Alex often has trouble separating her roles as a judge and a mother. How does this affect her relationship with Josie? Discuss whether or not Alex’s job is more important to her than being a mother.
I am not a mother, but being a working-woman, I have started to understand how it is easy to get lost in your work. Being at the same job for 4 years now, it is easy for me to come and feel succesful, feel proud of the work I am producing and the effort I am putting in. It is easy for me to feel like I belong here and easy to only be in my "work" world, while I am there. When there are other things that may be bothering me in my personal life, I often enjoy coming to work. Work is an escape from the other pressures/problems that may be going on. I can come and easily become caught up in the work world...and for 8 hours of my day I have a break from those problems.
Alex, Josie's mother, has a similar problem. She is torn between two things she loves - her job and her daughter. I think she goes to work and enjoys it because it provides an escape for her, and it is a place where she can go and know that she will be good at what she is doing.
At home, Alex may not always have the right answers, she may not know what to say to Josie, how to relate to her, or how to make her feel better, but she can go to work and know how to do all of those things.
I think Alex wants to be a good mom, but I think she knows first how to be a good judge. And since that may be easier for her, it may appear to be more important to her, even if it's not.
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Alex didn't have much of a role model herself for the job of Mom or even nurturing parent.(Her mother died when she was 5 from breast cancer and her father is described well on pages 168-169), and with no partner/husband, she had to go it alone and make choices that worked for her.
I believe that Alex really did love Josie and want the best for her. Somehow though, it got all muddied as Josie grew older and communication was sporatic when it needed to be constant. It's so hard to know when to be present and when it's right to back off.
Didn't the author give such a great picture of how hard it is to be a working mom in any situation, especially when she has a demanding, successful career? As both Lacy and Alex had.
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