Mothers
How many mothers are out there who are parenting with the intention not to be anything like their own mothers? I am sure I am not the only one...
I grew up telling myself "I will not do this to my children!" "I will not act like that!"
As I got older I found there were some aspects of my mother looking back at me from the mirror. Some things I actually admiired...hmmm...
Easter Sunday. Mom's house. She has painted her walls again - or at least 3 of her walls...I was warned. "Don't let the children touch the walls! The paint takes 30 days to cure." I warned the kids. They have no idea that Grandma can be a mental case over cleanliness and order!
Well guess what? Someone touched a wall - and the mother I grew up with emerged. The one who freaked out about sweaty footprints, hand prints and dust on the carpet. The parent who would dump everything you owned in a pile on your bedroom floor to teach you a lesson about folding your clothes neatly. It is so easy to be transported back! I just wanted to leave.
4 hid behind the couch downstairs and sobbed. 6 buried her head in her gameboy. J just looked at me in astonishment.
Phone call with apology this morning. I will have to repaint the wall for her.
Mothers!
posted by cathie @ 3:42 PM
3 Comments:
Hey Cath
That was always an issue with me.. I did not want to mother like my mother..
at least.. not the way she mothered me. She was a different mother to my sister.. complex but true
I think I did manage to be a diffferent mother.. I always had a weird mix of rules with encouragement for my kids to have opinions.. speak their minds..
my motto?
Their are two gifts you can give your children
one is roots
the other .. wings..
I tried to live by that..
not an easy path.. none of it, but I did the best i could..
I ended up with kids who arranged protests while in middle school :)
and all sorts of other interesting things.. but it was all good with me..
i feel as i fi succeeded..
as for cory.. he was a different kid before the Navy.. I am sorry he ever did tht.. he is not the son he was.. and he was always the challenging one..
he takes opinionated too far.. and seems to have no compassion sometimes
but.. I did my best..
parenting is certainly not for the faint of heart!
hugs
k
I said so many times that I wouldn't be anything like my mother. Ok, she was a wonderful woman and brought up four outstanding children....
I have found I am very much like her and at times think oh no!! Then I realize that all her children graduated from college, have good paying jobs, are excellent parents and have excellent relationships with their spouses and friends. Not to bad in my book.....
For me it is an extra struggle being single but I wouldn't give it up for the world. In fact, I believe that my mother sent Kiran just to me to show me all the challenges that I put my dad and her through.
Mary
Tis amazing isn't it?
STB
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