A HOUSEWIFE JUST LIKE ME

I Googled "housewife", and (after filtering out all the porn) found Then Again, by Mary Beth Hicks, who confesses:

When it comes to photos, there are two kinds of parents: those who take pictures and those of us who ask other parents to snap pictures of our kids and send them to us if they get the chance.

Yup, that's me. I'm better now that I have access to digital cameras, but I still manage to lose the cameras (somewhere in the house is a webcam, very small).

Another column:

A truism about bickering is: The intensity of the argument increases disproportionately with the importance of the subject. Ergo, the topic that causes the most vitriolic -- albeit empty -- bickering is the seating arrangement in the van. Seriously.

Anyone with more than one child knows what I'm talking about.

And that's the crux of the issue. Multiple children. Mothers of one can't relate. Even mothers of two have limits on the fussing - partly because they haven't reached the magic numbers of 3 or more.

At that point, I realized, they outnumber you and your husband.

And, they have added the 3-dimensional game of 2 against 1. The teams switch players occasionally, but the game continues.

I consoled myself for years that it was good preparation for office politics.

Funnily, it turned out to be just that. My kids are not dismayed by encountering someone who is "out to get them" - been there, done that.

As adults, they generally get along. They fuss, but they also have great times together.