Look at your poor mom, working away at the sewing machine while completely unamused by your childish antics.

A good mom is there for it all. She helps you learn to read. She helps you with science fair projects. She drives you to soccer and, as depicted here, helps you choreograph dances no matter how little talent you have for such things. And even though she does it all, it doesn’t mean that she is excited about it as you can see on this poor woman’s face. She’s probably dreaming of a cabana boy on the beach in the Bahamas serving her mai-tais and giving her foot rubs. She needs to just let go of the things that are holding her back, like her boring daughter. But for now she must be content with her daydreams. Dream on, sister!

This painting has been compared to The Prodigal Son and Furniture in the Valley by Giorgio de Chirico as well as some of the Annunciations, paintings in which the Virgin Mary is told by the angel Gabriel that she is going to give birth to Jesus Christ. Guillermo Fantoni wrote of the piece, “we can find certain parallels with some Annunciations: the little girl with her gentle movements as the angel, and the mother in the manner of a Virgin, engaged with elements associated to sewing or reading.” Okay, it isn’t a super obvious comparison but I guess it works, even though the little girl is less gentle than awkward and the mother is more staring into space than sewing. On second thought, this piece seems more like a birth control advertisement than an ode to a Bible story.