Interesting, that after the recent 20/20 episodethat we’ve just discussed, I’ve now just finished watching tonight’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy (Staring at the Sun, Nov. 16/06), in which one of the subplots touched on working moms.

While the show did make a valiant effort to to portray the desire - and to a certain extent, necessity - of moms having jobs (and even full blown careers!), there was still the ‘bad working mommy’ whose young daughter only wanted the nanny at her bedside and whose husband blamed her for the daughter’s accident.  And, while the rhetoric and interplay was thought provoking, it was, of course, the images of the little girl, hurt and wanting the comfort from her nanny instead of her mother that leaves little twinges in the gut.  Yes, in the end, Meredith comes to terms with her mother’s need to work when she was growing up (you did the best you could) and Dr. Bailey takes a moment to phone her son and sing to him at his bedtime, and the nanny, having been fired, is brought back in to become part of the scene and everyone is at peace with her presence. 

Perhaps I’m a little more sensitive to this thread in the show as I am going to tour yet another daycare facility tomorrow and likely add my own daughter’s name to their wait list in the hopes of finding her excellent care for when my husband and I are back at work.  Because, then, we’ll have done the best that we could.

In the mean time, I suspect that, around the water cooler tomorrow, more people may be discussing Frank and his man-boobs or how Christina will save Preston’s career for another week.  But perhaps a few moments will get taken up talking about women, motherhood, careers and caregivers.