I am the 'Sandwich Mom'

By TODAY show editor Sara Pines, a.k.a. Sandwich Mom Sandwich Mom definition: Can make a baloney sandwich in 30 seconds flat. Sandwich Mom definition: Grabs a sandwich for dinner, ‘cause it’s easy, it’s quick and let’s face it, I can’t afford filet mignon every night. Sandwich Mom definition: Squeezed between caring for aging parents and raising a new generation. Hello, I’m Sara and I’m a Sandwich Mom in every sense. I’m a whiz at whipping out a lunch while toasting breakfast and making vegetables to shove in the fridge for dinner in the vain hope that my 4-year-old will eat some later when I’m at work. Speaking of which, I eat lunch and dinner at work every day. I’m the TODAY show Editor which means I write the scripts for the first three hours of the show every day, generally working the 2pm to 10 pm shift. So I’m quite familiar with gobbling up a sandwich at my desk. And I am attending to my two parents: My 82-year-old dad, who was a warm, loving and gregarious person in his prime -- full of personality and curiosity. Now, he has been reduced to a mostly mute wheelchair dweller in a nearby nursing home, a victim of a brutal disease known as dementia. He does not even know his family when we visit him. My mom, living on her own for the first time in her life, in the New York City apartment I grew up in and that she shared with my dad for 35 years, is unsteady on her feet due to spinal stenosis. Right now, she’s recovering from a broken wrist she got as the result of a fall in front of the Metropolitan Museum last month. No, she was not using her cane. Should she have been? Yes. I’m a single mom raising a beautiful little girl on my own, and that means juggling a lot. The most vivid recent reminder of my current place in the world -- my position in the middle of a generational sandwich that requires a heaping portion of my love and attention on a regular basis -- was when I spent a morning recently, dialing for orthopedists to look at my mom’s wrist. It was a frustrating morning of phone calls and research and begging for an appointment sooner than a week from next Wednesday when I heard a crash from the living room, followed by a loud cry, followed by the appearance of my daughter at the door with blood flowing in copious amounts from her nose. I have never seen anything bleed so much, and neither had she, which raised the panic level for both of us to dizzying heights. “Mom, I’ll call you back!” I blurted as a I threw down the cellphone and grabbed a cold, wet washcloth which worked wonders. It staunched the blood and lowered the blood pressure. So, the immediate crisis was over. My daughter seemed none the worse for the wear once the blood and tears subsided. But still, the familiar wave of guilt washed over me. I knew she’d been jumping around the living room in frustration because I’d been ignoring her all morning. But, I had to pursue the wild orthopedist chase, I had no choice. It was a hard moment to explain to a 4-year-old. I didn’t try. I lived with my guilt and my relief that the bloody nose didn’t mean a trip to the emergency room and another round of frustrating doctor phone calls. After all that, ultimately, I pulled some strings (thanks to a former TODAY staffer, actually) and got my mom into a doctor around the corner from her the next day. Phew. The babysitter arrived at 1 p.m. and I went to work. Just another day as a Sandwich Mom... Now on to writing the 7:30 TODAY show open. TODAY Moms contributor Sara Pines is the Editor of TODAY and has been working with the show in various capacities for 17 years. She is a single mom of a beautiful 4-year-old daughter and a native New Yorker.