**SPOILER ALERT--If you are interested in either reading this book or watching this movie, do NOT read this post until you have done so!!**
I borrowed "I Don't Know How She Does It" on DVD from the library after having read the book several months ago. The book was a great read--very funny and "Bridget Jones' Diary"-esque. It encapsulated the basic struggle that some women face in balancing work life and family life, and that includes dealing with the perceptions and judgments of other moms or fellow co-workers. The storyline made the tension between those two realms palpable and realistic...up until the end. This book had one of the most depressing endings of any book I've read. After all the success the main character, Kate, had strived to gain in her job, she ultimately quits to succumb to life as a stay-at-home mom. Throughout the whole story I had been cheering her on, hoping that she would find a way to have a great career AND be a great mom (and then let me in on her secret), but the fact that she ended up sacrificing one thing for the other left me feeling as though there is no hope.
The movie approximated the book as well as any movie based on a book can. I'm not a huge fan of Sarah Jessica Parker and I wondered to what degree all of her time on SATC affected the way the movie was written. She tended to play both the main character and the narrator, but since the book was written in first person, this seemed to work well. I thought she did well in the role--you could sympathize with her each time she faced a disappointment and celebrate with her each time she succeeded in something. The ending was still disappointing, but this time in a different way. At the end, Kate finally stands up to her boss and refuses to take a last minute business trip that would mean sacrificing more time with her family. While at first it appears that she's about to get fired, her boss instead lets her postpone the trip based on her recent success in landing a new account. The whole story was supposed to be about the ways in which the work world and home world do not mix, so for the movie to end this way seemed a bit unrealistic. In the final scene, Kate meets up with her husband as he is picking the kids up from school and promises that she will change her workaholic habits and begin putting her family ahead of her work. In this way I guess the movie was similar to the book. Even though in the movie Kate didn't end up sacrificing her job completely, I was still left doubting that she would actually be satisfied.
One main theme of both the book and the movie is that Kate has two jobs, two things she loves--her work and her family, but she isn't handling either of them well. I've definitely sympathized with that idea lately. In the past couple weeks, even just working part time has been so exhausting that I feel like I am not able to give 100% of myself when I am at work and I have even less to give when I am home caring for my daughter. I feel like I am short-changing her because I don't have the energy to be creative with her or to play with her as much as she would like, but I also feel like I'm short-changing myself because I haven't been able to move ahead in my career and make the most of the time that I have to spend away from home. I'm hoping that this feeling will change, but I'm pretty sure it will take more than just a conscious effort to make a difference in either of these areas.
