Welcome to 'Smotherhood'

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a writer. Specifically, I wanted to write books.

I filled notebooks with stories. I ripped them out and bound them with construction-paper covers, stapled them together, and then, adorned them with rudimentary pictures.

I recently found these books in my attic, yellowed, dog-eared, with catchy titles like "The Woman, the Dog and the Frog."  Sounds like a bestseller, huh?

But then I grew up. I went to college. I went to graduate school, and ultimately, pursued writing in a very different form – journalism. 

Being a television journalist for 18 years has quenched my desires in many areas – my thirst for excitement, my Type-A need for a frantic pace, my love of travel, my undaunted curiosity. 

But that little girl who wanted to write books was still inside of me.  I tried to ignore her, hoping that she would disappear like most other childhood dreams. But she kept trying to get my attention.

I think the real-life anecdotes will make you laugh, and some of the more tender moments may even make you cry. But in the end, my goal is to share this crazy, chaotic journey with other women who are all with me on the same high-speed train.  The truth is that we do everything with and for our kids – and it's hard, very hard. But at the end of the day, we wouldn't have it any other way. 

Although I didn't know it at the time, WRAL gave me all the tools I needed to be the writer I always wanted to be. Granted, the raw material for this book was always there, but the discipline needed and the confidence required to make it happen were nurtured throughout my years as a journalist with WRAL.