What does thatwoman mean?

Who am I? Well, that’s the question I’ve been asking myself. I am a Mum, a working woman, a wife, a friend, a daughter. But what do I mean by thatwoman? She’s me but this is what I am trying to get at. thatwoman includes:

that woman kneeling on the floor by a screaming three year old in M&S
that woman who can’t find her Oyster card to get onto the tube, every day, you see her, yes her, kneeling on the station floor fumbling in her handbag every morning
that woman with sick in her hair on the way into work
that woman who realises she has no make up on at 3pm
that woman who can’t put down her own buggy because she’s so bleary eyed
that woman on the bus, you know, that woman giving a Joyce Grenville style monologue to placate a child who is insisting on sitting by the window
that woman with the super posh voice who lives in the less super posh bit of town

But I realise there are other’s too:

that woman with the two boys who look identical
that woman waiting by the 41 bus stop so Spider-boy can check whether there’s an advert for The Lion King on the back even though it is raining
that woman who swears too much, but with such ranty panache
that woman who accidentally uses the conditioner first in the shower
that woman at the knackered nether’s clinic with a baby in tow
that woman buying tena lady whose three-year-old is asking what ‘they’ are
that woman with depression at the doctors’ again
that woman who thought she’d write a novel on her maternity leave
that woman giving a running commentary about the film language being used to her 2 month old at the Mum and baby screaming and persuading her three-year-old that 3D glasses are way cool
that woman who tries too hard with birthday cakes and eats too much mixture when she’s making cookies

Some I am more happy with than others. The ones I like most are:

that woman waiting by the 41 bus stop so Spider-boy can check whether there’s an advert for The Lion King on the back even though it is raining
that woman giving a running commentary about the film language being used to her 2 month old at the Mum and baby screaming and persuading her three-year-old that 3D glasses are way cool

and
that woman who thought she’d write a novel on her maternity leave
The first because I’m not ashamed to admit that seeing a ‘Lion’ poster on the back of any bus, given Spider-boy’s obsession with double deckers, makes me smile and sometimes make to high five strangers on the street. The second because my boys will be gnashing popcorn in the matinees before they go to school and the last because, well, it reflects a certain sort of ambition and naivety in me pre-kids and I’d like to hang on to her a bit. Maybe one day I’ll be thatwoman who writes a witty blog. We’ll see.