The sound of a baby crying echoes through the theater as Kathryn Grody, who plays the character Mom, turns to the audience. "A Mom's Life," presented at Saint Mary's last week is a story that finds patience, weariness, joy and humor in being a mother. The play is a one-woman show. Grody played both the children and the mom.

Based entirely on her own experience of motherhood in New York City the story begins with how, at 35, Grody and her husband decided to start a family and had their first son, Isaac. Four years later the couple had another son, Giddeon, and the play revolves around a Friday when the boys are 7 and 3.

The inspiration for this play came from people asking Grody if she was working now or just having fun staying home with her children.

Lamenting the changes motherhood has wrecked on her body, she tells of how she used to admire the great white whales, beautiful and graceful in water, but she lives on land.

"I want my body back!" Grody said.

Waking early in the morning, being quiet so she doesn't wake her husband, she begins the routine of getting the kids up, dressed and fed. Noting the difference between how she treated the first born when a toddler, singing silly songs to get him dressed and telling the second born to get dressed immediately. She explains that all first children should be born second.

"I'm not sure when a day starts because it seems like one never ends," Grody said.

After finally dropping the eldest son off at school she then has the morning to spend with her youngest son, before the husband was supposed to pick the kids up and take them to the park. Planning a late lunch with her friend, Sue, she was looking forward to a few hours with grown-up company.

Taking Giddeon to the indoor horse track to watch the horses run around the track, Grody talks of the problems with living in New York City and the perks.

Coming home one day they ran into a jazz band that had set up in the street and on the next day that same corner drugs were being sold.

"You'll never know what you'll find in New York City, but global warming and madness are everywhere," she said.

Taking Giddeon home she tires to get him to pick up the puzzle pieces off the floor, that have been out for week. Gid had different ideas and threw the pieces at his mother. Giving this up she then makes bubbles and puts on music so that they dance around the room. After all this it is nap time.

"Nap time, one whole hour to do whatever I want to do with it," Grody said. "Maybe I'll clean up, listen to music I like, actually read the paper the day it came out, or maybe I'll exercise, not for vanity but for her heart, but what she should really do is just lay there and take a nap."

Giddeon, who wakes up pre-maturely, surprises his mom and now it is time for lunch. Now it is the problem of what to cook, after all the warnings about chicken being unhealthy, vegetables that are waxy from pesticides and all the other warnings.

"So now you have a Mom who can not only cook anything, but is afraid to cook anything," Grody said.

A phone call from her husband changes Grody's day — a meeting has come up and he can't take the kids to the park after all, but he'll try to be home to tuck the kids in.

"I find it's the dads feeling enormously for the kids and the moms doing enormously for the kids," Grody said.

Picking up Isaac from school the three of them head to the park for the afternoon. There is a moment of stress as Grody loses sight of Giddeon and calls for him helplessly. He is fine and just playing on the slide. Now her time is divided between the boys as she tries to push one on the swing while at the same time pushing the see-saw down for the other.

"After going to the park so many times you get tired of parks and that's why moms take kids to inappropriate places like Bloomingdale's," Grody said.

While getting the kids home, a fight ensues in which Isaac says he is going to protect his little brother from Mom. After all she was just trying to put him in time out after he hit her and his brother.

"I hate these days. These days I just want to pack my bags and run away. And I am a good mother," Grody said.

Isaac and Giddeon crawl over their mother as she lies on the sofa and curls up next to her. Asking her not to run away and telling her they are sorry.

Having a TV picnic for dinner and then getting them tucked into bed is the end of her day.

"The idea of a family is so different from the reality. There is no predicting what kind of parents we will be," Grody said. "This tale doesn't really have an end. My sons are now 16 and 12, but that is a different story altogether."

Grody worked in Los Angeles and then moved to New York and worked on Broadway in Scapino. She has performed in numerous off-Broadway productions, a few films and her television appearances include "The Sunset Gang" and "Execution of Private Slovik" and many after-school specials.

Grody lives in New York City with her children, husband and two huge black labs which she walks through the streets of Manhattan.

"A Mom's Life" was performed at the Little Theatre in Moreau Theatre last Saturday evening.

Contact Sarah Nestor at nest9877@saintmarys.edu.

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