By now, the movie I Don’t Know How She Does It is beginning to wane in movie theaters.  It followed the book by the same title, set in London about investment banker Kate Reddy. In the movie, the ever-list-writing Kate is played by Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker who is a working mom actress married to movie and Broadway star Matthew Broderick. The character is a Boston-based investment banker.

To start with, a few women in my office said the movie was terrible. Others thought it cute (there is at least one cuddly child in pajamas after all). It falls short of being a romantic comedy for a date night because who would want to take a date to watch the downside of marriage with 2 kids? And in general, it’s no blockbuster but it has moments where we might see ourselves in the mirror and it has its laughs. It is obvious. It is a cliché and it does make even the most high-powered mom look like a ditz. With that said…

For me, just getting a chance to see it in the movies was a classic working mom tale not lost on my DD20 (Twitter speak for Darling Daughter 20 years old).

When the movie trailers hit and I received links from several sources, it was the lice-text scene that hooked me. I asked my husband to see it with me. We rarely go to the movies. I dislike the types of movies he enjoys and he dislikes mine. We agree on Masterpiece Mysteries. But at that moment he seemed willing to escort me but it wasn’t in theaters yet.

So this Sunday, after planning a very relaxing day which meant no cleaning or heavy lifting (perhaps you remember, my foot is in a boot), I asked again about going to the movies just as a football game was getting under way and he and my son were already yelling at the TV screen. My DD20 said she would go. So, DH (Dear Husband) was off the hook but he still agreed to drive DD16 to her theater rehearsal and pick up a few groceries.

DD and I went to a 5:30 movie. We were only 2 of 3 viewers in the theater. (Does that say something?) As the feature started I pulled out my Blackberry to take notes. Just a few, I said.

DD tells it this way: I thought how nice that mom invited me to see a movie with her, just me, and then she proceeds to pull out her Blackberry and type away. She was working in the middle of the movie. It doesn’t change. It was she on that big screen.

Well maybe not me on that screen but…

Since the theater was all but empty, my DD was a less embarrassed than she might have been.

After the show, we were now hungry with no dinner planned at home. DH did leave the house to drive DD16 to the theater so I called his mobile. His phone was off. We were hungry now, not wanting to get home, start dinner and eat an hour later. So we called the house for takeout orders from DS (Dear Son) and DD13.

I sat in the car outside the pizza shop while DD went in (the beauty of an adult child). I opened my BB to finish up my notes, BUT they were gone! Deleted! Not sure how.

DD20’s take on that problem: “Ha! That’s karma for working while we were in the movies.”

Okay, so back to the movie review.  It was a clearly a caricature of life and failed when it tried to be serious. There was one good line, something about “trying to make a woman into a man is a waste of a woman.” (Here! Here!)  I typed that in my Blackberry but, of course, it, like the other deleted text, is now lost to me until the DVD comes out.

For all the folks who remark about the leading character Kate: “I don’t know how you do it” or “I don’t know how she does it,” it’s clear that even on the outside she does not make it look flawless. She is somewhat unkempt and frazzled. We are generally not impressed. Some people try to be perfect but the cracks always show. Ask my daughter.

The non-working mom is over-the-top and annoyingly so. My SAHM friends are completely the opposite. Is it supposed to be the difference between the city and the suburbs?

Working Mother Media President Carol Evans wrote her non-fiction book, This is How We Do It in 2006. It was a take on a long-running column How She Does It in the magazine. The truth is, no one knows how anyone outside their own home manages what they do whether it’s 10 kids or 2, whether it’s dealing with children with illness, single parenting, live-in in-laws, a high-flying finance job or local store manager, or any other version of family life and work. The best response is the one I heard my mother say often and now I rely on as well: “You just do!”

As for the movie, wait for the library's copy of the DVD. That's when I'll check my quotes as well.