It is Mothers Day. A day set aside to honor your mother. A day to show your mother just how much she means to you. A day to shower her with flowers and jewelry and cards and dinner and everything else the retail industry tells you she needs and wants.
Having said all that I just wanted to take a moment and write about my Mom and how she taught me lessons the hard way (what better way to show her how much I love her). My Mom is a one of a kind.
Mom raised 6 kids and has many many gray hairs to prove it. She loves us all, even though we (and by we I really mean my brothers) gave her many reasons to be forced to use hair coloring at an early age. We always thought she was gullible. Now I wonder if that was just her way of saying she didn't really give a darn what we did just as long as it didn't kill us or anyone else.
Speaking of killing, she taught me at a very early age (as early as infancy) that it was not okay to mess around with an over tired mom. Remember Mom? Remember all those nights you fell asleep sitting/standing up with me in your arms nearly dropping me? It wasn't my fault those darn boys wouldn't give her a moments rest during the day. All I tried to do was spend some quality time with her at night. hehe. The lesson I learned... let Mom rest at night or chance getting dropped on my head.
Remember the strawberries Mom? I am not really sure if she was trying to kill me or if she was just evil and wanted to see what kind of reaction I would have. Either way she knew I was allergic to strawberries and yet she still force fed them to me. She always told me that she was determined to knock that allergy out of me. (Between you and I, she succeeded in that. I eat strawberries all the time). The lesson I learned... it's ok to let your children suffer in the name of science.
Other than trying to kill me she has been a good mom.
Yes, she was the Mom to teach us lessons the hard way. Lessons like you better be home on-time or you will suffer the consequences. I learned that lesson a time or two. If I was not home when she said to be home she locked me out of the house and went to bed (yet when the dog ran off she would be up all night worrying about him). Lesson learned... actually I learned two lessons from this one. First one, take the bedroom that you can climb on something to get into your bedroom window. Second lesson, the dog was more important.
Or the lesson about making sure you get your butt home at night. When I went out one night and the person who was supposed to give me a ride home didn't/couldn't. I stayed the night where I was and went home at 7am the next morning. I was grounded for more weeks than I care to remember for that one. Lesson learned... walk your butt home no matter how far away home is or the only thing you will see for weeks is the 4 walls of your bedroom!
Oh then there was a lesson on lying.You see my brother Don and I never really set out to lie, it just happened. When he needed/wanted money to go out, he would tell Mom that she told him she would give him money. Of course she could not remember telling him so I would chime in with something like "yes you did, we were sitting at the table eating dinner and you told him you would give him ten bucks". He would in turn do it for me. Then one day Moms friend was at the house when this was going on and darn it she blew that whole con to smithereens! Lesson learned... do not tell a lie that can someone else can prove wrong.
I also learned a valuable lesson in not getting what I wanted. I had this absolutely awful yellow flowery wallpaper in my bedroom. Anyone who knows me, knows I am not a flowery kind of girl and I certainly did not like girly colors. So I asked, I begged, I plead to have that nasty stuff taken off the walls, she always told me no. Well darn I was going to get what I wanted one way or another. So I started writing on the walls, first with pencil (the eraser actually took the colors off the wallpaper), then with pen, then I graduated to black magic marker. I was determined to get her to let me take it down. She was ticked off to say the least when she finally saw the writing but still would not let me take it down. Then I started ever so slowly peeling the stuff off the wall. Shortly after that she sent me on vacation for a week. Lesson learned... Do not go on vacation when Mom is mad at you. You will return home to a bedroom that is not longer an awful flowery yellow but one that is now an even more offensive pink flowery wallpapered bedroom!
She also taught me the fine art of... it is ok to embarrass your children in public. I won't even go into details on some of things I remember but I will say she was very good at embarrassing me. Even after all of the lessons I learned from my mother, I still love her.
Happy Mother's Day Mom!
Love your innocent little girl. (ok stop laughing)
