What kind of choice is it, really, when motherhood forces you into a delicate balancing act -- not just between work and family, as the equation is typically phrased, but between your premotherhood and postmotherhood identities? What kind of choice is it when you have to choose between becoming a mother and remaining yourself?

Meaning: The saying assigns riding in front to the person who hires the horse. It connects the act of arranging or paying for something with precedence in using it.

Meaning: One person may do the work while someone else takes the reward. Notice who prepares an opportunity and who receives the benefit or credit.

Meaning: The saying demands that a person use an ability they possess. Its command to force the unwilling raises a question about responsibility and consent.

Meaning: Another worker can often find something to improve in work already considered finished. The second barber’s remaining task suggests that completion depends on standards and perspective, without proving that earlier work was careless or endless correction is necessary.