Ok, before anyone chews me out please read all the way through.
This has always been an issue for me and I’m going to explain why.
My wonderful, incredible, beautiful mother has always noticed when I have gained 2 or more pounds. No matter how I try to hide it (with the baggier sweaters, pulling out the pregnancy leggings…even stuffing into spanx if necessary), it will NEVER get passed my mother. The comment will ALWAYS manage it’s way to my ears…”you’ve gained a bit of weight, ey Ruby?”. I LOVE my mother but the second those words leave her lips, I immediately go on the defensive – you all know the typical ones…here are mine, starting with the most commonly used:
1. I’ve had 2 kids mom (even though that was 6 years ago…this only works for the first 2 years, but I try to push my luck every year)
2. I have no time to go the gym! In between work, a house, 2 children, activities, homework and a husband I have no time
3. I’ve been under extreme stress lately
4. I’m a vegetarian, it’s like 100x harder (this one will work 50% of the time)
If all the above fail, my back up plan is to tell her that my doctor has diagnosed me with a rare disease and I am ordered to eat only bread and cheese to survive which is why I’ve gained the weight.
It’s just what mothers do. Under no circumstances has she ever wanted me to be stick thin, on the contrary she feels women should have some curves and more importantly she truly believes that I need to be healthy.
So where is this going??? Let me tell you:
I am a mother of 2 children living a very normal yet chaotic life. I’m an entrepreneur who works my behind off to make sure I can make that next payroll for my employees. I make my money by making sure I am the best at what I do…if i’m not, my clients will go elsewhere – that’s reality. When I come home, I don’t have a cook or servants or nanny’s…which means I’m still on the clock. I need to make dinner, do the kids homework (which these days includes hair pulling projects and long division), read to them, clean, drive them to their activities, pick them up from their activities, referee their fights, bath time and blah blah blah…it just goes on and on. Even though I manage to make the impossible possible… I’m still judged! (even though it’s only my mother that judges me, but still!!)
So for someone who actually MAKES her money by claiming the title of the “most beautiful women in the world”, by having 5 billion fans, for getting PAID $5 million dollars just to look like the ideal women – I’m sorry, YOU BETTER WORK YOUR BEHIND off to shed off that weight, because that’s YOUR JOB, that’s how you get PAID! You have cooks, drivers, servants!!! Get your ass to the gym and skip the naan for 6 months.
I can’t just tell my clients “I’m sorry but I’m having a baby so can you just hold off for about a year and wait for me?” Ummm, it doesn’t work that way. So I’m sorry if I don’t have any sympathy for the ever so beautiful Aishwarya Rai Bachchan…I DO expect her to shed off the weight and it should have been done within 3 months, because not only does she make her money on her image but she’s also been categorized in the same league as Angelina Jolie. Having said that, Mrs. Bachchan, you don’t just need a treadmill but also need to hop on that stair-master a couple hours a day.
If I have to work my ass off for my client base then so should you Ash.