe and her early life persona Norma Jean. Every body knows Marylin as a sex symbol. But, this movie showed Marylin as someone who really tries to find true love and her UN-accomplished wish to be a mother.
Having watch these three movies, I end up feeling more complex than ever. It gave me no answers on how to balance work with motherhood. At the same time, though, it gave me re-assurance that being a mother is definitely a huge responsibility and in Marylin’s case a blessing that she will never get. That even for the most prolific politician or writer, who can get the best help in the world, it is still something that you must work hard for by yourself. So, I must continue to find my way the best that I can ^^
The M Ways 