Total bullshit.
“I’m not comfortable discussing this topic,” she said, purposely avoiding focusing her gaze anywhere but directly into the webcam.
“Do you think parenting is about comfort?” Betsy Kelly asked with an overly long, high-pitched laugh. Oh yeah, the vigilante mommy blogger was a surprise guest on the program.
Do not throttle the hostess.
April doubled down on her soothing calm approach, ignoring viral April in the background shopping for cereal. “I think parenting is about doing our best.”
“Obviously, we have different opinions on what the best is.” Right. High and mighty, Betsy was at herbestwhen she could be mean.
April had read her blog enough times to know this about her. If there were shock jocks on the radio, Betsy was the shock blogger.
“April, would you like to tell us what’s happening here?” Paisley asked as Rohan dumped the coffee cans all over the floor.
April’s entire body went hot, shame and fury melding into a heated mama mess. No, she didn’t want to tell them what was happening there because she never expected Paisley would go for ratings above respect and bamboozle April into appearing under the falsest of pretenses.
She was wrong.
Keep breathing, April.
“I don’t think I will discuss this,” April said. Unfortunately, she didn’t sound remotely serene as she spoke. She sounded sort of pissed. But given that she would much rather talk about all the things she’d prepared to talk about so she could get it done and find Jack, it made sense.
She couldn’t, though. Not until the segment finished. Oh, sure, she could turn off the monitor and walk away, but that wasn’t the answer. If she could survive the past year, she could more than handle Betsy and Paisley. No way would she turn off the camera and run. That’s not who she was anymore. She could take the hits and she’d keep going.
Peace. Release.
Blah, not even her calming words were strong enough for this episode. Kitty needed to fix her a mommy juice box STAT!
“I think it’s important to remember that children model what they are taught at home.” Betsy pounced after viral Harmony cussed. “Our job as moms is to set the example.”
Gah. Betsy was the worst kind of mommy blogger because she was not open to alternative perspectives. She had one child who, by all accounts, was the perfect specimen of childhood. Her husband presented as perfect as the child. Though April called total bullshit on that. She’d lived with a man like him. Those who wanted the world to think they were perfection with a penis.
They never were.
Actually, April felt a little sorry for Betsy. She had a hunch that soon enough, Mr. Perfect would start going skydiving—if he wasn’t already. She hoped she was wrong, because no one deserved what she’d gone through with Kent. Not even Betsy.
“Let’s take a closer look at this choice with the cleanup,” Paisley said as the screen in front of April filled with one of the most embarrassing moments of her life via the-video-that-should-never-be-mentioned.
April was sweating. And she didn’t sweat.
Yes, she did actually sweat because she was a person with a body. But it was not a trait she normally had to worry about.
This moment was different. A trickle of moisture trailed along her spine, and she really wished she hadn’t gone with purple silk. Every drop of sweat her body produced was going to show in Technicolor glory.
“This is the part that really gets my goat,” Betsy said as viral April got to the portion where she lost her cool.
April’s chest tightened, and she clenched her teeth, but she kept her passively neutral smile in place. She’d lived what happened on that video. She could live with having to watch and listen to it one more time.
Ethan Greene would probably have brilliant advice if he were there with her. He’d probably tell her again how everyone wanted to matter, and that’s how she could turn this thing around.
He would be wrong, because how was she supposed to help moms matter when someone with Betsy’s megaphone was there to knock them down a rung? Or twenty?
But I have a megaphone, too…
She straightened her shoulders. Betsy didn’t have the backing of a firm like Jack’s. April did. April had the platform that went beyond the blog.
Maybe she wasn’t as loud as Betsy or as shocking, but she could help other mothers see they didn’t have to feel the shame of Betsy’s brand of opinionated.
