The child nodded.

Becca wasn't the only mother at the party having problems getting an appropriate grip on her relationship with her child. Off in the bedroom, Julie, a small, dark-haired woman who manages a restaurant, was perched next to her six-year-old son, Barry. Barry is an adorable child, bearing an uncanny resemblance to his mother, with his dark curls. But he didn't look happy. He clung to Julie ferociously; when someone else tried to talk to her, he crawled all over her. "Oh, get off me. You're such a pain," Julie said to Barry, but she didn't really do anything about it. Barry won't play with the other children, nor will he let Julie talk to any adults. Later on, Carrie found out that it's always like this with the two of them— they go to parties, sometimes adult parties, and talk only to each other. She also learned that Julie keeps a mattress in Barry's room; most nights, she sleeps on the mattress. Julie's husband sleeps in the other room. They are planning on getting divorced.

"Well, that's pretty normal," said Janice, a corporate lawyer, who is one of the few psycho moms who has no problem admitting it. "I love my son," she said. "Andy is eleven months old. He is a god, and I tell him every day. The other day I found him in his crib saying, 'Me, me, me.

"I was driven to have a baby since I was thirty," she continued. "So when I finally had him [she's now thirty-six], I was like, This is my calling in life. I'm a mom. I wasn't going to go back to work, but frankly, after three months, I knew

I had to go back to work. I'm in his face too much. In the park, I'm jumping up and down in front of him—the nannies think I'm crazy. I kiss him a thousand times a day. I can't wait to get home to give him a bath. His body makes me crazy. I never felt this way about any man."

Janice went on to say that if she sees Andy glance at another child's toy, she has to go out and buy it for him. One time she

thought he was looking at something called the exer-saucer. She finally found it on 14th Street, and she was running down 14th Street with it on her head because she couldn't get a cab and she couldn't wait to bring it home to him. "People were literally pointing at me on the street," she said. "Everyone thought I was insane. Then I get home and I give it to him and he starts crying."

Why is she like this? "It's something about New York," she said. She shrugged. "It's competitive. I want my son to have everything everybody else has, and more. Plus, I always wanted a boy. Sons always take care of their mothers."

Date: 2014-12-29; view: 987