Today on Thursdays With Teresha: Post-Modern Jen

Welcome to the re-tooled Thursdays With Teresha. I've changed the format of the interview to be more conversational, I'm going to try to have a new guest each week, and I'll be randomly selecting the guest from my blog followers on Goodle Friends Connect. Let's jump into today's interview...
Name: Jen
Blog Name: Post-Modern Jen

1. Me: First, I want to say that you have a couple of cute kids! It must be fun to watch them grow and wonder what they will be like as adults. I think my daughter is going to be some kind of performer, maybe an actress because she is such a charmer and can cry on cue. I see an Academy Award or a high political office in her future. What professions to you see your kids' future and why?
   Jen: First, thanks! Hmmm...well, I really don't want to project my dreams on them, but I can definitely answer hypothetically. With my three year old, Starlet, I can easily say she'd like to be an actress because she is such the drama queen, is always pretending to be someone else, and, plus, she has already told me several times that she wants to be an "ac-tree-us"! As for my 14 month old, 4 Wheel Drive, I am going to guess (and pray that I'm wrong...) that he wants to be some type of extreme sports athlete or a race car driver because the little guy seems to have no fear at this point. His current favorite past time is climbing anything he can pull himself onto and jumping off of it. This is also known as "trying to give me a heart attack."
2. Me: I wanted to be a writer when I was a little girl, but my mother thought I should be a lawyer. What did you want to be when you grew up? Did it happen?
   Jen: Oh, man, this is a loaded question! My dad may have suggested I should be an editor because of my writing skills, and another time he suggested my being an accountant, because of my math skills and because I was "good with my money." Other than that, my parents never pressured me into any specific career. As for my own aspirations, I also had dreams of being a writer, but I also had dreams of being a doctor, a psychologist, and an anthropologist (thus I changed my major three times during my first two years of college...). However, I went totally off on a tangent and ended up with a Business Administration and Accounting degree. I worked at several different administrative jobs, then I married a soldier, had my first child, and have been a stay-at-home mom ever since. This is definitely the toughest job I've ever had! I like to pretend I'm a writer now on my blog, and I do hope to get back into the workforce at least part-time as soon as my son is in school, or go back for a graduate degree (maybe in Nutrition?)---fingers crossed!
3. Me: I wish I could go back and tell 10-year-old me to go for it! If time machines were a reality, would you visit yourself in the past, what would you say?
   Jen: I would definitely go back in time to when I was about eight years old and tell myself to quit being so scared all the time, that if you never take a chance, you'll never see what could be. I was a very timid child and young adult, and I always held myself back from pursuing the things that I wanted. I would also go back in time to sixteen year old me and say "Hey, you're smart, you're kind, you've got a great figure, and you're beautiful! Quit thinking no boy could like you!" and now I've said too much... It could happen!
4. Me: Scientists are inventing new gadgets all the time. I think the memory card is the best thing since sliced bread...no more waiting for one-hour photo to see how your pictures turned out. What do you think is the best invention?
   Jen: Oh my gosh, I love this question! I am SOOOOOOO grateful for the Internet, WI-FI, laptops, digital cameras, the GPS...can I go on???
5. Me: Some inventions are misses in my opinion...hello, Segway! What do you think is the worst invention?
   Jen: Man, I just saw something when I was shopping today that made me say "What??? Who would ever need that???"---but I can't remember what it was! So I guess I'd have to say the worst invention is cigarettes. Is that too low-tech? I agree that the Segway really is ridiculous!
6. Me: They say necessity is the mother of invention. I say mothers are the will of invention. I would invent a robot that changed poopie diapers like on The Jetsons. What would you invent to make life as a mommy easier?
   Jen:I would invent a housekeeper and a nanny. Oh, wait, those aren't really inventions, are they? Hmm...I guess I would invent a "baby holder" that just pops up for those moments when I just have to run up the stairs, but I can't leave the little daredevil alone. Yes, I know there are things called playpens for this, but mine keeps getting filled with toys, jackets and shopping bags!
7. Me: Even if the technology was available, there are some things I would still want to do myself like preparing meals for my family. What is a task you wouldn't give up even if they created a machine to do it?
   Jen: Is playing with my kids a task? I feel like a bad mommy for even asking that, but I have to admit, sometimes it actually does feel like one when I'm so tired and just need some time to myself, or to just hear my own thoughts! I pretty much don't mind if a machine does everything else, I'll just play with my kids.
8. Me: I think being a parent is harder for our generation than it was for our parents or grandparents. Do you agree or disagree, and why?
   Jen: Wow, that's a good question. I'm going to have to take the middle road on this one and say that our generation and our parents' have/had it equally hard. We just have different challenges than our parents did. For example, it would seem easier for us because of all the gadgets, gear and guides available today, but in the same note, technology and the prevalence of the media cause all kinds of new challenges regarding our children's social, emotional, and physical development. Regarding our previous generations, mothers may have had it easier for the simple fact that they didn't really have to struggle with the whole career or motherhood thing. It was just expected that a wife would stay home with her kids. That fact, while limiting, was simultaneously liberating because women didn't have to beat themselves up over whether they were making the right choice in staying home with their kids- it was their only option so they just had to accept it, and, ideally, embrace it. (By the way, I am not supporting "stay-at-home" over work, I say to each her own. My ideal situation would be "work-at-home"- just haven't found the right opportunity yet!)
9. Me: I love the TV show Everybody Loves Raymond. It's such a humorous look at multi-generational families. I don't have any family nearby, which is a blessing and a hardship. Do your relatives live close by, and do they help or get in the way?
   Jen: I've always been pretty independent, and for a long time, I thought I didn't need to live near family to be happy. However, that all changed when I became a mother. I mean, is it just me or does a girl really start needing her mother again when she becomes a mother? As a military family, we move every couple of years, so we're not always near our extended family. We were lucky to live near my family when we were first married and near my husband's family when our daughter was born. By the time our son was born, we were in a new state, literally across the country from my husband's relatives and across an ocean from mine! At this point, I have to say that having relatives nearby would be tremendously helpful and desirable.
10. Me: I am the oldest of six children and always felt like the babysitter rather than a big sister. This is why I don't want a big family. How many siblings do you have, what number are you, did the size of your family influence how many kids you had?
    Jen: I'm a first-born, like you! But I only have a younger sister and our brother is the baby. I think that the size of my family definitely influenced how many children I wanted to have, meaning I knew that I definitely wanted to have more than one! Growing up as a military brat my family lived in three foreign countries and five states, and each time we moved, we had to say goodbye to friends, schools and houses---but I always had my brother and sister no matter where we went. By the time I got married, I knew that I wanted to have two kids to always be there for each other, especially now that I have an always-on-the-road military family of my own!

I enjoyed talking with you Jen, thanks for appearing on my show! Give her a round of applause audience and please visit her blog.